Valerio Castello is one of the greatest members of the Genoese School. He no sooner made his appearance amongst his fellow scholars than he distanced the oldest of them, and soon afterwards even rivalled his masters. The son of Bernardo, and the scholar of Fiasella, he followed neither the style of the one nor the other, but selected other prototypes more consonant to his genius, the Procaccini in Milan, and Coreggio in Parma; and from the study of these, and a grace wholly his own, he formed a style unique and peculiarly belonging to himself. If it is not the most correct, it seems to deserve pardon for its select composition, for its beautiful colouring and chiaroscuro, and for the spirit, facility, and expression, which always distinguish his pencil. He excelled in frescos, so as to please even by the side of Carloni; and is perhaps sometimes, as in S. Marta, even superior to him. In his perspectives he occasionally employed Gio. Maria Mariani d'Ascoli, who also lived in Rome. Nor was he inferior in oil pictures. He painted in the oratory of S. Jacopo the baptism of that saint, in competition with the chief of his contemporaries, and eclipsed them all, with the exception perhaps of Castiglione. He worked also for collections; and in the royal gallery of Florence his Rape of the Sabines is highly prized, a subject which, on a more extended scale, but yet with some resemblance both of figures and architecture, he repeated in the palace Brignole. He is not however frequently met with, as he died early, and from the great celebrity he acquired, his works were in much request in all the first collections, and thus his productions were dispersed. He taught Gio. Batista Merano, and, after his own example, sent him to study at Parma, in which city he met with sufficient employment both from the prince and private individuals. The Slaughter of the Innocents, at the Gesù in Genoa, is pointed out to us as one of his best pictures, and is a copious and careful composition, extremely well arranged. We must not confound this artist with Francesco Merano, called, from his first employ, Il Paggio, a scholar and a respectable follower of Fiasella.