ANTONIO DEL CASTILLO Y SAAVEDRA (Cordoba, 1616 - 1668). "Apparition of the Infant Jesus to Saint Anthony". Oil on canvas. Relined. Size: 125 x 103 cm; 150 x 130 cm (frame). In the interior of a room, on a horizontal foreground, appears the Saint of Padua with Franciscan habit seated on a friar s armchair in front of a table-study. On the table are a pen, an inkwell, several books, a note or missive on a double sheet, a branch of lilies - alluding to the Saint s purity - and a skull in a diagonal line towards the centre above a group of three books, two of which have titles on their spines. In the upper area, to the right of a curtain that delimits the room, the Child Jesus descends full-length with the sphere of the world under his left arm, on a throne prepared for him by several little angels in a swirling composition amidst the vaporous clouds. Below, next to the saint, two cherubs, one in frontal position and the other in profile, looking upwards, symbolise the arrival of the Child on Earth. Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra was the son of an Extremaduran painter from Llerena, Agustín del Castillo, whose work is little known but whom Palomino describes as "an excellent painter". He was orphaned in 1626 and was educated by another painter of whom we know nothing, Ignacio Aedo Calderón. At an unknown date he may have arrived in Seville - of which there is no actual proof - where Palomino describes him as a pupil of Zurbarán, which has been corroborated in view of the stylistic influence of the Extremaduran master on Castillo s work. In 1635 he was in Cordoba, where he married and settled permanently, becoming undoubtedly the city s most important artist. There he produced both religious altarpieces and portraits and medium-sized series. There is no discernible evolution in his work, and he always remained far removed from the baroque novelties of other contemporary painters. While in his figures of saints he was closer to strict naturalism, in his historical works he tended to be more open-minded, particularly in his use of architectural and landscape decoration. Already classed as a landscape painter by Lázaro Díaz del Valle, Palomino praised his ability to capture nature, describing him as "an excellent landscape painter, for which he used to go out for a few days on a stroll, on a sketching errand, and copied some places from nature". This statement by the treatise writer is interesting, as it shows Antonio del Castillo to be particularly interested in capturing nature, both in landscapes and in everyday characters and animals.