Bust of beardless old man in profile facing right, from the series of 'Small Heads in Oriental Headdress' 1640 - 1650

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, also known as Il Grechetto, created this print of a beardless old man in profile with etching. The density of lines which describe the figure give the print a rich, dark tonality. The closely packed diagonal lines create form through shadow, giving the face its aged, sagging appearance and contrasting the texture of the exotic headdress. This obscuring headdress creates an orientalist trope, categorising and diminishing a people through caricature. The man is shown in profile, a format often used for portraiture, but here it lends the work a sense of the detached observation of an anthropological study. Castiglione uses the semiotic system of dress, in the form of the headdress, to explore the cultural codes of the time, destabilizing established notions of identity and engaging with new representations of the other. This challenges any fixed or universal interpretation, encouraging us to reflect on the subjective nature of perception and representation.