Adoration Of The Magi - Genoese School, Entourage Of Battista Castello End XVIth Century.

Oil on poplar panel - Large and spectacular composition of the Genoese school by a painter of the immediate entourage of Giovanni Battista Castello "Il genovese" (1547 - 1637).

Our Adoration of the Magi, probably an order for a Genoese palace, takes again the diagrams of construction of miniature works of Battista Castello with a system of scenes which seems borrowed from the painters of the previous century. The rich palette of flamboyant colors, the bluish backgrounds, the decorations of ancient ruins and the late Mannerist characters, plunge us into the atmosphere of a Northern Italy that completes its Renaissance.
In an aerial landscape that offers a moving nature, the Magi bring their offerings (myrrh, frankincense and gold), and a loud crowd wavers around the Child. The only figure facing the viewer and the index finger raised, Saint-Jean Baptiste is recognizable (in the center right). The proposal of our painter is a real innovation: he introduces this character who can not be present in the scene. We can see a nice tribute to the inventor of the composition, Giovanni Battista (John the Baptist) Castello.
In the background, riders and pedestrians, guided by the "star of the Shepherd", form a line that stretches to infinity to come to honor the Messiah. As for the children and loves hidden in the niches, they refer us to some paintings of the Italian masters of the Renaissance. Finally, under the stage, flows an underground river, source of life. Our composition is very similar to a 1584 parchment gouache preserved in the collections of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. And another dated 1592 sold in 2006 by the auction house Van Ham Kunstauktionen.

The Venetian frame of the 16th century with emilian influences (resemelé) is richly carved foliage and a multitude of fruits (pears, figs, strawberries, slices of citrus fruits, pomegranates ...). A similar model of smaller dimensions is illustrated on page 155 of the Directory of the European Framework by Roberto Lodi and Amedeo Montanari.

Dimensions: 85 x 70 cm The view - 118 x 104 cm with the frame

Battista Castello (Giovanni Battista) says "il genovese" (Genoa 1547 - Id. 1637) is a miniaturist painter attached to the Genoese school. He is the brother of the Late Mannerist painter Bernardo Castello. The nickname makes it possible to distinguish it from a homonym called "il bergamasco", active in Genoa in the same period. First of all a goldsmith of reliquaries ("The life of the painters, sculptors and architects of Genoa" by the art historian Raffaele Soprani), Battista practices the miniature, a discipline to which he ends up devoting himself entirely. In the second half of the 16th century, in the spiritual and cultural climate of the Counter-Reformation, the art of Castello met with great success.

Considered a self-taught man, it is certain that Castello regularly attends Luca Cambiaso's studio, drawing all the cultural baggage of this center of artistic eclecticism and adding the experience of the Nordic engravers. In 1584, in the wake of Luca Cambiaso and Lazzaro Tavarone, he was summoned to the Spanish court by King Philip II for whom he illuminated sacred books (Soprani). On the linguistic level, Castello seems to be looking towards the glorious past of the Middle Ages with an attitude of piety and devotion. Which gives his work an abyssal distance compared to the Italian painters in the articulation of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as Carraccio or Caravaggio.
His palette is harmonious and fair and his execution is neat.
If one believes Soprani, the body of work of Castello must be very nourished, because "he kept every piece of paper, the least sketch, the smallest sketch ... He had filled some books with an infinity of miniatures" with the intention of "facilitating the path of those who wanted to undertake the miniature". On the other hand, Genoese patrician collections were full of Castello's works. His catalog is therefore partial and remains to be trained. See Treccani base