Juan de Flandes Circle

Circle of JOHN OF FLANDERS ( Netherlands, 1465 - Palencia, 1519).
"Calvary".
Oil on panel.
Work reproduced in: Weniger, Matthias. Sittow, Morrow, John of Flanders. Drei Maler aus dem Norden am Hof Isabellas von Kastilien Ludwig 2011 p. 292, fig. 210.
It has Repainting.
It has damages in the frame.
Measurements: 38 x 53.5 cm; 47.5 x 63 cm (frame).
The format of this work as a lunette indicates that it was probably part of the architectural ornamentation, probably intended for a high area and perhaps over a vain in such a way that the artist has taken care of the monumentality of the figures and their arrangement according to the perspective of the viewer. This is evident in the figure of Christ on the cross, whose torso is widely inclined. The strict frontality of the model and the features of the anatomies added to a taste for the meticulous capture of details bring us closer to the artistic circle of Juan de Flandes, who was a Flemish painter active in Spain from 1496 to 1519. His real name is unknown, although an inscription "Juan Astrat" on the back of one work suggests a name such as "Jan van der Straat". Jan Sallaert, who became a master in Ghent in 1480, has also been suggested. He worked in the early Netherlandish style. He may have been born around 1460 somewhere in Flanders. He evidently trained in his home country, most likely in Ghent, as his work shows similarities to that of Joos van Wassenhove, Hugo van der Goes and other Ghent artists. He is only documented after he became an artist at the court of Queen Isabella I of Castile, where he is first mentioned in the accounts of 1496. He is described as a "court painter" in 1498 and continued in the queen's service until his death in 1504. He painted mostly portraits of the royal family, but also most of a large series of small panels for a polyptych altarpiece of the queen. The panels have been dispersed and the largest number of panels are in the royal collection in Madrid.
After the death of Queen Isabella in 1504, Juan de Flandes turned to ecclesiastical commissions from Spanish churches, beginning in Salamanca in 1505-1507. He later settled in Palencia, where there is a large altarpiece in the cathedral. The vast majority of his work in collections outside Spain dates from the latter period, during which he concentrated on religious themes. The panels of a large altarpiece in a Palencia church are divided between the Prado and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, which have four panels each. His works show the early Netherlandish style of Ghent adapted to Spanish taste and landscape, particularly the requirements for groups of compartmentalized scenes for retablos.