Hispano-Flemish School, 16th century

Mr. W.C.H.M. Georgi, New York, by 1949;

Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 24 March 1983, lot 51 (as Attributed to B. del Castro);

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 1 November 2007, lot 34 (as Attributed to B*** del Castro);

Where acquired by Stanley Moss.

C.R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, Cambridge 1947, vol. IX, part I, pp. 422-425, reproduced (as "Castro (?)");

C.R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, Cambridge 1953, vol. XI, p. 453.

J.A. Gaya Nuño, La pintura española fuera de España (historia y catálogo), Madrid 1958, p. 133, cat. no. 579 (as B. del Castro);

J.C. Aznar, La pintura espanola del Siglo XVI, 1970, p. 204;

I. Geismeier, "Ein Prophet aus einem Gemäldezyklus von Bernardo de Castro," in Forschungen und Berichte 13/14 (1971) pp. 17, 19, reproduced fig. 3 (as Spanish, first quarter of the 16th century, "presumably by the hand of Bernardo del Castro");

J.R. Blewer, Bartolome del Castro, circa 1500, unpublished manuscript, 1974,

E.J. Sullivan, Catalogue of Spanish Paintings in the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh 1986, pp. 28-29, under cat. no. 8, reproduced fig. 14 (as Attributed to B. de Castro);

C. Vogelaar, Netherlandish Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Paintings in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 1987, pp. 30-31, under cat. no. 1109, reproduced fig. 28 (as "?Hispano-Flemish School").

This enigmatic panel depicting Zadok, the biblical priest active during the reigns of David and Solomon, once formed part of a larger series of judges, prophets, and elders associated with the condemnation of Christ. Probably conceived as a retable, at least six related panels formed the cycle: the present work, Zemeyas and Joeth in the North Carolina Museum of Art, Gomer in the National Gallery of Ireland, Joseph of Arimathea in the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Nathan in a private collection.¹ The figures, who seem to all be minor characters mentioned incidentally in the Old Testament, are seated on benches with their names inscribed in Gothic script beneath them, and hold or gesture toward scrolls bearing pronouncements on law and judgment. The inscription on the present banderole—“Exulet ad mortem condemnetur… nulla absolvendum censeo lege virum” (“Let him go into exile unto death; let him be condemned; I decree that the man cannot be acquitted by any law”)—does not derive directly from scripture, leading Chandler Rathfon Post to suggest that the painter may have drawn upon a now-lost poem or play elaborating upon the trial of Christ. 

The authorship and origin of the series have long been debated. The panels were traditionally associated with Bartholomé (or Bernardo) de Castro, an artist active in Seville who died in 1507 and whom Post considered a follower of Pedro Berruguete. Yet several scholars, including Isabel Mateo Gómez, Angulo Íñiguez, Elisa Bermejo, and Matías Díaz Padrón, have questioned the attribution and even the Spanish origin of the group, noting the pronounced affinity with Flemish and Antwerp Mannerist painting. At the same time, the use of walnut or chestnut panels—supports uncommon in Flanders but frequently employed in Spain and Northern France—has been cited in favor of a Spanish provenance. Executed circa 1510–1520, the series reflects the close artistic exchange between Spain and the Low Countries during the early sixteenth century, combining Northern attention to detail and expressive characterization with the hieratic monumentality associated with late medieval Spanish retable painting.

¹ Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, Zemeyas (inv. no. 52.9.172) and Joeth (inv. no. 52.9.173); Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, Gomer (inv. no. NGI.1109); St. Petersburg, Florida, Museum of Fine Arts, Joseph of Arimathea ;private collection, Nathan (published in Geismeier 1971).