Title
Pope Honorius III Approving the Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi
painter
Castro, Bartolomé de [attributed to] (Active in Palencia at the beginning of the 16th century)
Generic classification
PaintingObject
PaintingDate
ca. 1500Century
Early 16th c.Cultural context / style
RenaissanceDimensions
48 5/16 x 33 5/8 inMaterial
PanelTechnique
Oil PaintingProvenance
Palencia (Palencia, Spain)Current location
Philadelphia Museum of Art (Filadelfia, United States)Inventory Number in Current Collection
Cat. 800Object history
Diego Angulo attributed this panel to Bartolomé de Castro in 1931. He considered that the figure of the Pope had the same stylistic characteristics as Saint Dominic, a painting in the Lázaro Galdiano collection in Madrid (1935; 1945). The author was active in Palencia at the beginning of the 16th century, the date at which this panel has been dated. Therefore, it is considered that the piece comes from the Palencia environment. According to Mateo (2002), Palencia had a Franciscan convent. This had been founded in 1246 by Bishop Tello Téllez de Meneses, however, during the War of Independence it had been used as barracks for the French troops. This situation, together with the successive disentailments, caused the ruin of the convent, which was demolished at the beginning of the 20th century. There is no documentation to corroborate that the panel belonged to the convent, however, Mateo (2002) proposes this location as a possible provenance.
It is not known when the painting left Palencia, but if we follow Mateo's hypothesis (2002) we would have to think that it happened during the War of Independence or as a result of the disentailments. In any case, the panel was sold and acquired by John G. Johnson, a lawyer from Philadelphia who took the piece to his residence on one of his trips to Europe (Winkelman, 1942). It remained in his collection until 1917, when he donated the panel to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it remains today.
Description
This panel represents the moment in which Pope Honorius III approves the Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi. The influence of Fernando Gallego can be appreciated in the faces of the friars; on the other hand, the pomposity of the Pope refers to John of Flanders, as well as the landscape that can be seen through the opening. Likewise, the richness of the brocade of Honorius III's clothing and the precious stones that adorn his vestment and mitre recall Pedro Berruguete. It probably belonged to an altarpiece dedicated to the life of Saint Francis.
Locations
Early XVIth c.
province
Palencia, Palencia (Spain)
XIXth c. - ca. 1917
private collection
John G. Johnson, Filadelfia (United States) *
1917 - present
Bibliography
- ANGULO ÍÑIGUEZ, Diego (1945): "Varios pintores de Palencia, el maestro de Astorga", nº 18, Archivo Español de Arte, p. 230.
- ANGULO ÍÑIGUEZ, Diego (1935): "La aprobación de la Orden de San Francisco, de la colección Johnson de Filadelfia", Archivo Español de Arte, p. 178.
- MATEO, Isabel (2002): "Bartolomé de Castro: formación y estilo", nº 68, Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología: BSAA, pp. 199-224.
- SILVA MAROTO, Pilar (1992): "En torno a Bartolomé de Castro", en Homenaje al profesor Hernández Perera, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, pp. 437-452.
- WINKELMAN, Barnie (1942): John G. Johnson: Lawyer and Art Collector, 1841-1917, University of Pennsylvania Press, Pennsylvania, pp. 158-169.
Record manager
Isabel Escalera FernándezCitation:
Isabel Escalera Fernández, "Pope Honorius III Approving the Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi" in Nostra et Mundi. Cultural Heritage from Castile and Leon around the world, Fundación Castilla y León, 2025. https://inventario.nostraetmundi.com/en/work/348
Pope Honorius III Approving the Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi
