Romanesque art brought to light
The Romanesque sculpture in the Francisco Godia Foundation's collection is characterised by its variety and careful selection. Alongside the Romanesque Virgins of the Leonese school with a hieratic posture and emphatic lines, there is the theatricality and expressiveness of the great scenes of the descent from the cross that herald gothic humanity.
For many years Romanesque carvings were underappreciated and neglected in small shrines far from art centres. Private collectors played a decisive role in recovering and studying them.
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Leonese School
Seated Virgin
Second half of the 12th century
Polychrome carved wood
48x10x10 cm
This carving from the Leonese school represents the Virgin Mary sitting on a throne. She originally had the Baby Jesus sitting on her lap. The original polychrome has been preserved. Just like other Romanesque carvings, the pronounced carving reveals the clear influence of monumental sculpture.
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One hundred years of sculpture
From the early years of the transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic in the 13th century to the dawn of the international Gothic - represented in this hall by the extraordinary panel of the day of Pentecost - by Lluís Borrassà - the idea of art underwent a profound transformation. The figures, which were subject to strict rules of representation and were strongly ritualised in the Romanesque era, became less rigid. A realistic narrative and human look was revealed to viewers in the looks and gestures of Christ, the Virgin and the saints.
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Joseph of Arimathea
Leon/Palencia (?)
c. 1300
Polychrome carved wood
160x38x39 cm
Joseph of Arimathea was traditionally considered the owner of the tomb that the body of Christ was placed in after the crucifixion. This figure was part of a scene of the descent from the cross. The perfectly preserved polychrome of vibrant reds stands out.
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Bona ecclesia and Angel
Leon/Palencia (?)
c. 1300
Polychrome carved wood
146x27x34 cm
128x25x17 cm
Two realistic carvings from Leon in the 13th century. The angel’s raiment with its fringes and geometrical drawings is not all that different from the garments that nobles wore. The gentle gestures and calm face transmit a feeling of serenity. The church, the guide to the faithful, is represented by a lady of outstanding beauty with a crown and a polychrome habit. The golden colours stress her majesty.
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Llorenç Saragossa
(Active in Barcelona and Valencia, c. 1363-1406)
Nursing virgin
c. 1363-1374
Tempera and gold leaf on panel
218x125 cm
This exceptional piece shows the Virgin Mary nursing the Baby Jesus surrounded by Angels. Llorenç Saragossa shows the tenderness of the relationship between mother and child and transmits a sense of vigour: the Baby Jesus clings to her breast while his mother holds him with a secure gesture.
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Lluís Borrassà
(c. 1360-1425)
Pentecost
c. 1390-1400
Tempera and gilt on panel
37x21 cm
Lluís Borrassà is one of the grandmasters of Catalan painting. His art introduced a taste for delicate harmonies, which is characteristic of the international Gothic. Borrassà’s painting stands out for its psychological perceptiveness. It has a major narrative element that allows characters to be individualised and presented as players in a group drama.
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The Catalan Gothic
Gothic is the style of the Crown of Aragon. The talent of painters such as Jaume Huguet, who had many followers, prolonged its splendour and delayed the introduction of new Renaissance trends.
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Jaume Huguet
(Valls, 1412 – Barcelona, 1492)
St. Mary Magdalene
c. 1470
Tempera on panel
144x73 cm
Jaume Huguet painted Mary Magdalene with the attributes of the enthroned virgin. She holds symbolic objects in her hands – a rosary, a jar of perfume – that have been reproduced very naturally. The floor tiles introduce perspective in the midst of a highly ritualised space.
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The monumental and lavish Flemish Gothic
During the early Middle Ages, in the shadow of the economic splendour of Flanders and Brabant, a refreshing late Gothic style arose with images of Virgins and saints with an impressive monumental scale and wooden altarpieces with polychrome and lavish gilt.
This style spread all over Europe along trade routes in which trade in artworks flourished. Flemish artists moved to Spain and left their mark on the main sculpture workshops.
In this hall and the two preceding ones, you can see a selection of Gothic works notably including La Piedad (The Descent from the Cross) by Alejo de Vahía.
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Alejo de Vahía
(Active c. 1490-1510)
The Descent from the Cross
c. 1500
Polychrome carved wood
94x87x48 cm
Alejo de Vahía was of Germanic origins and lived in Becerril de Campos near Palencia, where he became an artist of great renown. La Piedad is an extraordinary piece. The tender gesture of Joseph of Arimathea holding Christ’s head and Nicodemus carrying his legs create the impression that the figure is floating above the skirt of the Virgin who is weeping at the death of her son.
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From the Renaissance to the Baroque: emotion and purity
Pedro Berruguete and Francisco de Zurbarán introduced an emotive, deeply human component into religious painting. The choice of theme - the Holy Family or St. Joseph with Child - allowed them to show the relationship of the son of God with man from an everyday, intimate perspective. The tenderness of the gesture, the quality of the light and the harmony of the colours blend into an aspiration towards purity. Next to them one can see the fantastic imagination of the followers of Bosch and the still-lifes of Van der Hamen, which aspire towards the idealised possession of the world.
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Pedro Berruguete
(Paredes de Nava, c. 1445 – Madrid?, December, 1503)
The Holy Family
c. 1500
Oil on panel
105,5x81,5 cm
Painted around 1500, it is part of an oratory about Mary’s joy and pain. The front shows the Virgin, the Child and St. Joseph. The rear was given over to Christ. A hole in the frame allowed the frame to be hung up and the two sides shown alternately. The sides were later separated. The Lamentation over the Body of Christ is currently in the Museum of Cincinnati in the United States.
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Juan van der Hamen y León
(Madrid, 1596-1631)
Still life of peas and cherries flanked by two glass vases containing roses
1621
Oil on panel
63x102 cm
Born in Madrid, in 1596, to a Flemish family, Juan van der Hamen painted subtle spatial compositions that mixed everyday elements with more refined aspects. He followed the austere, highly realistic still-life model created by Juan Sánchez Cotán.
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Francisco de Zurbarán
(Fuente de Cantos, 1598 – Madrid, 1664)
St. Joseph with Child
c. 1660
Oil on panel
50x40 cm
Painted between 1658 and 1664, it comes from the last stage in Zurbarán’s work, when he moved his workshop from Seville to Madrid. During that period he developed a personal style characterised by the use of vivid colours and the balance of the composition, stressing the restrained expression of feelings.
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