Valencian master; c. 1525.

Valencian master; c. 1525.
"The Virgin and Child between St. Nicholas and St. Gerard".
Oil on panel. Cradled.
Work reproduced in: POST, Ch. R. The Catalan School in the Early Renaissance (A History of Spanish Painting, vol. XII), Cambridge (Mass)., Harvard University Press, 1958, p. 117, fig. 45.
Attached is a report issued by Don Alberto Velasco.
It has technical and analytical study issued by Icono I&R.
Provenance: Barcelona, Gaspar Homar collection (before 1958); Barcelona, private collection; Madrid.
Measurements: 181 x 164 cm; 235 x 190 cm (frame).
According to the report by Alberto Velasco "This work has been known since ancient times thanks to Chandler R. Post who published it in 1958 in one of his volumes of his famous A History of Spanish Painting. The piece was treasured by Gaspar Homar y Mezquida (1870-1953), an important artist of Catalan modernism. As for the representation, we find ourselves before a work that was probably conceived as the main panel of an altarpiece. The composition contains the full-length figures of the Virgin and Child, St. Nicholas and St. Gerard, whom we identify by the inscriptions on the nimbuses. Mary presents a rounded volumetry emphasized by the clothing she wears, a greenish or bluish velvety tunic decorated on the edges with inscriptions made with the application of metallic mordant foil. In the inscriptions on the tunic we read some fragments of the Magnificat prayer, for example, on Mary's neck. The tunic was treated with delicacy, as can be seen in the light reflection and the play of light and shadows at the height of the Virgin's chest and also by the iridescent appearance it acquires in certain areas. The same care is detected in the treatment of the luxurious mantle with which Mary is covered, of orange color and decorated with stews in red that reproduce the vegetal motifs of the late medieval silks, among them, the usual motif of the "carxofa" (artichoke) typical of the Italian and Valencian productions. Mary holds Jesus in her hands and looks at him with a look of sadness, as if she senses the sad end that awaits the Son of God. The Virgin presents a serene face with soft forms, with well marked red lips, elongated nose, arched eyebrows and half-open eyes. Her long hair is uncovered and is gathered behind her tunic and mantle, partially revealing one of her ears. The body of the Child does not touch directly on the Mother's palms, but appears half wrapped in a white cloth with abundant folds that becomes semi-transparent at the height of Jesus' feet. Jesus appears in an oblique position, according to a particular tradition of the Flemish world, and wears a nimbus similar to those of the rest of the characters, although of cruciform type from powers articulated by means of rays. The body of the Child presents an anatomical treatment that reinforces the volumes, with legs and arms of a thick nature. To the right of the Virgin and Child we find Saint Nicholas, who delicately stretches out one of his hands to take Jesus'. His condition of bishop makes the saint carry as an attribute the crozier, with a wreathed shaft and a golden staff or scroll. Precisely, in the base of this element appears tied the sudarium or pannisellus, a cloth of respect to the bishop that was used to avoid that the sweat of his hand contacted with the crosier. Just on the other side we find St. Gerard wearing a dark habit that surely identifies him as a member of the Benedictine order. The three figures are set against a powerful black background that highlights and enhances them, which is combined with the penetration of a powerful light source on the left side, according to the viewer's point of view. This light illuminates the figures to a great extent and gives them a powerful rotundity, but it also allows the creation of shadows that the painter knew how to exploit from the aesthetic point of view, as we see in the shading of certain areas of the clothing.
Technical issues such as the type of construction system or the presence of the gray primer, iconographic details related to the presence of St. Gerard and, finally, the inscription in Catalan on the nimbus indicate that the work belongs to the Valencian school. To this we must add, still, other considerations related to the format of the composition, from the representation of three saints of whole body in solution of continuity, that is to say, without architectural barriers of any type or elements of masonry that present them in an isolated or individualized way. This brings us back to Valencia and, specifically, to a pair of works that show similar representations. The first is an altarpiece that the Master of Perea made for the chapel of the Magdalene of the Cartuja de Valldecrist (Altura, Castellón) or "Virgin of the Knight of Montesa" preserved in the Prado Museum, a work somewhat later than 1482 made by the Italian Paolo de San Leocadio following a commission by Lluís Despuig for the parish church of Montesa (Valencia)".