Title
St Peter
Generic classification
PaintingObject
PaintingCentury
Late 15th c.Cultural context / style
Hispano-Flemish GothicDimensions
12.99 x 13.78 in.Material
PanelTechnique
TemperaIconography / Theme
San PedroProvenance
Possible origin from Castile and Leon (Castilla y León, Possible origin from Castile and Leon, Spain)Current location
Musée Bonnat-Helleu, musée des beaux-arts de Bayonne (France)Inventory Number in Current Collection
CM 516Inscriptions / Marks
"sant pedro" (scroll around the saint's figure): "St Peter".
Object history
No information is known about the provenance of this panel prior to its inclusion in the collection of Antonin Personnaz. Nor is there any information on the other two panels from the same series also in the musée Bonnat-Helleu, musée des beaux-arts in Bayonne (The Saviour and St John the Evangelist). Nor on the other two panels from the same series in the Museo Cerralbo (St Paul, inv. no 00801, and St James the Greater, inv. no 00819). From their size and iconography, they all undoubtedly belonged to the predella of a small altarpiece in which the Saviour would have been flanked by the apostles.
According to the English version of Wikipedia, Personnaz acquired these panels when he was still very young, in 1875 (we have not been able to verify this information). At that time, he was still living in his native city of Bayonne, to which he was to return in the last years of his life, but in between he settled in Paris, where he developed his professional, artistic and collecting career.
The set of three panels belonging to Antonin Personnaz were bequeathed to the French state in 1937 on the condition that they should be deposited in the then called musée Bonnat of Bayonne, which was done in 1947.
Despite the lack of information on the provenance of this ensemble, the two proposals for cataloguing them point to Castile and León. The first, by Post in 1950, attributed it to the Master of Palanquinos, an anonymous painter active in the province of León. The second, by Ballesté in 2019, relates it to the circle of Diego de la Cruz, a painter active in the province of Burgos. It is for this reason that they may have come from Castile and León.
Description
Saint Peter is depicted with his characteristic physiognomy, holding a large key in his left hand and a book in his right.
Locations
XIXth c.
1875 - 1937
private collection
Antonin Personnaz, Bayona (France) *
1947 - present
Bibliography
- BALLESTÉ ESCORIHUELA, Marc (2019): "Tablas de nuevos maestros castellanos anteriormente atribuidas al Maestro de Palanquinos (h. 1480-1500)", Archivo Español de Arte, vol. 92, nº 367, p. 256, il. 10.
- FRANCO MATA, Ángela (2010): Arte leonés (siglos IV-XVI) fuera de León, Edilesa, Trobajo del Camino (León), p. 320.
- GAYA NUÑO, Juan Antonio (1958): La pintura española fuera de España (historia y catálogo), Espasa-Calpe, Madrid, p. 263 (núm. 2109).
- POST, Chandler Rathfon (1950): A History of Spanish Painting, vol. 10 (The Early Renaissance in Andalusia), Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts), p. 337.
Record manager
Fernando Gutiérrez BañosCitation:
Fernando Gutiérrez Baños, "St Peter" in Nostra et Mundi. Cultural Heritage from Castile and Leon around the world, Fundación Castilla y León, 2025. https://inventario.nostraetmundi.com/en/work/240
© Bayonne, musée Bonnat-Helleu
© Bayonne, musée Bonnat-Helleu
