Workshop of Martín Bernat

With Nicolas Cortés, Madrid, by 2006;

Private collection, Madrid;

From whom acquired by the present owner.

This impressive early panel, rich in meticulous underdrawing, originated in the workshop of Martín Bernat, one of the leading Aragonese paiters in the late 15th century. It replicates a popular composition derived from an altarpiece ascribed to Bartolomé Bermejo and collaborator (possibly Bernat himself)¹ in the Museo de los Sagrados Corporales in Daroca, Zaragoza, Spain.² Bernat painter this composition, introducing differences in the figures, in at least three instances respectively in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona; the Museo del Prado, Madrid; and the San Diego Museum of Art.³ The latter is the closest version to the present work. The two panels are nearly identical and even include the same donor figures to the left, however there are substantial differences in the landscape background. Moreover, the San Diego version appears to have been reduced along both left and right edges, while the present work shows the composition in its entirety.

¹ C.R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, vol. X, New York 1970, p. 352.

² https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Bartolom%C3%A9_Bermejo_-_Crucifixion_-_WGA01959.jpg

³ https://www.museunacional.cat/en/colleccio/calvary/martin-bernat/004508-000; https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-crucifixion/2bdf4b9b-d02e-41e5-a699-9fb7280d03b9?searchid=f503b75a-3419-b81a-7c28-64358dd68b1b; https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/3405