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This work is declared non-exportable and the Community of Madrid is required to declare it an Asset of Cultural Interest.

This work has been declared non-exportable and the Community of Madrid is required to declare it an Asset of Cultural Interest.

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Lot: 11
Master of Belmonte (15th Century). Calvary

"The Crucifixion". Oil on table.



Inscribed in the Inventory of Movable Assets of the Spanish Historical Heritage with the code IM-01-000005386 and in the Register of Assets of Patrimonial Interest of the Community of Madrid with the registration number RBIP-1986-000975.

This work it is declared non-exportable and the Community of Madrid is required to declare it an Asset of Cultural Interest.



The central axis of the composition is the figure of Jesus crucified. In the background on the left, a walled enclosure represents the city of Jerusalem. To the left of the image, Longinos on horseback and in the foreground the Virgin, Saint John, Mary Magdalene and the other two Marys, Mary of Cleophas and Mary Salomé. On the right, a centurion riding a white horse and covered in a rich cloak, accompanied by a group of soldiers. In the foreground, the scene of the draw for the tunic of Jesus, in which three characters cast lots using the shortest stick.



As documented in studies published by Chandler Rathfon Post (1) and Alberto Velasco González (2), this table was part of the altarpiece of the church of San Miguel in the town of Belmonte de Gracián (Huesca).

rThe composition shows a clear relationship with the altarpiece of San Nicolás in Maluenda and with the Master of Miguel del Rey in the table preserved in the church of Santa María in Calatayud. In all of them the composition is the same with slight variations, the figures repeat gestures and postures and the same spatial situation, which demonstrates a common model that the Master of Belmonte knew and reproduced with his own contributions.



Several experts identify the Master of Belmonte with Martín de Soria. Specifically, Post, in A History of Spanish Painting (1933) (3), mentions the work as being by Martín de Soria, an artist documented between 1449 and 1487. A work by Martín de Soria is conserved signed and dated 1485 in the altarpiece Pallaruelo de Monegros (Sariñena, Huesca).





In the table of The Crucifixion, the technique used for the golden brocade of the background and nimbus of Christ, the particular way of representing the nimbus of the Virgin and the Holy women, the expressiveness of the faces and the individualization of the different characters show a clear relationship between the works of the so-called Maestro de Belmonte and those of Martín de Soria.



The relationship is also clear in the panels of Saint Michael Defeating the Devil (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Miracle of Mont Saint-Michel (Museu Nacional d''Art de Catalunya), belonging to the same altarpiece,



Master of Belmonte (2nd ½ XV century)



Alberto de Velasco, in his work Virgin and Child with musician Angels. The Master of Belmont and Late Gothic Aragonese paintings (4), attributes to José Gudiol Ricart the creation, in 1955, of the identity of Master of Belmonte to identify the author of a series of works from the second half of the 15th century that he uses in His works use a Gothic language with a clear Flemish influence.



He focuses his activity between 1445 - 1480 and relates him to other artists around Jaume Huguet, a great painter of the late Gothic style. Gudiol identified a series of panels studied by Post as works by the Master of Belmonte, including The Miracle of Mont Saint-Michel, property of the Juñer brothers antique dealers, acquired in 1918 for the Museu Nacional d''Art de Catalunya.



Regarding the panel of The Crucifixion, Alberto Velasco mentions that its existence was known from old photographs and its whereabouts were unknown until it was recently located in a private collection in Madrid. Velasco was able to study the table in depth and confirm its excellent state of conservation, as well as unquestionably ratify its attribution to the Master of Belmonte (5).



Martín de Soria (2nd ½ XV century)



Artist from Zaragoza , active in the third quarter of the 15th century (1449 - 1487). It is known that he worked on various altarpieces in different Aragonese towns such as Aguilón (Zaragoza), Torre Los Negros (Teruel), the church of Santa María del Carmen in Zaragoza and Pallaruelo de Monegros (Huesca), among others.



Attached documentation

- Restoration report of the prestigious IR Icon Study, from the treatment carried out in September 2018. The report indicates that it did not require any intervention and the work was limited to the consolidation of the pictorial layer, cleaning and repayment of small losses.

- File of the Amatller Institute of Hispanic Art

- Report by Luis Monreal y Tejada, 1970

Provenance

- Juñer Collection

- Madrid private collection

Bibliography

- Alberto Velasco González, “Virgin and Child with musician Angels . The Master of Belmont and Late Gothic Aragonese Paintings”. Jaime Eguiguren 2017.

- Chandler Rathfon Post, The Hispano-Flemish Style in North-Western Spain (A History of Spanish Painting, vol. IV), Cambridge (Massachusetts), Harvard University Press, 1933.

- Chandler Rathfon Post , The Aragonese School in the Late Middle Ages (A History of Spanish Painting, vol. VIII), Cambridge (Massachusetts), Harvard University Press, 1941.

- Chandler Rathfon Post, “Large-known primitive paintings from Alto Aragonese, of unique or very infrequent”. Argensola, Magazine of the Institute of Huesca Studies, number 23, Huesca 1955.

(1) Chandler Rathfon. Post, “The Hispano-Flemish Style in North Western Spain (A History of Spanish painting Vol IV), pp. 321 - 324

(2) Velasco González, Alberto. “Virgin and Child with musician Angels. The Master of Belmont and Late Gothic Aragonese Paintings”. Jaime Eguiguren 2017, p. 19

(3) Op cit p. 321

(4) Op. Cit, pp. 17-22; 46-51; Fig. 7, 8, 9, 14, 28, 29, 30, 48, 49, 74, 76, 87

(5) Op. Cit, p. 19. 48" x 48"

Author
BELMONTE o MARTÍN DE SORIA, MAESTRO DE (2ª 1/2 siglo XV)
Title
The Crucifixion
Measures
48" x 48"
Support
Table
Painting technique
Oil

This lot requires export license

Categories
PAINTING
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Finalized

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