Filipo kastaldi un viņa mantojums
Filippo Castaldi and his heritage

Summary/Abstract: The Baroque and Neo-Classicism periods have left significant monuuments in Latvia but the names of their creators are often unknown. Therefore any fresh information on some author's personality, life and work with respect to Latvia significantly adds to our art history and helps to distinguish the different nuances of cultural life in different regions of Latvia during historical periods. This is especially important in the case of Latgale or the former Polish Livonia where architecture and artworks of high quality are often difficult to attribute. Before WW II Polish art historians were interested in the work of Itallian-born painter Filippo Castaldi (1734-1814) in various regions of the country, including Latgale. But a more comprehensive insight into this master's work became possible only after the publication of Professor Andrzej Ryszkiewicz's article on this unknown painter in the Biuletyn Historii Sztuki in 1965. It should be noted that Latvian art historians in the late 1980s could only benefit from this article. Previously there was little information on this painter whose name was spelled "Gastoldi" in 19th century sources of art literature. Restoration works at the Kraslava St. Louis Catholic Church have again drawn attention to this name in the context of 18th century Latvian art history. In 2003 when the high altarpiece was put to restoration, a niche with a well-preserved Castaldi mural was discovered. Information on the life of Filippo Castaldi (Gastoldi, Gustelding) remains to be fragmentary. The painter was born in 1734 in Arpino, in the Frosinone region of Italy, but nothing is known about his childhood and studies. About 1760 he arrived in Poland, perhaps invited by the Bishop Zaluski; he is known to have found an employer in Polish Livoonia close to that time. This was the Kraslava landlord Konstanty Ludwik Plater who had started the ambitious construction of his main residennce - the Kraslava town complex and palace ensemble, involving the Paracco family of architects from Italy. Castaldi successfully complemented this circle of foreign masters who found work here for quite a long time. 19th century sources referring to archive documents attest that this master has painted a number of altarpieces in the Kraslava St. Louis Catholic Church (built in 1756-1767, consecrated in 1777). These were retable compositions painted on a wall that illusively depicted both plasstic formations and figural compositions of altarpieces. It is possible that the plastic modelling and the extension of its "optically" painted details have been combined (the high altar in Kraslava). Part of the attic of the high altar retable that was repainted later has survived. The composition "St. Louis Departs for the Crusade" painted on the wall in the altar niche on view now is as it was since the restoration of around 1820.

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