17th Century Italian

Painter of religious works; drawing artist.

The son of the Mannerist painter Bernardo Castello, he served an apprenticeship in the workshop of Bernardo Strozzi and Domenico Fiasella. In Milan he familiarised himself with the work of Camillo Procaccini and of great painters such as Correggio, Parmigiano, Van Dyck and Rubens.

Castello reacted against the Baroque classicist naturalism prevailing in Italy at the time, and created his own personal style following in the wake of Caravaggism.

Attached to violent contrasts, bathed with dazzling points of light, his painting is both dramatic and sophisticated, endowed with a heightened sense of spontaneity.

Despite his brief career he managed to exert a considerable influence on Genoese painting. One of his disciples was Alessandro Magnasco.