ANTONIO DEL CASTILLO Y SAAVEDRA (Cordoba, 1616 - 1668)
"Jesus before Caiaphas".
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 72 cm (frame).
In the scene captured in this oil painting, Jesus is presented before Caiaphas, Jewish high priest and leader of the Sanhedrin. The Jews did not believe in the resurrection of the dead and, according to the Gospel of John, news of an alleged resurrection of Lazarus by Jesus alarmed the priests. Christ was brought before Caiaphas, and his words made a great impression on the priest. The latter felt maddened and, tearing his robe so that the people could see his horror, he asked without further preliminaries that the prisoner be condemned for blasphemy. Later, since the Sanhedrin had no authority to order the death penalty on anyone, Jesus was presented before Pilate.
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.