Master of Baltimore
Second third of the 14th century
This little panel entered the museum in 1927 donated by Ròmul Bosch i Catarineu, without provenance indications. Part of a larger compartment, it represents an episode from the life of Saint Peter according to the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 9:36-43): the resurrection of Tabitha, a widow known for her charity. On the right appears St. Peter, bald, bearded, in blue-green tunic and red mantle, in the attitude of resurrecting the deceased, who was painted on the mutilated part of the panel; on the left there is a group of characters contemplating the miracle, in the foreground a man dressed in pink garb and hat according to the fashion of the Trecento. This interesting piece has always been considered one of the first examples of panel painting in the Italianate style in Catalonia; on the grounds of a purely stylistic analysis, it had been successively attributed to Arnau Bassa, son of the famous Ferrer Bassa, or to the so-called master of the Escrivà de Lleida, an anonymous person active in the second quarter of the 14th century. However, the technical studies and scientific tests on the work carried out in 2011 within the framework of an agreement signed between the MEV and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore have made it possible to identify that, in addition to the style, the materials used and the execution technique (brushwork, color palette, preparatory drawing, modeling of the carnations, etc.) are identical to those of the Triptych of the Virgin with the Child, the Crucifixion and the Annunciation preserved in that north American museum, and that therefore the author of both pieces was the same painter: the so-called Master of Baltimore. Artistic historiography has linked this enigmatic personality of probably Sienese descent to the Bassa workshop; the attribution illustrates a greater complexity and diversity of hands in the introduction of the Italianate trends in Catalan Gothic painting, which research is putting more and more in evidence.
Judit Verdaguer Serrat
Room5 ,Floor0
4 Romanesque Art
5-6-7-8 Gothic Art
Catalonia
Second third of the 14th century
Tempera painting on wood
27.8 x 40 x 2.6 cm
Provenance unknown
MEV 8065