DOI issue:
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DOI article:Ratkowska, Paulina: The remains of an altarpiece with the legend of St. John the Baptist: an unpublished work of the Franco-Gothic Style in the National Museum in Warsaw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#0019
cjssion, eyidently borrowing much from French miniaturę painting or its local Franco-Gothic
derivatives. Iłowever, the figurę Canon of the single wing is less slender, the figures of St John
the Evangelist and St Paul on the reyerse are deprived of tpe refined contrapposto proper to
the Apostles in the scene of the Calling of the First Disciples, Donzela or — in a morę simplified
version — St Paul on our reverse; the folding of drapery of the best preseryed figurę of St John
the Eyangelist is morę stylized. Compared to the figures of the single wing tbe personages of
the tetraptych are morę monumental and at the same time morę naturalistic, reflecting a morę
adyanced stage of the stylistical deyelopment. The artistic proyenience of the wing with St John
the Eyangelist is unfortunately also obscure, so the problem of the origin of both works must
be solyed simultaneously. Similarily to the results of the linguistic analysis stylistical analogies
in the comparatiye materiał ayailable to the present author — howeyer fragile they are —
point that the tetraptych might be executed in one of the workshops of Castile. Unfortunately,
the panel painting of Castile as well as Leon in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries16 is one of tbe
most enigmatic chapters in the history of art in Spain, first of all for the lack of documentary
materiał, dated monuments and rather poor set of murals which might proyide a datum in
the studies in pictures on wood. Therefore, all researches on the panel painting are based mainly
ton establishing relations with the ample group of illuminated manuscripts executed during
the reign of Alphonse the Wise (1252 — 84). To this group belongs the Historia of Alphonse X17
16. Ars Hispaniae, op. cit., VI, p. 262 ff.
17. Escorial, Biblioteca di San Loienzo. 19 20 *
19. The Executioner of St John the Baptist, detail of the fig. 7
20. Spanish Master, the XIVth century, the Tormentor of Christ, from the Flagellation, Historia
of Alphonse the Wise, Escorial, Biblioteca di San Lorenzo (phot. Archiyes of Muzeum Narodowe)
13
derivatives. Iłowever, the figurę Canon of the single wing is less slender, the figures of St John
the Evangelist and St Paul on the reyerse are deprived of tpe refined contrapposto proper to
the Apostles in the scene of the Calling of the First Disciples, Donzela or — in a morę simplified
version — St Paul on our reverse; the folding of drapery of the best preseryed figurę of St John
the Eyangelist is morę stylized. Compared to the figures of the single wing tbe personages of
the tetraptych are morę monumental and at the same time morę naturalistic, reflecting a morę
adyanced stage of the stylistical deyelopment. The artistic proyenience of the wing with St John
the Eyangelist is unfortunately also obscure, so the problem of the origin of both works must
be solyed simultaneously. Similarily to the results of the linguistic analysis stylistical analogies
in the comparatiye materiał ayailable to the present author — howeyer fragile they are —
point that the tetraptych might be executed in one of the workshops of Castile. Unfortunately,
the panel painting of Castile as well as Leon in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries16 is one of tbe
most enigmatic chapters in the history of art in Spain, first of all for the lack of documentary
materiał, dated monuments and rather poor set of murals which might proyide a datum in
the studies in pictures on wood. Therefore, all researches on the panel painting are based mainly
ton establishing relations with the ample group of illuminated manuscripts executed during
the reign of Alphonse the Wise (1252 — 84). To this group belongs the Historia of Alphonse X17
16. Ars Hispaniae, op. cit., VI, p. 262 ff.
17. Escorial, Biblioteca di San Loienzo. 19 20 *
19. The Executioner of St John the Baptist, detail of the fig. 7
20. Spanish Master, the XIVth century, the Tormentor of Christ, from the Flagellation, Historia
of Alphonse the Wise, Escorial, Biblioteca di San Lorenzo (phot. Archiyes of Muzeum Narodowe)
13