Title
Diogenes seeking an honest man
1645-1647
Artist
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Details
- Date
- 1645-1647
- Media category
- Materials used
- etching
- Dimensions
- 21.8 x 30.5 cm platemark; 24.1 x 32.6 cm sheet
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1979
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 234.1979
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Castiglione worked in Genoa as a painter and printmaker. His etchings are particularly indebted to Rembrandt and they in turn influenced such artists as Tiepolo and Fragonard. This etching, in which the left arm of Diogenes has been left unfinished, represents some of the most traditional elements of Castiglione’s iconography: the vase, the half-bust sculpture, the animals, the ox skull. The story of Diogenes the Cynic who searched with a lantern at midday for an honest man, is told by Diogenes Laërtius in his ‘Lives of philosophers’.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 5 exhibitions
The Bitten Image: European etchings from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Jul 1980–14 Sep 1980
Piety and Paganism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 13 Jul 1991–29 Sep 1991
Mantegna to Piranesi - Italian Old Master Prints from the Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 27 Jun 1998–20 Sep 1998
Old Europe: Prints & drawings from the collection 1500-1800, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 03 Jun 2006–06 Aug 2006
European prints and drawings 1500-1900, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 Aug 2014–02 Nov 2014
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Bibliography
Referenced in 3 publications
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Nicholas Draffin (Curator), The bitten image: European etchings from the collection, Sydney, 1980, 4. no catalogue numbers
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Nicolas Draffin, Piety and Paganism, 'Introduction', pg. 3-5, Sydney, 1991, 4, 7. no catalogue numbers
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Peter Raissis, Mantegna to Piranesi - Italian old master prints from the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1998, 8. no catalogue numbers
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