Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione is renowned as one of the master draftsmen of Italian baroque art. He perfected a classically ordered style like Nicholas Poussin's as well as a broad, fully baroque style in the manner of Peter Paul Rubens and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, artists whose works he knew. Castiglione also originated a distinctive type of drawing, with oil pigments on paper, in which he developed an expressive personal style. By the time Castiglione drew St. Mark, his highly individual approach made his drawings as satisfying as finished works, even though, as here, they might be studies for paintings.
Castiglione's treatment of Mark writing his Gospel displays the spiritual energy and emotional intensity valued in art of the Counter-Reformation. For example, Mark is viewed close up, the loosely brushed strokes conveying a message of faith in unambiguous physical terms. His rapt upward gaze and smile acknowledge divine inspiration and grace.
The articulation of Mark's head and torso depicts a man physically and spiritually supported by God's grace. In contrast, the lower portion of the composition seems vague. The lion often appears in medieval art as the symbolic transmitter of Mark's inspiration, but here its forceful form is subdued. Castiglione apparently changed the lion's position from near Mark's foremost knee to its present place at his side; the unresolved position of the paws reflects this choice. In its overall effect this vigorous work combines the spontaneity of drawing and the powerful forms of the baroque grand manner with Castiglione's singular interpretation of the ecstatic evangelist.
