"The Adoration of the Shepherds", attributed to... Lot 235

"The Adoration of the Shepherds", attributed to Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra (Córdoba, Spain, 1616 - 1668) Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra (Córdoba 1616 - 1668), in addition to standing out as a landscape painter and draftsman, a facet in which he can be counted among the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age. Born in Córdoba, he was the son of the painter Agustín del Castillo, about whom little is known but whom Palomino calls an "excellent painter" and Ana de Guerra. Initially trained in his father's workshop, he was orphaned at the age of fifteen; being the eldest of four brothers, on November 24, 1631 he appeared before a magistrate in Córdoba asking for a guardian due to his minority. Placed with the imagery painter Ignacio Aedo Calderón, the contract according to the usual terms established that Aedo undertook to teach him the painter's trade so that he could dedicate his life to it. Castillo would serve him as much as possible in exchange for receiving the teacher's training and care as well as being fed, clothed, shoes, and providing him with a place to live while his mother took care of raising his younger siblings. According to Palomino, he later went to Seville in order to complete his studies with José de Sarabia, also from Córdoba, "and they succeeded at the school of the distinguished Francisco de Zurbarán." The relationship with the painter from Extremadura, however, lacks documentary confirmation, although it can be sustained for reasons of stylistic affinity, just as the relationship of kinship, maintained by Palomino, with the Sevillian painter Juan del Castillo is unfounded. On his return from Seville, on June 28, 1635, he married his first wife, Catalina de la Nava, a woman fifteen years older than him and with whom he might have married because of the need to establish himself financially and be able to help his mother and little brothers. He and his wife settled in a rented house on the street in front of the Lamp Hospital and with his wife's dowry they furnished his new home. Most of his income in this early stage came from the works sold in the store that had belonged to his father. He changed his premises twice, settling definitively on August 31, 1641 in the premises located on Calle de Libreros, continuation of Calle de la Feria, currently known as Diario Córdoba. Murillo's teachings would be manifested in his last works, according to Palomino, singularly in a half-length Saint Francis that he painted for the merchant Lorenzo Mateo, which "exceeds good taste, and sweetness in the head, and hands to everything that Castillo did in his life, because the truth is that he lacked a certain grace, and good taste in color». He died on February 2, 1668, in the house on Muñices street without issue. Reference bibliography: Navarrete Prieto, Benito. Garcia de la Torre, Fuensanta (2008). Antonio del Castillo (1616-1668) Drawings. Santander: Marcelino Botín Pedrueca Foundation. ISBN 978-84-96655-19-5; Palomino, Antonio (1986). Lives. Madrid: Form Alliance. ISBN 84-206-7056-1; Palomino, Antonio (1988). The pictorial museum and optical scale III. The Laureate Picturesque Spanish Parnassus. Madrid: Aguilar SA of Editions. ISBN 84-03-88005-7. Measurements: 153 x 197 cm. Attached attribution report issued by Joan Ramón Triadó, Doctor in Art History. Provenance: important Spanish private collection.