DOI issue:
Nr. 1
DOI article:Ratkowska, Paulina: The remains of an altarpiece with the legend of St. John the Baptist: an unpublished work of the Franco-Gothic Style in the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18818#0009
on the narrower panel which, inoreover, was cut also from below. Two of the panels are of prettj
similar dimensions (91 cm X 32 cm), tlie third one is a little longer and narrower (105 CmX
X21 cm). The original shape of the panels may be induced by comparing them to the wings
of the other retables — the one seemingly from the same period and artistic milieu, now in the
National Museum in Warsaw (fig. 8 —10)3 and another in Museo Soler y Palet in Tarrasa.4
Similarily to these examples our panels were most probably surmounted by triangles — two
equilateral and one right-angled. In the present State of preseryation the scenes fili two zones
separated with broad bands of red with the inscriptions on them concerning the main particip-
ants of the drama. There are four illustrations of the legend of St John the Baptist, namely,
the scene identified by us as the Calling of the First Disciples, the Baptism, the Feast of Herod
and the Beheading of the Precursor. The reyerses of the broader wings are adorned with the
motif of smali eight-armed stars, on the narrower St Paul the Apostle is represented as a counter-
part of St Peter, who most probably was depicted on the lost wing on the opposite side of the
retable. The horizontal bands, depriyed of polychromy on the reyerses, displaying the wood
proye the existence of the battens, being formerly the plot of the construction and later destroyed
when the retable was damaged. In the one of the broader panels, at the bottom of the interior
edge, the hook is preseryed — a remnant of an old hinge. The disposition of the batten traces,
the place of the hinge as well as the mutually completing character of the representations on
the narrower and one of the broader panels allow us to suppose that the retable was in the form
of tetraptych, perhaps closing inside a sculptured (or painted) imago of the titular saint —
John the Baptist. It might be the retable similar to the represented on the painting of the Master
of Sopetran in Prado of the Ist half of the XVtb century5 6 or the XIVth century examples in
the Cathedral of SevillaG and the Meteu Collection in Barcelona (fig. 11).7
The inscriptions in ornate Gothic majuscule aboye the personages read as follows: on the
narrower panel: (I)OANIS, DONZELA, on the broader left: JUS APOSTOLES ERODES
REINA, on the broader right: IOANIS IH(S) IOANIS. The words APOSTOLES and RE INA
point to Spain, while the orthography of donzela (the Spanish yariant of Latin dominicella)
with „z” seems to speak in a most generał way for Castile as the most probable region where
the work sliould be localized.8
The recent conseryation of the panels in the National Museum in Warsaw has restored the
original freshness of their coloring, formerly changed by dirt. The intense color gamut with
the dominant of red is based on a thrifty palette (indeed, only five colors are used — red, blue
yellow, black and white) reyealing thus a remarkable artistic taste and sensibility of the master.
The expression of his color composition is rooted upon his astonishing ability to wreathe keenly
contrasted, saturated with their own content colors into a harmonious and subtle whole. Due
to red, laid flatly and in broad spots, the artist contriyed to sink into this whole even the bands
with the inscriptions, we mentioned aboye, and the paintings impress us as a rich but disciplined
uniform color composition and not as the sum of separate, independently composed units.
The depth of red is enhanced by juxtaposition of this color with blue and accents of yellow.
The cbromatic yiyidness achieyed in such a way is subsecpiently modified and tempered with
fine whitened rosę. The silyery diapered background, howeyer much rubbed and blackened
it is now, contributed much to the intensification of the coloring and even in its present State
of preseryation it supplements in a specific way the generał aesthetic impression. The color
3. No inv. 218/2.
4. Ars Hispaniae. Historia Universal del Arie Hispanico, VI, Pintura y Imagineria romanica, Madrid, 1950, fig. 259.
5. Ars Hispaniae, op. cit., VII, fig. 278.
6. M. Trens, Maria. Iconographia de la Yirgen en el arte espańol, Madrid, 1946, fig. 380.
7. Trens, op. cit., fig. 398.
8. For the information I wish to thank Dr Zofia Markiewicz, the University of Warsaw.
3
similar dimensions (91 cm X 32 cm), tlie third one is a little longer and narrower (105 CmX
X21 cm). The original shape of the panels may be induced by comparing them to the wings
of the other retables — the one seemingly from the same period and artistic milieu, now in the
National Museum in Warsaw (fig. 8 —10)3 and another in Museo Soler y Palet in Tarrasa.4
Similarily to these examples our panels were most probably surmounted by triangles — two
equilateral and one right-angled. In the present State of preseryation the scenes fili two zones
separated with broad bands of red with the inscriptions on them concerning the main particip-
ants of the drama. There are four illustrations of the legend of St John the Baptist, namely,
the scene identified by us as the Calling of the First Disciples, the Baptism, the Feast of Herod
and the Beheading of the Precursor. The reyerses of the broader wings are adorned with the
motif of smali eight-armed stars, on the narrower St Paul the Apostle is represented as a counter-
part of St Peter, who most probably was depicted on the lost wing on the opposite side of the
retable. The horizontal bands, depriyed of polychromy on the reyerses, displaying the wood
proye the existence of the battens, being formerly the plot of the construction and later destroyed
when the retable was damaged. In the one of the broader panels, at the bottom of the interior
edge, the hook is preseryed — a remnant of an old hinge. The disposition of the batten traces,
the place of the hinge as well as the mutually completing character of the representations on
the narrower and one of the broader panels allow us to suppose that the retable was in the form
of tetraptych, perhaps closing inside a sculptured (or painted) imago of the titular saint —
John the Baptist. It might be the retable similar to the represented on the painting of the Master
of Sopetran in Prado of the Ist half of the XVtb century5 6 or the XIVth century examples in
the Cathedral of SevillaG and the Meteu Collection in Barcelona (fig. 11).7
The inscriptions in ornate Gothic majuscule aboye the personages read as follows: on the
narrower panel: (I)OANIS, DONZELA, on the broader left: JUS APOSTOLES ERODES
REINA, on the broader right: IOANIS IH(S) IOANIS. The words APOSTOLES and RE INA
point to Spain, while the orthography of donzela (the Spanish yariant of Latin dominicella)
with „z” seems to speak in a most generał way for Castile as the most probable region where
the work sliould be localized.8
The recent conseryation of the panels in the National Museum in Warsaw has restored the
original freshness of their coloring, formerly changed by dirt. The intense color gamut with
the dominant of red is based on a thrifty palette (indeed, only five colors are used — red, blue
yellow, black and white) reyealing thus a remarkable artistic taste and sensibility of the master.
The expression of his color composition is rooted upon his astonishing ability to wreathe keenly
contrasted, saturated with their own content colors into a harmonious and subtle whole. Due
to red, laid flatly and in broad spots, the artist contriyed to sink into this whole even the bands
with the inscriptions, we mentioned aboye, and the paintings impress us as a rich but disciplined
uniform color composition and not as the sum of separate, independently composed units.
The depth of red is enhanced by juxtaposition of this color with blue and accents of yellow.
The cbromatic yiyidness achieyed in such a way is subsecpiently modified and tempered with
fine whitened rosę. The silyery diapered background, howeyer much rubbed and blackened
it is now, contributed much to the intensification of the coloring and even in its present State
of preseryation it supplements in a specific way the generał aesthetic impression. The color
3. No inv. 218/2.
4. Ars Hispaniae. Historia Universal del Arie Hispanico, VI, Pintura y Imagineria romanica, Madrid, 1950, fig. 259.
5. Ars Hispaniae, op. cit., VII, fig. 278.
6. M. Trens, Maria. Iconographia de la Yirgen en el arte espańol, Madrid, 1946, fig. 380.
7. Trens, op. cit., fig. 398.
8. For the information I wish to thank Dr Zofia Markiewicz, the University of Warsaw.
3