VICENTE CASTELLO (Active in the Kingdom of Valencia c. 1586

Oil on canvas. Reference bibliography: - Marco, V., Baroque Painting in Valencia (1600 - 1737), CEEH, Madrid, 2021, pp. 166-173. This imposing work, completely unpublished, is a magnificent example of the production of Vicente Castello, brother-in-law of Juan Ribalta and son-in-law of the famous Francisco Ribalta. His production, until the eighties of the last century, had been included within that of Francisco Ribalta, as is the case with this painting that, until this moment, had been attributed to this artist. When contemplating this canvas, the first thing that catches your attention are the obvious Bassanesque rooms that Vicente Castello met in Valencia with the painter Pedro Orrente, known as “The Spanish Bassano”. In his production, these types of works were very abundant in which biblical themes were treated as genre works. Castello fused the Ribaltesque technique with that Orrenteesque language in this Expulsion of the Temple merchants; a work endowed with great dynamism in which a multitude of characters appear accompanied by animals and objects in a setting with an everyday tone. The execution of this painting, therefore, must be placed in the last stage of his career in which, after the Ribalta family died in 1628, the painter was the head of his important workshop. The careful technique that Castello achieves in this canvas, both in the detailed characterizations of the characters' physiognomic features and their complicated and daring foreshortening, as well as in the representation of the animals (bovids and bovines) allow it to be related to an important part of his production, especially, with the pair of paintings that belonged to the former collection of the Count of Parcent and that are today in the Museum of Fine Arts of Bilbao representing the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The three works share a masterful execution in all their details, both in the human figures and in the animals or even in the material qualities of the objects and fabrics. In all of them their typical twilight lighting environments are present, executing a type of emphatic composition and full of figures in daring foreshortenings and at different scales to suggest the depth of the scene. This composition must have enjoyed considerable success in its time since different versions are known, all of them of poorer quality, such as, for example, the one that recently appeared in the Madrid trade (Fernando Duran, auction of December 29, 2022, lot 645 ). Measurements: 140 x 180 cm.