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17th Century Penitent Magdalene Painting Tempera on Parchment by Genovese

About the Item

Giovanni Battista Castello, known as "Il Genovese" (1547-1637) Penitent Magdalene Tempera on parchment, 21 x 17 cm Frame 26 x 22 cm The precious tempera painting on parchment is to be referred to the hand of the painter Giovanni Battista Castello (1547-1637), called “il Genovese” to distinguish him from the homonymous contemporary, architect and painter, called “il Bergamasco”. Older brother of Bernardo, a famous painter of late Ligurian Mannerism, he began his activity in the field of religious goldsmithing, to which he soon joined the art of miniature, an art to which he ended up dedicating himself completely and with greater satisfaction, bringing it back to a success and to a disclosure that he had not known since the Middle Ages and which now found incentive and justification in the spiritual and cultural climate of the Counter-Reformation. In the sources he is cited as self-taught; However, his assiduous frequentation of Luca Cambiaso's workshop is certain, where he drew all the cultural baggage that this center of artistic eclecticism involved and to which he added the experience of Nordic engravers, Tuscan-Roman mannerism, Venetian and Emilian ancestry, a of purified Baroqueism and, last but not least, the aspiration to elude artificial intellectualism, preferring an unconscious need for simplicity, purity, chastisement, that "primitiveness" that was identified, sometimes, even in the period of the Counter-Reformation, with the pietistic attitudes. In the wake of the Cambiaso and the Tavarones, Castello was called to Spain by Philip II, where he mined for the king, in 1584, among other sacred books destined for the Escorial, an important Antiphonary. This commission brought him immediate reflex glory at home. His reputation was such that in 1606 the Most Serene Genoese government declared him an "excellentem" painter above the others eminent, and exempted from the laws, and chapters, to which the Professors of Painting were unworthily subjected in Genoa ". The corpus of his works appears to be particularly large given the exceptional span of time of his intense activity, especially since, as quoted by Soprani, the painter used to keep "every single folder of his, even a simple sketch" and had filled "Some books of an infinite number of miniatures ... great care having no one go bad" also with the intention that "they would facilitate the path of those who wanted to undertake the miniature" (Soprani-Ratti, Vite de 'Pittori , Genoese Sculptors and Architects, 1769, pp. 110). Alizeri also mentions that in the Genoese patrician collections, for example that of Spinola, or that of the Marquis Pietro Rostan, who owned eight miniatures of the Castle, illuminated manuscripts and books were preserved, In the parchment examined, intended for the Genoese patrician commissioning of images for private devotion, we find its typical harmonious and tuned palette, the execution is treated both in the chromatic material and in the design, the airy landscape is interpreted as pleasant nature and elaborated on several plans. The penitent Magdalene is depicted in the center in the foreground, surrounded by her typical iconographic elements, such as the skull, alluding to the transience of earthly existence, the scourge and the jar of ointments. Similar works are preserved both in private collections and in Italian and international museums. Punctual comparisons can be made, for example, with the Baptism of Christ from the collection of Palazzo Mazzetti in Asti, or with the miniature depicting the Delivery of the Keys to St. Peter, now in Paris at the Louvre Museum.
  • Creator:
    Giovanni Battista Castello (Painter)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 10.24 in (26 cm)Width: 8.67 in (22 cm)Depth: 1.58 in (4 cm)
  • Materials and Techniques:
    Parchment Paper,Hand-Painted,Painted
  • Place of Origin:
    Italy
  • Period:
    17th Century
  • Date of Manufacture:
    17th Century
  • Condition:
    Wear consistent with age and use.
  • Seller Location:
    Milan, IT
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU5918226618022

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