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Triumph of Marcellus in Syracuse (Project for the loggia of the Villa Imperiale in Genoa)
circa 1575
Bernardo CASTELLO (Albaro, 1557 - Genoa, 1629),
Pen and brown ink wash over black stone and white gouache highlights
168 x 283 mm
Provenance :
Private collection, Paris
Bibliography
Giacomo Montanari Gli affreschi di Bernardo Castello nella loggia di Villa Imperiale a Genova: la riscoperta di un programma culturale per immagini, in ATTI DELLA SOCIETÀ LIGURE DI STORIA PATRIA NUOVA SERIE LXII (CXXXVI) GENOVA MMXXII
This composition depicting Marcellus's triumphal entry into Syracuse can be found in the fresco painted by Bernardo Castello on the ceiling of the imperial villa in Genoa around 1575. Another preparatory sheet for the same decoration was offered for sale in 1998, but not yet linked to the fresco and under a generic title. The notice stated that Mary Newcome Schleier considered the American sheet to be preparatory for the central compartment of a ceiling depicting scenes from La Jérusalem délivrée by Tasso, of whom Castello was a friend, in the Villa Scassi at Sampierdarena, near Genoa.
A pupil of Andrea Semino, Bernardo Castello was also influenced by the work of Luca Cambiaso. Returning to Genoa after a trip to Ferrara in 1575, he executed a number of paintings for local churches and palaces; his earliest work is an altarpiece for a church outside Genoa, dated 1580. Among his important decorative projects are the frescoes in the Villa Spinola and Villa Centurione in Sampierdarena, and a ceiling in the Palazzo de Franchi e Castello in Genoa. In 1586, Castello designed a frontispiece and twenty illustrations for an edition of Torquato Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme Liberata, published in Genoa in 1590 to great acclaim. The illustrations established Castello's reputation and pleased Tasso so much that he wrote a sonnet in the artist's honor. Three further editions of the poem, again with Castello's illustrations, were published in 1604, 1615 and 1617, helping to establish the artist's contemporary reputation.
Castello also frescoed scenes from the Gerusalemme Liberata in several Genoese palaces, including the aforementioned Palazzo de Franchi and Villa Centurione, as well as the Palazzo Imperiale di Campetto and Villa Imperiale Scassi in Sampierdarena. Among his most important paintings for Genoese churches are a 1590 Saint Ursula for Santa Maria della Vigne and a Martyrdom of Saint Peter for Santa Maria di Castello, executed in 1597. Castello made several trips to Rome, starting in 1604, when he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece of the Call of St. Peter for St. Peter's Basilica. He also painted an altarpiece in Santa Maria sopra Minerva for Cardinal Giustiniani, whose success earned him a commission in 1605 to decorate part of the Palazzo Giustiniani in Bassani di Sutri, outside Rome. On another trip to Rome, in 1616, Castello painted frescoes for the Palazzo Rospigliosi Pallavicino and the Palazzo del Quirinale.
