Title

Mass of St Gregory with donors

painter

Gallego, Fernando [circle of] (Salamanca. Active 1468-1507)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Inscriptions / Marks

CVAL QERA Q[E] DELA[N]TE DESTA FIGVRA DICHERE LAS RODILLAS I[NF]RA / CI[N]CO PATERNOSTRES E CI[N]CO AVEMARIAS TERNA DESAT[ARÁ] GRIGORIO XXX / AN[N]OS EL P[A]P[A] LEO[N] CIE[N] DIAS EL P[A]P[A] INOCECIO[sic] IIII AN[N]OS EL P[A]P[A] CLEME[N]TE / VI AN[N]OS E CVARENTA OB[IS]POS CADAVNO XL DIAS E VNA CVARESMA (transcription from the museum's website).

Object history

The panel was seen and described by Manuel Gómez-Moreno during the preparation of the monumental catalogue of the province of Ávila in 1900-1901 (published partly in 1903 and in full in 1983), but it must have been sold immediately, as according to a label on the back it was already in England in 1903. A letter from José Prudencio to Manuel Gómez-Moreno of 14 June 1904 refers to the theft of several works of art of the church of Bonilla de la Sierra, among them perhaps this panel. In England it was owned by Sir John Charles Robinson, who years earlier had been involved in the sale of the panels from the original main altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo cathedral. After Robinson's death in 1913, the work was auctioned along with the rest of his collection in Berlin in 1914. In 1933 Post saw and studied it in the Madrid collection of the German businessman Felix Schlayer. In 1936 it was owned by a Swiss bank in Basel (who knows whether as a result of some process connected with the outbreak of the Civil War, in which Schlayer, taking advantage of his diplomatic status as Norwegian consul, saved the lives of hundreds of people) and in the same year it was acquired by the Kunstmusem Basel, where it is now.

Description

The panel depicts the characteristic scene of the mass of St Gregory through a rounded arch. The main subject is located in the background, allowing the donors to be placed in the foreground: a cardinal on the left and a layman accompanied by his patron saint (St Catherine) on the right. The cardinal could be Juan de Carvajal (+1469), who patronised of the collegiate church of San Martín de Bonilla de la Sierra. His facial type replicates that used by Fernando Gallego to portray Cardinal Juan de Mella in the altarpiece of San Ildefonso in Zamora cathedral. When Gómez-Moreno saw the panel it was located in an encasement of a later altarpiece in the Chaves chapel, but it is clear that this was not its original location. Gómez-Moreno conjectured that it could be the work of Samson Florentino. Later, Post attributed it to Fernando Gallego. On the other hand, Silva Maroto, in his reference monograph on this artist, rejects that it is his work. It is, in any case, a work very close to Gallego's types and manner, so it is a work that should at least be placed in his environment.

Locations

• XV^th c. - Early XX^th c.

  church

  San Martín Church, Bonilla de la Sierra (Spain)

• 1913

  dealer/antiquarian

  Sir John Charles Robinson, London (United Kingdom) *

• 1914

  auction house

  Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Berlín (Germany)

• 1933

  private collection

  Felix Schlayer Collection, Madrid (Spain) *

• 1936

  bank

  Basler Handelsbank, Basilea (Switzerland)

• 1936 - present

  museum

  Kunstmuseum Basel, Basilea (Switzerland)