The Burgos Master

With Derek Johns, Ltd, London;

From whom acquired by the present collector.

This anonymous artist was named by Chandler Post after a series of six large panels from a dismantled retablo, formerly in the Chapel of San Juan de Sahagun in the Cathedral of Burgos, since transferred to the Museo Diocesano (see C.H. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, The Hispano-Flemish Style in North-Western Spain, vol. IV, part I, 1933 pp. 202-219, with illustrations). He subsequently identified the Master as Alonso de Sedano, although later scholars such as Valdivieso (1991) and Gudiol (1955) associate the Burgos Master instead with the Master of Balbases.  

The panel displays the defining traits of the Burgos Master: a compressed architectural setting, forceful gesture, and sharply modelled heads that correspond closely to the infancy scenes described by Post, situating it within the circle responsible for the Burgos Cathedral retablo. Combining Flemish detail with Castilian monumentality, the present work exemplifies the expressive character of late‑fifteenth‑century Burgos and likely formed part of a larger devotional ensemble.