Juan del Castillo[1] was one of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo's teachers. Between 1634 and 1636 he worked on his largest commission, the high altar for Seville's Convent of Monte Sión, which is now lost.[2] The paintings from the altar are now preserved in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Seville, except for three that arrived in Madrid in 1810 and were exhibited in the Galerie Espagnole: one of the coronation of the Virgin; another depicting Saints Gregory, Augustine, and Thomas; and the third, Saints Ambrose, Jerome, and Bonaventure.[3] This sheet could be closely related to the latter.
The drawing must be considered an early study, based on the clearly still uncertain black pencil work, especially in the area of the head and shoulder of the center figure. However, the fine, rather short, and carefully drawn lines reveal a more experienced hand that did not have to follow the preliminary drawing precisely. The figures of this sheet compare favorably with those in Castillo's painting The Ascension of the Virgin for the same altar that is preserved in the Museo de Bellas Artes in Seville (see, for example, the forms of the heads, noses, and hands).
José Atanasio Echeverría commented on Castillo and this drawing under no. 69 of the “Escuela Española": "By D. Juan del Castillo, pupil of Luis de Vargas and teacher of Murillo and Alonso Cano. This sketch is of a painting that together with others formed the altar of the church of Monte Sión in Seville, which Pons (Antonio Ponz), poorly informed, said were by Alonso Cano."[4] Castillo maintained a lifelong relationship with Cano as both artist and friend. They shared commissions, and Castillo rented a house to Cano. Castillo also rescued Cano from debtors prison.[5]

Jens Hoffmann-Samland

1 Regarding Castillo, see Valdivieso 2009, 47-65.
2 See Valdivieso and Serrano 1985, 336-38.
3 "San Ambrosio, San Jerónimo, y San Buenaventura, 0.90 x 2.20 m, Pintados de medio cuerpo, se ignora su actual paradero. Sevilla 1810, Alcázar, núm. 22. Paris, Louvre, cat. 1838, núm. 48. Londres 1853. Venta Luis Felipe. Cat. núm. 192”; it was possibly exhibited in 1866 in Leeds as being in the collection of Lord Ossington. See Valdivieso and Serrera 1983, 338, no. 81.
4 "De D. Juan de Castillo, discipulo de Luis de Vargas, y maestro de Murillo, y de Alonso Cano. Este apunte ès de un quadro, que con otros, componian un retablo de la Yglesia de Monte Sion en Sevilla, y de los quales dixo Pons, mal informado, que eran de Alonso Cano." However, in this case, Echeverría seems to have been misinformed, as Antonio Ponz was actually correcting information provided by Palomino (1988, 3:344), who had already attributed the Monte Sion altar paintings to Cano. Ponz (1972, 9:94) indicated that those paintings were though to be by Prebendary Alonso Cano, but after further checking, they were found to be by Juan del Castillo, who was one of his teachers, and this is demonstrated by his signature on some of the said paintings..."
5 Valdivieso and Serrano 1985, 303-4.

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