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The Torralba Master
active in the Saragossa, Huesca and Terruel regions between c.1422 and c.1450
Calvary, Egg-yolk & glue tempera on a gesso ground, partially gilded, pine wood H:161 x L:117 cm,
datable circa 1420/25
Provenance: -Collection Costa y Carvajal, dealers in Barcelona before 1920
-de Witte collection, Gussignies castle c. 1920, and thence by descendant until 1968
-Marx collection, Louvain since 1968
-Luxemburg private collection since 2016
The Torralba master and his relation to Lluis Borrassa, Blasco de Granen
and the Arnaldin Family
Lluis Borrassa y Lucas Borrassa ‘el esclavo’, Saint Francis altarpiece, Barcelona c. 1414/15,
Tempera 610 x 422 cm, Museu Episcopal de Vic , prov. Convent Santa Clara Vella , Vic (Osona)
The sober harmony of the prevalent Sienese Italian-Gothic style and its local emulation (the Serra
brothers) in Aragon and Catalunya (1330-1390) declined at the end of the XIVth century. New
stylistic trends paved the way for the International Gothic style (Paris, Avignon, Milan and Flanders).
Its bright and contrasting colors introduced also a greater iconographic complexity, naturalism,
movement and emotional expression. In Catalunya and Aragon, the import of illuminated
manuscripts at the court of King Joan I and Queen Yolande de Bar created local emulation, as seen in
the Armangol-Saint Eulalie Missal illuminated by Rafael Destorrents (1403, Cath. Barcelona
Arxiuv)1. Many embroiderers, painters and illuminators from France (Avignon and Paris) and the Low
Countries, such as the Bruges-born Jacques Coene or Jean Hennequin from Brussels were active in
Catalunya, mostly in Barcelona, Saragossa and Valencia. A Brussels painter, Enrique Estencop de
Bruselas was active in Saragossa 1387-1400. They disseminated Flemish stylistic influence there.
Lluis Borrassa (Girona c 1360 - c 1426 Barcelona), a pupil of Pere Serra and influenced by Ferre
Bassa, introduced the International Gothic painting style there. In 1383 he became a member of the
court of Joan I of Aragon. He and his studio in Barcelona (1383-1425) influenced most of his
contemporaries all over the territory of the principality.
Juan de Levi, a convert of Jewish origin was active in Terruel and Saragossa (active 1388-
1407/8). The retablo for the Cathedral of Tarrazona (1392-1402) is a good example of his style. He
was the master of Blasco de Granen in Saragossa before 1407. Blasco’s pupil, Juan Arnaldin (doc.
1 R. Cornudella, La Il-luminacio del Llibre a Catalunya al voltant de 1400’, in M.R. Terres (dir), Catalunya i
Europa Septentrional al entour de 1400, 2016.
1433-1492), painted the Retable of Sant Andrea Apostle and the Retable of Sant Felix2 in the Iglesia
parroquial in Torralba de Robota in a somewhat naïve expressive style. The particular facial types are
clearly indebted to the stylistic particularities developed earlier by Marzal de Sax (of German origin),
less idealizing than the style of Blasco de Granen. Jaume Arnaldin started as a pupil (24. 8. 1433 - 30.
9. 1435) of Pascual Ortoneda in Zaragossa. Before 1435, he was for 6 years the chief collaborator to
Blasco de Granen, before working as an independent master ( documented 9/1435 - 4/1442). Jaume
signed his Sant Ursula panel (Mus Nat Catalunya): JACOBUS ME FECIT. He appears in a document
as a master, being a witness to a commission given to Blasco de Granen (28/8/1446). In Torralba de
Ribota, north of Calatayud, 14 km from Zaragossa, Benito Arnaldin ( Calatajud, active 1420
-30.9.1435) was also one of the main disciples of Blasco de Granen. He signed the Retable of Sant
Martin of Tours: ‘BEN (e) DICTO ARNALDIN ME PINXIT’. Two of his sons, Juan (active 1433-59)
and the younger Jaume, followed in his steps, working in his studio, before achieving their
apprenticeship with other masters. They finished the uncompleted altarpieces commissioned to their
late father (after 1435).
Blasco de Granén, Calvary, detail of Retablo Saint John Evangelist, Siresa, Iglesia S Pedro
Blasco de Granen, formerly known as the Master of Lanaja is documented by contracts for at least
24 retablos in the Saragossa region but also in the neighboring Huesca and Terruel. He became the
most important painter in the International Gothic style in Aragon, but started as an apprentice to Juan
de Levi (active 1388-1407) in Saragossa. Blasco is first mentioned in documents in 1422 and was
active until 1459. He worked under the tenure of archbishops of Saragossa, such as Dalmau de Mur
( 1431-56), who commissioned a retablo in Anento. As all the successful artists of his time, he
directed an industry of collaborators, pupils, carpenters and gilders, producing retablos with
consequent variations in quality and ability, achieving an overall effect of high quality craftmanship3.
Miguel Valles, Jaime Arnaldin, Miguel de Balsameda and his own nephew Martin de Soria, who
succeeded him, were some of his principal collaborators. Pedro Garcia de Benabarre was after 1445
his most outstanding collaborator and follower. His activity is documented until 1483. Occasionally
Blasco collaborated with other masters such as Jaime Romeu, a usual aspect of the close professional
and dynastic relations in the art world in Aragon. It was important to be aware of the latest artistic
innovations. Blasco sent his son Bernardo to Bernat Martorell in Barcelona as apprentice when the
influence of Van Eyck’s inventions reached Catalunya and Aragon after 1445.
Blasco de Granen became Pintor del Rey de Navarra, the future Juan II of Aragon and acted as
a transition between the style of Zaortiga and Huguet (actif in Saragossa 1435-45). Blasco de
Granen’s most important commissions are the altar pieces in Lanaja and in Ontinena, ordered by the
prioress of the Sijena monastery Beatriz Cornel (1427-51); and in Anento (retablo now in Museu
Saragossa, originally destinated for Albalate del Arzobispo, 1437/39)4. Both these retablos are
indebted to the emotional expressiveness of the German- or Dutch-born Marçal de Sas and the
2
J. Gudiol, Pintura Medieval en Aragon, Institut Fernando el Catolico, Zaragoza 1971, p 45.
3 M. Del Carmen Lacarra-Ducay, Retables de l’atelier de Blasco de Granen, in Joyas de un patrimonio, exh.
Zaragossa, Palacio de Sastago, 28/12/1990-3/3/1991.
standard models developed by Lluis Borrassa after Franco-Flemish prototypes circa 1400. The towns
of Lanaja and Ontinena were under the jurisdiction of the Monastery Sant Maria de Sixena and the
Royal Pantheon of the Order of Sant John of Jerusalem, founded in 1188 at Villanueva de Sijena
(Huesca), a strong-place for the itinerant court of the kings of Aragon.
Juan Arnaldin, Retable of Sant Andres, Retable of Sant Felix
Iglesia Parroquial, Torralba de Ribota
The present Calvary scene by the Torralba Master
The present Cavalry formed the central pinnacle of a retablo mayor of high quality by the Torralba
Master. The paint medium is tempera: pigment and egg-yolk binders, enhanced with glue binding for
the hues. For both stylistic and iconographic reasons, Maria del Carmen Lacarra-Ducay (Zaragossa
4/2019) confidently attributes it to the early circle of Blasco de Granen (1430-40), and more precisely
to Juan Arnaldin, which she identified as the Torralba (de Ribota) Master. Alberto Velasco (Vic
2/2020) confirms the authorship of the Torralba Master of the present Calvary, preferring to keep it
under the traditional name.
The well preserved gilded and painted carpentry work was generally subcontracted by the
painter if he had no carpenter as collaborator. Here it is attributed to Domingo and Mateo de
Sarinena. The elaborated gilded and black painted fine architectural woodwork imitates the stone
designs of its architectural surroundings. Much of the Gothic masonry, tabernacle displays and
carpentry of the retables had already disappeared at the religious reforms of 1704. Some were
replaced by 18 c. carpentry work and paint by local artists. The present Calvary by the Torralba
Master conserves its original painted and gilded woodwork. This Calvary has a finely carved
‘chambrana’, a gabled, curving frame, flanked by pinnacles and ornate borders. After the carpenters
had sculpted the decorative parts of a retablo, coats of rough and smooth gesso and gilding were
applied before the painting stage. The ‘embutido (stamped modelling)’ became in fashion in the early
XVth century. It is applied here in the highly raised gilded gesso to adorn the background and in the
gilded halloes around the saints heads and the borders.
4 M. del Carmen Lacarra-Ducay, Blaso de Granén, pintor de retablos 1422-59, Institucion Fernando El
Catolico, Zaragoza 2004.
Generally, the central large main subjects and the first tier of the ‘banco’ (predellas) of the
retable, best visible to the kneeling worshippers, are of the highest quality, and therefore mainly
executed by the master. The second tier was usually left to collaborators in the studio. Such a big size
Calvary occupies generally the upper part of the central vertical section of the retablo mayor. The
present Calvary was probably part of one of the large Marian altarpieces that have been dismantled
after 1835 under the reign of Isabel II. At that moment, the edict: Proclamation of Desamortizacion
secularized and sold off monasteries and convents with less than 12 members in order to raise money
for the wars against the Carlists pretenders to the throne. The lands of these derelict institutions was
then divided between small farmers. Many retablos were confiscated, cut up and sold to enhance
aristocratic and industrial bourgeois collections. The present Calvary was in the collection of the
Barcelona dealers Costa y Carvajal before 19205, when it appeared in the ‘de Witte collection’ at
Gussignies castle.
This Calvary, datable early in the second quarter of the 15th century, in the first part of the
reign of king Alfonso V (1416-1458), is the central upper part, the ‘calle’ above the saint to whom the
large ‘retablo mayor’ is dedicated. This liturgical center is surrounded by narrative scenes detailing
the life of a saint, situated above the banco (predellas) around the tabernacle, illustrating generally
scenes of the passion of Christ. It filled visually the main apse of a church or a chapel. The workshop
of the artist had a collection of basic standard compositions with set characters of each tale, allowing
special variations to the master. The iconography of the present Calvary scene and its pictorial style
and ductus follow the initial concept of lluis Borrassà6, as can be seen in his Calvary in the Vic
Museum (1414/15, illustrated above), and another one on the Retable of San Miguel y San Juan
Battist in the church Sant Llorenç de Morunys7 dated 1419, by Bernat Despug and Jaume Cicera (ill.
below).
Bernat Despug y Jaume Cicera, detail Retablo San Miguel y San Juan Battist, 1419,
Egl. Parroissial San Llorenç de Moronys
5 We are grateful to Dr Alberto Velasco for this information
6 L. Borrassa, Retable de Saint Jean Baptiste, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris inv nr….
7 J. Gudiol, 1971, op cit, nr 404
On the left, staring at the Christ on the cross, are the mourning Magdalen sustaining the
fainting Virgin Mary and two of the Holy Woman. On the right, the young Saint John the Evangelist
indicates the dead Christ, three Roman soldiers dressed as contemporary mercenaries and the
repentant Longinus, who recognized Jesus as the son of God, pointing to the cross, are situated behind
Saint John.
A red (meant as a Jewish) flag representing a scorpion with a turtle carapace and black stars
(gilded ones were the sign of the Apocalypse), symbolizes the troops of Herodias. Since the early XV
c, painted images and relics were used to stimulate the conversion of Jews in Aragon. They reflected
aspects of the Dominican theology. Preachers such as St Vincent Ferrer and Francesc de Eiximenis
accused Jews and ‘conversos’ of corrupting ‘Christianos viejos’ (traditional Christians) through their
wicked behavior8. The otherness of Jews is depicted by signs distinguishing them, by their behavior,
their clothing (especially hats) as well as by their place in the painting.
Longinus, wearing a reddish chaperon (seidelbinde), pointing his finger to the dead Christ in the
present Calvary is the same person (but his position is inversed) as the one welcoming Sant Felix in
the retablo Sant Felix in Torralba de Ribota (see below). In the Bowes Museum Barnard Castle (UK),
Eric Young attributed the painting The Virgin and Saint John surrounding Christ in the Tomb to the
Torralba master, dating it 1425/309. There, the figure of Saint John the Baptist is extremely close in
style but of lesser quality then Saint John in the present Calvary.
Benito Arnaldin, Sant Félix blessing, Juan Arnaldin, Sant Felix arriving detail present Calvary
Sant Martin retablo, Gerona, Sant Félix retablo, Torralba before restoration
Other works by the Torralba Master in connexon
* Ecce Homo, Galeria Bernat, Barcelona
*Another Calvary with Soldiers attributed to the Torralba master is published by Chandler Post10 in
the Sheldon Keck collection, later in the Delaware University Museum, exhibited in the Brooklyn
Museum New York, and later sold (Christie’s New York, 16 January 1992, nr 2, 105,4 x 81,9 cm,
93.000 USD 11), datable 1430-40.
*A Sant Blaise and Sant Anthony Abbot are in the museum of Springfield.
8 Rodriguez Barral, La Imagen, in Vivian B. Mann, Thomas F. Glick and Jerrilyn D. Dodds, Eds, Convivencia:
Jews Muslims and Christians in Medieval Spain, New York 1992.
9 E. Young, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Catalogue of Spanish Paintings, introduction E. Conran,
Durham 2nd Ed. 1988, inv nr BM 1082.
10 C. R. Post, The Catalan School in the Late Middle Ages. Spanish Painting, VII, I, Cambridge, Harvard Univ.
Press, 1938, p 820, fig 326 and see also Gaya Nuno, 1958, p 310 nr 2.728.
11 Exhibited : Pintura espanola Recuperada, Sevilla-Madrid 1997
*In a Spanish collection, now in the Museu de Pontevedra, there is an Assumption of the same hand
(donation Pastor12).
*The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, Missouri (Cat fig 327) has part of a
predella representing the Deposition and the Entombment by the Torralba master, datable 1430-40,
stylistically close to the present Calvary.
*Also, the Calvary in the Retable of Sant Barthelemy in the chateau de Castelnau-Bretenoux at
Prudhomat (Lot, Fr), attributed to the Torralba Master13 is close to the present one, but with less
figures and more simply executed. The two elements of its ‘banco’ predella are in execution and style
close to the two present predellas.
*Gudiol published also the Retable of Sant Pedro (1971 cat nr 101) in the Varez collection at San
Sebastian and a Retable de la Vida del Virgin (1971 cat nr 102) in the collection Junyer at Barcelona.
*An Altarpiece of the Virgin, datable 1435-40, by the same master was bequeathed by the Vares Fisa
family to the Prado museum in 2013 (inv P008121).
*In the 1440s’, the same artist painted probably the Retable of Sant Nicolas in the Iglesia Sant Justa
and Rufina in Maluenda.
Torralba Master, Calvary, c. 1425 The present Calvary by Torralba Master
Chateau Castelnau-Bretenou, Prudomat (Fr) before its conservation in 2019
(in Les Primitifs Aragonais XIVe XVe Siècles,
Catalogue Exh. Musée de Pau, 1971,
ill. p79, texte pp 74-81
The Torrelba Master in Musea:
Saragossa, MNAC Barcelona, galleria Parmigiani-Reggio Emilia; Belles Artes Caracas ; Kansas city
Art Gallery; Pinacoteca Nationale Bologna; Museum San Diego; Castle Castelnou-Bretenou à
Prudomhat (Fr); Louvre Mus Arts Decoratifs; Bowes Museum Barnard Castle; Brooklyn museum
12 J. Filguera Valverde, Dos tablos del Maestro de Torralba Siglo XV in El Museo de Pontevedra, 1972, XXVI
pp 71.
13 Cat Exhition. Peintures Primitives Aragonaises du XIV et XVieme siècles, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau
(15/1-15/3, 1971), pp 74-81.
NewYork; Museum Springfield USA; W. R. Nelson Gallery Kansas City Missouri; Prado Museum
Madrid
*In the Parmegianni Galeria (Reggio Emilia) is another similar predella (Gudiol cliché A-11588,
1958). Camon Aznar assumes he did this for a patron named: Miguel del Rey, which name is written
on the painting14; but this mention could also be the name of the artist executing it.
Torralba Master y taller, Calvary Torralba Master, Bowes Museum Barnard Castle
(Benito Arnaldin?) c. 1420/25, 51 x 51,5 cm inv. 1082
Torralba Master (Benito Arnaldin?), retablo of the Virgin, c. 1435/40, 366 x 279,3 cm
coll. Varez-Fisa, Museu del Prado Madrid
14 C. Aznar, La Pintura Gotica en la Corona de Aragon, exh. Museo e Instituto de Humanidades Camon Aznar,
Zaragoza, 10-11/ 1980, p 112
Painted retablos in the lands of the Crown of Aragon in the late XIVth and
the early XVth century
Torralba Master, San Barthélémy, Gonzalo Peris Sarrià, (active in Valencia region
c. 1425 Chateau Castel-Bretenou, 1380-1451) S. Barbara, c. 1410, MNAC Barçelona
Prudhomat (Fr), High 4m
Since the 12th century, Catalonia was united with Aragon, but it will only integrate Spain and its
Catholic Kings at the end of the 15th century. From the beginning of the 14th century, the arts in the
lands of the Crown of Aragon had adopted the Byzantine-Italian style. From the 1340’s on, Tuscan
pictorial models and the presence of the Holy See in the papal enclave of Avignon (1309-1404)
influenced artists in Mallorca, Aragon and Catalonia. During the Avignon Papacy (1309-1376) seven
popes resided there in the papal enclave, then in the Comtat Venaissin, part of the kingdom of Arles,
ruled by the Kings of Sicily of the House of Anjou. It became an important cultural and religious
center. The musician Philip de Vitry introduced there de Ars Nova. The popes attracted many artists
such as Simone Martini (Siena c. 1284-1344 Avignon) and after his death Matteo Giovanetti (Siena
1322-1368 Avignon). The Papal Library was the biggest in Europe (2000 volumes) and became an
intellectual center attracting even the poet Petrarca. Artists were fairly mobile an crossed borders
easily in search for commissions and patrons
Ferrer Bassa (c. 1285-1348) and his son Arnau are the main figures15 and early proponents of
the new style in Aragon. His illuminated Book of Hours of Maria of Navarra, realized with
collaboration of his workshop illustrates the distinction in quality between his autograph illuminations
and these by his assistants. Ferrer Bassa introduced elements of Giotto di Bondone (Vespignano
1266-1337 Firenze)’s style in Catalunya in the second quarter of the XIVth century (after the Black
Pest in 1348). Giotto’s narrative of interacting figures aimed for a more deliberate pictorial fiction of
the visible reality in a harmonious composition, animated by contrast and variety. In the second half
of the 14th century, the local patronage by civil and religious elites turned mainly to the Barcelona
workshops.
15 Rosa Alcoy, La Pintura Gotica als països de parla Catalana entre els segles XIVi XV,
In the second half of the XIVth century painters, such as the Serra family in Barcelona, slowly
incorporated Franco-Flemish elements in their Italianate painting style. This resulted in a Gothic form
of linear mannerism. From 1400 on, the idealizing French International Gothic style and its Flemish-
Holland realist elements16 had a strong influence on the king of Aragon and the high aristocracy.
Jaime Serra and his brothers Pere, Francesc and Joan were influenced by the Sienese italo-gotico style
of Ferrer Bassa, as we observe in the altarpiece commissioned for the Royal Monastery of Saint Mary
de Siguena (see below). This Pantheon of the tombs of the royal House of Aragon was founded (1183-
1208) by the order of Saint John of Jerusalem. A retablo painted c. 1360 by Jaime Serra for Enrique
King of Castilla (now in the Prado) is another good example of the influence of Ferrer Bassa on the
Serra brothers and their contemporaries.
Jaime Serra (act. Barcelona 1358-1389/95), Altarpiece of the Virgin Mary, 1367-81,
MNAC Mus Barcelona
A gradual evolution towards more realism is detectable in Aragon. The retablo San Pere c. 1400 by
the Jewish convert Juan de Levi (documented 1392-1407) is a good example of the evolution towards
the International Gothic style. The magnificence of the French king, princes and aristocracy of high
noble peerage was the result of a spectacular investment in the prestige of ‘vivre noblement’. It played
a decisive role in disseminating a specific artistic and social Franco-Flemish taste from the late XIVth
century on, influencing many European royal courts. The influence of late XIVth century Franco-
Flemish tapestry and manuscript illumination has traditionally received less art historical attention
than impact of the Early Netherlandish panel painting by the Van Eyck brothers and their followers
from 1445 on. Only from 1430 on, portrait painting on panel became fashionable at the French royal
and princely courts. They had historically always preferred to commission tapestries and richly
illuminated manuscripts, more suitable for the logistics of their travelling courts. They coveted,
exchanged and offered them as diplomatic gifts. These exceeded largely the price of painted and
sculpted altar pieces. But for the affluent Flemish bourgeoisie, clerics and higher officials of the
Burgundian court, as well as for the rich foreign bankers and tradesmen present in Bruges, religious-
and portrait painting on panel became the preferred artistic medium to express the private aspect of
the ‘Devotio Moderna’.
16 J. H. Marrow, Pictorial invention in Netherlandish Manuscript Illumination of the Late Middle Ages. The
Play of Illusion and Meaning, Peeters Leuven, 2005
Lluis y Lucas Borrassa ‘el esclavo’, Juan de Levi, retablo San Pere c. 1400,
retablo Sant Francis, from the convent Museu Epîscopal de Vic
Sant Clara Vella, Museu Episcopal de Vic
The presence of the papal court in the nearby Avignon influenced clearly the way the Aragonite
elite expressed its prestige locally by founding many religious institutions and enjoying royal court
life influenced by the French example. The representations of the Crucifixion in the Parement de
Narbonne, in the tapestry of the Passion of Christ in the Cathedral in Zaragoza and in the Très Belles
Heures de Notre Dame, influenced the iconography of the crucifixion scenes in Aragon and
demostrate a direct link with iconography of the present Crucifixion (part of a retablo mayor) by the
Torralba Master. The Narbonne Parement (1375), painting ‘en grisaille’ on silk because of its
religious function during Lent17, was realized by Paris illuminators (cfr. Belleville Breviary, Bib Nat
Paris), influenced by Italian art and iconography18 and executed with Flemish-Holland realism.
Ordered by the French king Charles V for the Narbonne Cathedral, this altar cloth of which the
crucifixion scene is the center, inaugurated the French style and tradition in Paris and Avignon. Its
main author is the royal painter Jean d’Orléans (active 1361-1407 in Paris).
Jean d’Orléans (or Etienne Lannelier?) is also the author of some of the main illuminations in
the manuscript ‘Les Très Belles Heures de Notre Dame’(inv. NAL 3093, Bib Nat Paris)19 between
1390 -1404 and 1409, ordered in 1389 by Jean de France, Duc de Berry20. It illustrates the dynamics
inside a workshop and the circulation of ideas in the workshop, as well as the different campaigns
over the almost 50 years before the final completion of the whole (in different parts) and the
evolution and differences of the narrative and the spatial concepts between the first French stage and
the later Flemish completion. The text was commissioned to Jean l’Avenant in 1389. Jean d’Orléans
is responsible for some of the main illuminations of the first campaign 1390-1404/5 in ‘L’Office de la
Vierge’ , ‘L’Office des Morts’ and ‘Prières de la Passion’ (see the Crucifixion miniature illustrated),
17 S. Nash, The Parement de Narbonne: Context and Technique, in C. Villiers Ed., The Fabric of Images,
Archetype Publications, London 2000, pp 77-87.
18 See the Small Bargello Diptych, Mus Nat Palazzo del Bargello, Firenze inv. Nr 33, datable 1390.
19 E. König and F. Boespflug, ‘Les Très Belles Heures’ du duc jean de France, duc de Berry, Le Cerf, collection
‘Images & Beaux Livres’ 1998.
20 A. Biella (Universty of Padua), Les Très Belles Heures de Notre Dame,………………………….
while his collaborators (such as the Master of the Couronnement de Charles VI and Jean Petit, known
as Pseudo-Jacquemart) realized the other illuminations. The Bas-de-Page were painted by an assistant
of lower quality (Hand A2, cfr Chatelet: Master of St Michel), but in the style of the master. Initially,
the manuscript21 consisted of a Book of Hours, a Missal and a Prayerbook. Before its final
achievement, the Duke exchanged it for another book with his guardian of the jewels, Robinet
d’Estampes before 1413, the latter split it into two separate manuscripts. The first is known as the
Très Belles Heures de la Vierge, following the original design; the second is known as the ‘Turin-
Milan Hours’ which contained then also the ‘Prayerbook for the Saints’, The Missal called ‘Turin-
Milan Hours’ (ms. Inv. N° 47, Museo Civico Turin) 22 contains also some of Jean d’Orléans’s
miniatures (Hand A, see the illustration of the Annunciation miniature, part of the Temporal). The
second part was bought by John of Bavaria-Hainaut, bishop of Liège and count of Holland c. 1420,
who engaged Flemish artists (cfr The Eyckian Question23) to complete the illuminations. A final stage
of completion was ordered by Frank van Borselen before 1441. Georges Hulin de Loo24 attributed the
later Hands H-I-J in this manuscript to Hubert and Jan van Eyck. Now by most authors, these are
seen as realized after the Treaty of Arras (1435). The ‘Prayerbook for the Saints’ was separated from
the missal in 1713 when in the possession of the Savoy family (Psalter, 28 x 19 cm: Ore de Turin,
Turin Royal Library K.IV.29) and (Missal, 26,4 x 20, 3 cm: Ore de Milano, Turin Royal Library Ms
inv. Nr 47). It are the Crucifixion of the Parement de Narbonne and the early illumination of the same
subject by Jean d’Orléans which are here important elements, initiating the formal aspect of the
crucifixion scenes by local artists in Aragon and Catalunya c. 1400.
Jean d’Orléans (for the main miniature), Annonciation,
Très Belles Heures de Notre Dame, Missel, Temporal fol. 1, BNF, NAL 309
21 D. Deneffe, La Miniature Eyckienne, in B. Bousmane & T. Delcourt, Miniatures Flamandes : 1404-1482,
Bib. Nat. De France-Bib. Royale de Belgique, 2012.
22 M. Smeyers, Answering some Questions about the Turin-Milan Hours, dans R. Van Schoute and H.
Verougstraete-Marcq, Le Dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture: colloque VII, 17-19 septembre 1987, Louvain-la-
Neuve, nr 24 pp 55-70.
23
24 G. Hulin de Loo, Les Heures de Milan : troisième partie des Très Belles Heures de Notre Dame, enluminées
par les peintres de Jean de France, duc de Berry et par Guillaume de Bavière, comte de Hainaut et de Hollande,
Bruxelles-Paris, Van Oest 1911.
Jean d’Orléans, Parement de Narbonne,1375, Musée Louvre
Jean d’Orléans,
detail Crucifixion, Parement de Narbonne Crucifixion, c. 1390-1400, Très Belles
1375, Musée du Louvre Heures de la Vierge, L’Office de la Passion,
fol 97-118v, BNF Paris, inv NAL 3093
Detail Crucifixion, Scenes of the Passion of Christ, Arras/Tournai c. 1410-20, wool & silk,
420 x 800 cm, Cathedral de la Seo del Salvador, Museu de Tapicas, Zaragoza
At the end of the XIVth century, the densely populated and economically prosperous Low Countries
became a political, commercial, financial and artistic center. Because of the local workshop system
where skilled craftsmen worked under the direction of the master, Early Netherlandish artists were
able to mass produce high end art and crafts, illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, paintings, sculpture
and other luxury products for sale throughout Europe. The terms ‘Flemish’ and ‘Flanders’ were used
to describe not only the county of Flanders, but also the wider region including: Brabant, Hainaut,
Holland-Zeeland, Picardie and Artois (the last two now French territory). Flemish artists worked at
the French and Burgundian courts. Jan Baudolf (Jean de Bruges, active 1368-81) became in 1368
court painter to Charles V and designed the Anger’s tapestry series, the Apocalypse in 1375 ( Angers,
Musée de la Tapisserie). In 1384, Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, inherited Flanders from his
father-in-law Lodewijck van Male. He commissioned the decoration of his monastic foundation of
the Chartehouse of Champmol to the sculptor Claus Sluter, the painter Melchior Broederlam and the
woodcarver Jacob de Baerze. They combined Italian architectural forms with Flemish detailed
illusionistic rendering of nature, integrating splendidly in their Gothic past into the then fashionable
French International Gothic style, initiating a kind of Flemish Renaissance that culminated in the
sublime rendering of the reflections of light and new spatial concepts of Jan van Eyck and his circle
forty years later.
Aragonese and Catalan artists adapted their inherited Italian tradition to the new fashionable style
already before 1400. Standard iconographic models, adapted by each individual artist, developed in
the Barcelona workshops of the Serra brothers: Francesc, Jaume (active 1358-1390), Pere (pupil of
Rafael Destorrents in 1357, active until 1405/08) and Joan. They created a new pictorial paradigm
influenced by Ferrer Bassa, incorporating certain elements of International Gothic painting from the
region between Paris and the Meuse river in Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia and the islands of the
Catalano-Aragonese Crown.
At the beginning of the 15th century, Catalan painting, blending idealization and realism, had acquired
an identifiable local idiosyncrasy by the specific style with whom they integrated naturalizing Franco-
Flemish elements into Italian prototypes25. The presence there of Florentine painters such as Gherardo
di Jacopo, known as Starnina (c. 1360-1413), mixing ideal beauty and caricatural deformity, greatly
influenced the local art production. The exchange of gifts between the Catalan-Aragon’s and the
Valois kings, travelling Italian, German, French and German artists and prelates, played a decisive
role in the reception of the Franco-Flemish pictorial altarpiece models and the manner in which they
overlay the Italian stylistic substrate in Aragon’s Crown lands. Towns as Toledo, Valencia and
Saragossa became independent artistic centers
The influences of Starnina and of the more expressionist Marzal de Sax, of German origin, were
the two main artistic vectors, from which local artists achieved a personal synthesis between aesthetic
idealism and caricature. Lluis Borassa (Girona 1360-1426 Barcelona) was Pere Serra’s most gifted
pupil. He introduced the International Gothic style in Catalunya. Juan de Levi and Bonanat Zaortiga
were other influential artists in Aragon circa 1400. Rafael Destorrents (illuminated manuscript, 1403,
Mus Nat Cat Barcelona), Valdebriga and Lorenç Saragossa are some of the other important figures.
Lluis Borrassa as well as Marzal de Sax, each in a different manner, adopt the facial types imported
from Firenze by Starnina. Borassa did in a more idealized style, de Sax more caricatural and
expressive. Blasco de Granen combined stylistic idealization and peasant like facial caricatures. He,
the main artist in Saragossa, was influenced by Jaume Ferrer, the leading painter in Lleida. Alfonso V
(°1396-1458), king of Aragon (1416-58) and Napels (as Alfonso I, 1441-58) founded many religious
institutions and was a great patron of the arts, but spend most of his time warrying in Italy. His brother
John (°1398-1479), king of Navarra (1425-79) and later king John II of Aragon, ruled his Spanish
territories (and the French ones such as Roussillon26), until he himself inherited his deceased brother’s
crown27.
Lluis Borrassa (Gerona c. 1360-1426 Barcelona worked first with his father in Girona. Later in
1383, his studio is documented in Barcelona and it became the largest and most successful in town.
Influenced by the Flemish naturalistic-based aesthetics, his flowing and dramatically interacting
figures, the incised golden halloes and landscape backgrounds as well as complex patterning
rendering brocade and textile, became the trademark of all his followers. Color fields are
compartmentalized into a complex interconnected rhythm of undulating forms. The lack of
circumvent space gives a certain flatness to his compositions.
Blasco de Granen, Calvary, c. 1435
25 Chandler Ratphon POST, The Aragonese School. A History of Spanish Painting, Cambridge, Harvard Univ.
Press 1930-66, Vol VIII, 2.
26 In 1172, under Alfonso II king of Aragon, the Roussillon region formed the core of the Kingdom of Majorca
with Perpignan as capital; until the 1640’s (Thirthy Tear’s War) when it came under French rule.
27 T. N. Bisson The Medieval Crown of Aragon, Oxford University Press, 1991.
Marzal de Sax, Annunciation with San Jos Carpintero, c 1393-1410, Museo de Zaragoza)
Jaume Ferrer II (Leida -1461) was the leading painter in Lerida. His general composition, his
refined textile rendering and background landscapes influenced Blasco de Granen, the leading artist in
Saragossa in the second quarter of the 15th century, before the novelties of the Eyckian pictorial
influence arrived there circa 1445/50.
Pere Serra, Sant Cugat de Vallès Blasco de Granen, S Martin, Mus Zaragoza
Blasco de Granen y taller, Calvary, c 1430, Blasco de Granen, Our Lady and the Angels
Museo Salvador Vilaseca, Reus Tarragona 1438/39, Museu Lazzaro Galdiano Madrid 167 x 107 cm
The above illustrated retablo of Our Lady of the Angels originally in the church San Francesc in
Tarazona by Blasco de Granen was commissioned by the wealthy Esperandeu de Santa Fe, a Jewish
merchant from Tarazona who became a conversos in 1413/14 (Jewish name Ezechiel Azanel), as a
public statement of his Christianity. He was knighted and therefore allowed to wear spurs as a sign of
his nobility. It illustrates the quality of the mature work of Blasco de Granen and his studio, when he
was Aragon’s most important painter in the international Gothis Style, before the introduction of the
Flemish fashion after 1445 in Aragon and Catalunya.
General Bibliography
*A. Galilea Anton, La Pintura gotica espagnola en el Museo de Belles Artes de Bilboa, Bilboa 1995.
*P. Gimenez Ruiz, M. Diaz & M. C. Nachon Gonzalez, El retablo de Tosos, Quaderno de Filosofia y
Lettras, 1, nr 60, Zaragoza 1967.
*M. del Carmen Lacarra-Ducay, Cinco tablas del taller del pintor aragonés Blasco de Granen (a.
1422-59), Anuario 1988, Estudias-Cronicas Bilbao 1989.
*M. del Carmen Lacarra-Ducay, Retablo de San salvador, iglesia parroquial de San Salvador en Ejea
de los Caballeros, in Joyas de un Patrimonio, 13-68 Zaragoza, 1991.
*M. del Carmen Lacarra-Ducay, Arte Gotico en el Museo de Zaragoza, Gobierno de Aragon,
Zaragoza, 2003.
*M. del Carmen Lacarra-Ducay, La pintura gotica aragonesa en el Museo Lazaro Galdiano,
Fundacion Lazaro galdiano, Madrid 2004.
*M. del Carmen Lacarra-Ducay, Blasco de Granen and Pedro Garcia de Benabarre, Spanish
Painting, Coll & Cortès, Madrid 2012.
*N. Ortiz Valero, Calvary, Spanish painting, Coll & Cortès, Madrid 2012.
*J. B. Sobré, Behind the Altartable, The development of the Spanish Painted Retablo 1350-1500,
Columbia, Missouri, University of Missouri Press 1989.
*Pintura Gotica en Aragon; Estilo Gotico In,ternational 1 er Part, blog: Jesus Diaz Gomez, 2/2009
Benito Arnaldin (doc. 1380-1435), Retable Sant Martin of Tours, Torralba de Ribota
Circle of Gonzalo Peris Sarrià (c. 1425), Rubielos de Mora
Blasco de Granen y taller, Otinena Blasco de Granen y taller, Tarazona
Kings of the House of Aragon
Ramiro I was the first king of Aragon (reign 1035-63). At the height of its power the Crown of Aragon
covered the principalities of Aragon and Catalunya, the kingdoms of Valencia, Majorca, Sicily,
Naples, Malta and Sardinia; as well as other territories in France and Italy. Saragossa became its
capital from 1118 until 1707. When the House of Barcelona became extinct in 1411, the title went to
an elected Castilian prince Ferdinand of Antequerra. After king Juan II ‘s death in 1479, the crowns of
Castilla and Aragon were united.