Valencian school, late 15th century

Valencian school, late 15th century.
"St. Philip, St. James the Less, St. Andrew and apostle".
Altarpiece or altar frontal.
Painting on panel. Ornamentation in carved wood, gilded and polychrome.
It has very slight damage to the polychrome and wood.
Measurements: 84 x 88 cm; 100 x 102 cm.
Valencian altarpiece with the representation of the apostles San Felipe, Santiago el Menor, San Andrés and another apostle without attributes. The strong modeling of the bodies and the psychic force of the faces denote the proximity of the painter with the workshops of Juan De Juanes. With angular features, the four characters are recognized as bearers of Jesus' message. The conciseness of the drawing and the soft plasticity of the tunics are combined in the naturalistic modeling of the bodies, which despite emanating from a golden background have been resolved with a veristic language in keeping with the period. The anatomies seem to take on volume, transcending the two-dimensionality of the background. At the same time, in the human types we can appreciate the stylistic proximity with the painting of Los Hernandos (the painters Fernando Llanos and Fernando Yáñez), who introduced in the Valencian and Murcian school the novelties of the Quattrocento and the Italian Cinquecento. Specifically, it is the wake of the Florentine painters of the fourteenth century, in the line of Masaccio or Piero della Francesca which mostly influences the Valencian school, and that is evident in the rough and angular faces that occupy us, of somber expression, resolved with an excellent drawing and contrasting ranges of satin finishes. The golden background presents borders and decorated elements that emulate damascene brocades. Arches with scrolls crown the frame.
During the Renaissance, the series of apostles represented in pairs or individually on a neutral background and carrying their iconographic attributes became popular in Spanish painting. They derived from the late medieval altarpieces, but in the sixteenth century the expressions and gestures were deepened in a naturalism characteristic of the time.