(Genoa 1624/25–1659)
The Baptism of Christ,
oil on canvas, 124 x 98.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Maurizio Romanengo for endorsing the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph.

The present painting by Valerio Castello was previously only known through a copy, which was included in Camillo Manzitti’s catalogue raisonné in 2008 (C. Manzitti, Valerio Castello, Torino 2008, no. C4, p. 236). On the basis of the copy, the scholar had hypothesised a date of circa 1650 or shortly before for the original, at a time when the artist’s colour palette became bright and shimmering, abandoning the darker colouring that had characterised his earlier production. Also typical of the artist in this composition are the rich impasted brushwork and the brightness of the colours. It should be noted that this is an extremely rare subject in Castello’s work, of which no other autograph variants are known.

Valerio was the son of the painter Bernardo Castello, and he was orphaned at just five years old. His first artistic training probably occurred through the study of his father’s drawings and the Mannerist frescoes that adorned the most important Genoese buildings. The artist frequented Domenico Fiasella’s workshop, the most celebrated and active in Genoa at the time, and that of Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari. However, the fundamental turning point in his visual education came from a trip to Milan and Parma with his friend and collaborator Agostino Merano, which allowed him to deepen his knowledge of Giulio Cesare Procaccini’s style and to study the works of Correggio.

In 1646 Valerio Castello returned to Genoa and dedicated himself to the creation of both sacred and profane works, on canvas and in fresco. Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione also had a strong influence on Castello’s artistic output during this period, together with the neo-Venetian cultural inheritance which informed most of the leading painters of the age.