DOI Heft:
Nr. 2
DOI Artikel:Frinta, Mojmír Svatopluk: A new work by Alvaro Pirez
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18861#0045
2a. Detail of the Baptism in the retablo
The same pattern exists in the halo of St. James in a panel with three saints in the museum in
Lucca which must have formed with its compagnion panel laterals of a large altarpiece and
in a Madonna of Humilily in the Frick Art Museum in Pittsburg (fig. 3). Both are attributed
to Maestro del Bambino Vispo, probably also a foreigner from the Iberian peninsula. Did this
painter learn it from Alvaro's paintings in Pisa and Nicosia or should we rather interpret this
rare design as a direct reference to the Yalencian painting? (fig. 2a).
Alvaro reveals in several paintings his predilection for distinctive foliate patterns filling the
entire halo: one kind is a large multi-spiky leaf swelling in a dynamie design and can be seen
in the two panels with the standing saints in Altenburg and in the fragmentary St. Catherine
in Bern and St. Francis, ex Platt Collection. This form can be considered an early feature bacause
it again can be found in the already mentioned retablo of Bonifacio Ferrer in Valencia and other
Spanish works (figs. 2, 4)13. Another Alvaro's type is a formal arrangement of crisp foliate
forms curling back, along a stalk running through the halo. It appears in the panel with Saints
in Warsaw and in a Madonna of Humility in a Florentine collection (fig. 5)14. This design
appears already on the Virgin's collar in the Nicosia panel. It differs from the Florentine chapelet,
13. E.g. a St. Vincent by Francesco Coraes in Palma de Mallorca.
14. It is futile to speculate whether the Madonna of Humility could huve formed the center with the Saints in Warsaw at
the left, sińce I do not know its size.
37
The same pattern exists in the halo of St. James in a panel with three saints in the museum in
Lucca which must have formed with its compagnion panel laterals of a large altarpiece and
in a Madonna of Humilily in the Frick Art Museum in Pittsburg (fig. 3). Both are attributed
to Maestro del Bambino Vispo, probably also a foreigner from the Iberian peninsula. Did this
painter learn it from Alvaro's paintings in Pisa and Nicosia or should we rather interpret this
rare design as a direct reference to the Yalencian painting? (fig. 2a).
Alvaro reveals in several paintings his predilection for distinctive foliate patterns filling the
entire halo: one kind is a large multi-spiky leaf swelling in a dynamie design and can be seen
in the two panels with the standing saints in Altenburg and in the fragmentary St. Catherine
in Bern and St. Francis, ex Platt Collection. This form can be considered an early feature bacause
it again can be found in the already mentioned retablo of Bonifacio Ferrer in Valencia and other
Spanish works (figs. 2, 4)13. Another Alvaro's type is a formal arrangement of crisp foliate
forms curling back, along a stalk running through the halo. It appears in the panel with Saints
in Warsaw and in a Madonna of Humility in a Florentine collection (fig. 5)14. This design
appears already on the Virgin's collar in the Nicosia panel. It differs from the Florentine chapelet,
13. E.g. a St. Vincent by Francesco Coraes in Palma de Mallorca.
14. It is futile to speculate whether the Madonna of Humility could huve formed the center with the Saints in Warsaw at
the left, sińce I do not know its size.
37