ALTARPIECE OF THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN AND THE CHILDHOOD OF CHRIST

HISTORY 

Cristóbal García del Castillo was a merchant born in Moguer (Huelva) who participated, together with his father Hernán García del Castillo in the conquest of the Canary Islands. He was rewarded with extensive property in the area of Telde. There, he engaged in the cultivation of sugar cane, which he traded on the peninsula and in Antwerp.

He acted as steward of the renovation works in the church of St. John the Baptist (San Juan Bautista) in Telde, financing the construction of the main chapel and the chapel of the gospel. He also donated various goods, according to his will (14th of January, 1539), which alludes to an altarpiece “which is in the aforementioned Church of Saint John, which was brought from Flanders, which is at present in the Main altar, which I had brought during the lifetime of my first wife, Marina Rodríguez, and of my mother, and in the lifetimes of the same I gave it to the aforementioned Church”. This places its donation before 1515, the year in which his first wife died.