ARAGON SCHOOL CIRCA 1500, WORKSHOP OF MIGUEL JIMENEZ... Lot 33

ARAGON SCHOOL CIRCA 1500, WORKSHOP OF MIGUEL JIMENEZ AND MARTIN BERNART SAINT PIERRE AND SAINT ANDRÉ Altarpiece panel, oil painting and gold ground on walnut panel with parquet floor Old restorations and wear Inscriptions on the phylacteries difficult to read Aragon school c. 1500, workshop of M. Jimenez and M. Bernarts, Saint Peter and Saint Andrew, altar panel, with restorations and wear 66,5 x 49 CM - 26,1 x 19,3 IN. On the panel's gold background, decorated with ornamental motifs painted in black, the two saints, identified by their attributes (Saint Peter's key, Saint Andrew's cross), are seated side by side on a stone bench, the back of which is a long gallery pierced by Gothic-filled openings, their bare feet resting on a stone plinth. Dressed in broad, saturated draperies, underlined by raised gold edgings, they appear to be conversing, gazing out at the viewer. Saint Peter, holding the key in his left hand, blesses with his right, while Saint Andrew holds up the cross with his right arm, while his left hand indicates the text of the book he holds open in his lap. In a more rustic style, these figures take up the composition of an element of the predella of the altarpiece painted by two artists from Saragossa, collaborators of Bartolomé Bermejo then present in Aragon: Martin Bernat (or Bernart documented from 1450-1505) and Miguel Jimenez (documented from 1462-1505). This altarpiece for the high altar of the church in Blesa (Teruel), dedicated to the legend of the True Cross, was commissioned in 1481 and paid for in instalments until 1487. In the 18th century, the panels were dismantled to make way for a new decoration, and only returned to the Zaragoza museum in 1922 (cf. N. Ortiz Valero in El esplendor del Renacimiento en Aragon, exhibition Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes, June-September 2009, Valencia, Zaragoza, 2009-2010, p. 140-144 repr.). A comparison of the original and the copy reveals a number of variations. While the composition appears identical, the style of our panel remains resolutely simplified: the removal of the tiling and the blurring of the light have annihilated the play of perspective, and the link between the two apostles, united in the Blesa panel by the interlacing phylacteries fluttering above their heads, is reduced here to the design of the horizontal arm of the cross, while the vertical staff separates them. The two protagonists retain their imposing stature, but their compact build, the simplification of their features with their languid expressions, and the choice of brighter colors, all differ. This is a hitherto unpublished workshop work, probably commissioned by a local Aragonese religious authority in the final years of the 15th century.