(Genoa 1609–1664 Mantua)
The Finding of Cyrus,
oil on canvas, 220.6 x 223 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Collection of Carlo II Gonzaga-Nevers (1629–1665), Duke of Mantua and Monferrat, Villa La Favorita, Toscolano, prior to 1664;
possibly by descent to his son Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga (1652–1708), Duke of Mantua and Monferrat, Villa La Favorita, Toscolano, 1665;
possibly Collection of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine (1679–1729), Villa La Favorita, Toscolano, after 1707 – prior to 1729;
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

Documented:
possibly listed in the Gonzaga inventory, dated 10 December 1665 ‘Inventario overo descritione de beni tanto mobili quanto stabili lasciati nel luogo di Maderno dal fu Serenissimo Signor Duca Carlo primo Gonzaga’, c. 26: ‘Nella prima camera contigua alla detta Salla a mano sinistra verso il giardino […] Un quadro del detto [Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione] di Ciro infante instoriato con cornici adorate’ (see U. Meroni, G. B. Castiglione detto il Grechetto. Fonti per la storia della pittura, vol. II, Genoa 1971, pp. 24–25)

Literature:
A. Orlando, F. Rotatori (eds.), Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Il Grechetto Genovese a Roma. Committenza e opere, Genoa 2022, mentioned under no. 14, p. 143, illustrated p. 140, fig. 6 (as Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione)

Anna Orlando dates the present work to circa 1661–1664.

The story of Cyrus, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire, is originally recorded in Herodotus’ Histories (Book I: 101–129), however, the present scene corresponds to the mythological description of the subject in the Epitoma historiarum Philippicarum (Book I: 4–10) by the Latin historian Justin: The future king was born by divine intervention to Mandane, daughter of the Median King Astyages. An oracle had foretold that his grandson would surpass him in power, and in a dream, he saw his daughter give birth to an exceptionally powerful vine. Fearing his own loss of power, the King determined that the child was to die immediately after its birth, having been entrusted to a shepherd and his wife Spaco, who were to abandon it in the forest. The plan was implemented, but foundered when the couple could not leave the child to its fate and entrusted it to a dog who suckled it.

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione repeatedly returned to this subject during his career: the earliest version appears to be in a Genoese private collection, dating to the 1640s, which follows a different compositional scheme by imposing the figure of the shepherd and enlarging the wooded area on the left (see op. cit. Orlando, 2022, p. 138, fig. 3). To this type relates an autograph variant in another Genoese private collection, which dates to circa 1646/47 (see op. cit. Orlando, 2022, cat. no. 14). The composition of present painting corresponds to the version conserved in the National Gallery, Dublin (inv. no. NG1994), also dating to the 1660s. There are differences however, in the intensity of the colours, which in the present painting suggest the influence of Castiglione’s visit to Venice around 1660-1661 and thereby suggesting a chronology for the present work that postdates the Dublin picture.

Among Castiglione’s known drawings of the subject of Cyrus, the version in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon records elements of the present painting apart from the format which is elongated horizontally compared to the canvas under discussion, and except for a few details, such as the second small dog which is absent there and the description of the vegetation in the foreground.

In the current work, the shepherdess Spaco approaches the child from the right, the draperies of her clothes are blown by the wind, creating the impression of movement. Cyrus is depicted from behind in the lower foreground, bedded on soft cloths which are laid in bulging folds, and accompanied by the martial attributes of a helmet and a quiver of arrows. The blue tones of the cloth in the foreground are also used in the sky and the mountains of the background, contrasting with the orange of the shepherdess’s dress. Counterbalancing this colorful diagonal are the earthy ochre tones of the animals, the substrate, and the antique sculptures. The female marble bust and the male high relief on the left relate to the oracle in the story.

The painting was possibly commissioned by Carlo II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Montferrat, for the family’s summer residence Villa La Favorita in Toscolano Maderno near Lake Garda. The Dublin version appears to be the painting recorded in the Gonzaga inventory of 1705 in the Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, it has been suggested that Carlo II commissioned a second version from Castiglione for his villa, documented in the inventory of Maderno in 1665.