Rebecca receives Abraham's gifts

Giovanni Francesco is the son of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, known as Il Grechetto, a famous artist from the Genoese school who moved with his family in the fifties of the seventeenth century to the city of Gonzaga, and here remained until his death as a court painter. If Grechetto is a master in drawing and engraving, Giovanni Francesco follows him with less grace, using a more saturated palette of colors in fairly conventional ways. Here we see a very important biblical episode in which Abraham chooses the virgin Rebecca as the future wife of his son Isaac, offering gifts to honor her purity. The figures stand out against the landscape that surrounds them. Accensions of color identify the dress of the young, while in the background nature seems to crown the characters. The canvas is pleasant and shows in some details the well-known vivacity of the paternal touch, a common feature of the whole Genoese school.