ANTONIO DEL CASTILLO Y SAAVEDRA (Cordoba, 1616 - 1668) "Christ tied to the column". Oil on canvas. Relined.

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Córdoba: 2,000 Years of Art

By Setdart Auction House

Dec 21, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-12-21 07:30:00 2021-12-21 07:30:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Córdoba: 2,000 Years of Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/setdart-auction-house/c-rdoba-2-000-years-of-art-8049
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• Lot Description
  ANTONIO DEL CASTILLO Y SAAVEDRA (Cordoba, 1616 - 1668) "Christ tied to the column". Oil on canvas. Relined. Presents faults and repainting. It conserves frame of epoch with faults in the gilding. Measurements: 64.5 x 46 cm; 118 x 71 cm (frame). The author of this work uses a very dynamic and unusual composition, which generates a representation of theatrical character. To this way of conceiving the disposition of the characters, the treatment of the figures is joined, which has its maximum exponent in the figure of Christ, with its flattered anatomical canon and its serpentine posture. Christ on the column or Christ tied to the column is an evangelical scene and a very frequent iconographic theme in Christian art, within the cycle of the Passion. The scene takes place in the Praetorium of Jerusalem, the center of Roman power, directed by Pontius Pilate, where Jesus Christ arrived for the second and last time, after passing through different instances (Annas, Caiaphas and Herod). In this biblical episode Christ is exhibited before the one who preferred to free Barabbas rather than him. He is stripped of his clothes and tied to a column, where he is subjected to mockery and torture, among them, the scourging and the crowning with thorns, iconographic denominations that sometimes are totally identifiable with this one and sometimes they are differentiated with precision. Antonio Castillo is considered the father of the Cordovan school, known for his work as a painter, he was also a polychromator and designer of architectural, decorative and goldsmith projects. He was the son of Agustín del Castillo, a little known painter from Llerena (Extremadura) whom Palomino describes as "an excellent painter". It is also believed that he may have trained as a polychromator in Calderón's workshop. However, he was orphaned when he was only ten years old, in 1626, and went on to develop his training in the workshop of another painter of whom we have no news, Ignacio Aedo Calderón. Although there is no real evidence of this, it is believed that he may have arrived in Seville, where, according to Palomino, he entered Zurbarán's workshop. This has been corroborated by the stylistic influence of the master from Extremadura that historians have seen in Castillo's work. However, in 1635 he was back in his native Cordoba, where he married and settled permanently, to finally become without discussion the most important artist of the city. His fame and quality earned him important commissions, including religious altarpieces, portraits and medium-sized series. He was also the teacher of outstanding Cordovan painters of the following generation, such as Juan de Alfaro y Gámez. Regarding his language, Antonio del Castillo did not develop an evident evolution in his work, although towards the end of his life a more softened language can be appreciated, and he kept away from the baroque novelties of other contemporary painters. However, like the rest of his contemporaries, he was seduced by the novelty of Murillo's work, and in his last years he would introduce the Venetian chromatic softness of the Sevillian master. Today, examples are kept in the Prado Museum, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles, the Louvre, the Metropolitan in New York, etc.
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