GRECHETTO, GIOVANNI BENEDETTO CASTIGLIONE, known as Il Grechetto — Genoese painter, b. in Genoa in 1610 (?), d. in Mantua in 1665. He received a Mannerist education which he surpassed, moving from the school of G. B. Paggi to that of G. A. De Ferrari. He traveled extensively, visiting Florence, Rome, Naples, Bologna, Venice, and Mantua, where he was invited (c. 1639) by the duke and worked for a long time.
His figurative culture was enriched by diverse experiences from works by Strozzi, Van Dyck, the Bassanos, and Giovanni Rosa; yet his individuality as a fresco colorist and decorator, his extravagant pictorial dynamism, and his noble chromatic taste were worthy of the great esteem in which his contemporaries held him. He treated scenes from the Old and New Testaments, genre paintings, mythological subjects, and still lifes. Among his numerous works are the Pre-sape in S. Luca, the Crucifix in S. Maria della Cella in Sampierdarena, and Ceres in Palazzo Doria, in Genoa. G. was also an engraver and, as such, invented the monotype.