Title
The Episcopal Procession to Mount Gargano
Master of Palanquinos [attributed to] (Active in León between 1470-1500)
Maestro de Filadelfia [attributed to]
Generic classification
PaintingObject
PaintingDate
ca. 1515Century
Early 16th c.Cultural context / style
Hispano-FlemishDimensions
35 1/4 x 31 inMaterial
PanelIconography / Theme
La procesión episcopal en el Monte GárganoProvenance
Possible origin from Castile and Leon (Castilla y León, Possible origin from Castile and Leon, Spain)Current location
Philadelphia Museum of Art (Filadelfia, United States)Inventory Number in Current Collection
Inv. 2101Object history
The authorship of this panel has been widely discussed: when it was auctioned in New York at the beginning of the 20th century it was sold as a Burgundian school; for his part, Post (1938) considered it to be the work of the Master of Palanquinos, ascribing the panel to the Leonese environment. Years later Gaya Nuño (1958) seconded Post's hypothesis and currently the Philadelphia Museum of Art itself classifies it as a panel by the Master of Palanquinos. However, Ballesté (2017) has recently questioned this attribution. Although the headdresses of the figures and the Mudejar patterns in the background are reminiscent of the Master of Palanquinos, Ballesté (2017, 2018) states that the figures lack "the languor and elongation" so typical of Palanquinos. He also argues that "it has something of the master collaborator of the altarpiece of Santa Marina de Asturias and of the Salamancan Fernando Gallego, but enjoys at the same time an anatomical canon and an expressiveness a little more restrained than those developed by both painters." These characteristics have led Ballesté (2017) to consider him a distinct artist and call him Master of Philadelphia. This author was active in Avila and Valladolid at the beginning of the 16th century.
If we follow Ballesté's (2017) hypothesis, the painting must have been somewhere in these cities at the beginning of the 16th century. It is unknown how the piece left the country, but at the beginning of the 20th century it was in the Davanzati Palace (Florence). We do not know if the panel was there from the beginning, but what is certain is that it was in the hands of the Italian antique dealer Elia Volpi. He had bought in 1904 the Davanzati Palace with the aim of making it both his home and the headquarters of his business (Vanni, 2009). However, in November 1916 he sold a large part of his collection at The American Art Galleries and the Plaza Hotel in New York. While in The American Art Galleries the sumptuary arts were sold, the sale of paintings took place at the Plaza Hotel.
The auction catalog (1916) lists the panel associated with the Burgundian school (no. 1020). It was acquired by Kleinberger Galleries Inc. a company dedicated to the art trade. Among its main clients was John G. Johnson, who was offered the panel. Thus it was that the painting traveled to Philadelphia. Johnson eventually bequeathed the panel to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1917, where it remains today.
The panel was most likely part of an altarpiece that also included the paintings The Hunting of the Ox on Mount Garganoand The Appearance of the Ox in the Cave on Mount Gargano. While the former suffered the same fate as The Episcopal Procession on Mount Gargano, and has been preserved in Philadelphia, the latter is currently unaccounted for (Ballesté, 2017).
Description
This painting depicts an episode of the legend of St. Michael on Mount Gargano. According to the story, a bull from Gargano's herd took refuge in a cave on the mountain. When he could not get it out he ordered to shoot an arrow. Instead of wounding the animal the arrow returned and hit the aggressor himself, which was interpreted as a divine sign. Shortly afterwards, the archangel St. Michael appeared to the bishop of Siponto, revealing that the grotto was under his protection and was to become a sacred place. In the scene, the bishop and the clergy can be seen heading towards the cave to venerate the place.
Locations
Early XVIth c. - Early XXth c.
Early XXth c. - 1916
dealer/antiquarian
Elia Volpi, Florencia (Italy) *
ca. 1916 - 1916
1916
dealer/antiquarian
F. Kleinberger Galleries, New York (United States) *
1916 - 1917
private collection
John G. Johnson, Filadelfia (United States) *
1917 - present
Bibliography
- BALLESTÉ ESCORIHUELA, Marc (2017): De la pintura Hispano-flamenca al primer Renacimiento en las antiguas diócesis de León y Astorga: El Maestro de Palanquinos y el Maestro de Astorga (c. 1480-1540), Universidad de Lleida (Tesis doctoral), Lleida, pp. 109-110.
- 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.
- GAYA NUÑO, Juan Antonio (1958): La pintura española fuera de España (historia y catálogo), Espasa-Calpe, Madrid.
- POST, Chandler Rathfon (1938): A History of Spanish Painting, vol. 7 (The Catalan School in the Late Middle Ages), nº 2, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts), pp. 840-844.
- SANTONJA, Gonzalo (2004): Museo de niebla: el patrimonio perdido de Castilla y León, Ámbito, Valladolid, p. 82.
- TOWNSEND, Horace; GUGLIELMETTI, Cesare y VOLPI, Elia (1916): Illustrated catalogue of the exceedingly rare and valuable art treasures and antiquities formerly contained in the famous Davanzati Palace, The American Art Association, Nueva York, p. 1020.
- VANNI, Andrea (2009): "Il Medioevo fiorentino di Palazzo Davanzati e Elia Volpi. Un approccio archeologico", nº 76, Bolletino della Accademia degli Euteleti della Città si San Miniato, pp. 63-78.
Record manager
Isabel Escalera FernándezCitation:
Isabel Escalera Fernández, "The Episcopal Procession to Mount Gargano" in Nostra et Mundi. Cultural Heritage from Castile and Leon around the world, Fundación Castilla y León, 2025. https://inventario.nostraetmundi.com/en/work/370
The Episcopal Procession to Mount Gargano
The Episcopal Procession to Mount Gargano
TOWNSEND, Horace; GUGLIELMETTI, Cesare y VOLPI, Elia: Illustrated catalogue of the exceedingly rare and valuable art treasures and antiquities formerly contained in the famous Davanzati Palace (New York: The American Art Association, 1916), 1020.