Valencian school, late 15th century

Valencian school, late 15th century.
"St. Bartolomé, St. John, St. Philip and St. Peter".
Altarpiece or altar frontal.
Painting on panel. Ornamentation in carved, gilded and polychrome wood.
It has very slight flaws in the polychrome and wood.
Measurements: 84 x 88 cm; 100 x 102 cm.
Valencian altarpiece with the representation of the apostles Saint Bartolomé, Saint John, Saint Philip and Saint Peter. The rotund 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 the message of Jesus. The conciseness of the drawing and the smooth 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 paintings 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 deepened in a naturalism characteristic of the time.