Paolo Castello was one of the three principal makers active in Genoa in the mid-18^th century, the others being Jacobo Cordano and Giuseppe Cavaleri. All three were influenced by Bernardo Calcagni, the leading light of the Genoese School, but it is likely that Castello was largely self-taught. His work is often described as heavy-handed, but the breadth of the purfling and inelegance of the model are offset by fairly delicate f-holes. Castello’s rather hurried scrolls suggest that he was satisfying a demand for inexpensive instruments, but the quality of his varnish shows that he was by no means without talent.