Title

St. Augustine and St. Roch

Flandes, Juan de [attributed to] (Posible procedencia de los Países Bajos, ca. 1465 - Palencia, ca. 1519)

Generic classification

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Object history

This panel was made for the Monastery of San Miguel de los Ángeles (Villadiego, Burgos) around 1510-1518. The monastery belonged to the Order of Saint Augustine, so it is likely that it occupied the central position in a small altarpiece (Silva Maroto, 2006). The attribution of the work has been widely debated: Post (1933; 1958) believed it to be a painting by Juan de Flandes, a hypothesis supported by Gudiol (1955) and Gaya Nuño (1958). However, Bermejo (1962) stated that "the attribution to the painter is unclear because, although we only know the work from photographs, the intervention of the workshop seems evident." For his part, Silva Maroto (2006) considered that Juan de Flandes had indeed intervened in the panel and that perhaps the lower quality that can be discerned in it is due to its poor state of conservation, something that can be seen in the loss of paint on the lower part.

The painting remained in Villadiego (Burgos) until 1926 (Cortés, Hergueta, Huidobro, and Martínez, 1921), when it became part of the collection of a Spanish nobleman (Tietze and Tietze-Conrat, 1954). When Post studied the panel in 1933, it was already outside the monastery. It is not known how it left the country, but in 1953 Clyde Newhouse, chairman of the board of directors of Newhouse Galleries Inc., sold the painting to Bob Jones University, where it is currently preserved.

Description

The panel depicts Saint Augustine and Saint Roch with their characteristic attributes: Saint Augustine is on the left, dressed in pontifical vestments and depicted as a bishop. His white alb is highlighted by a golden cope of red brocade and the mitre that crowns his head. In his left hand he holds a closed book, referring to his status as a doctor of the church; in his right hand he holds a heart, one of his most frequent attributes. On the right is Saint Roch, dressed as a pilgrim with a cap and a staff with two keys, alluding to his pilgrimage to Rome. The pestilential bubo and the dog leaning on one of his legs while grabbing a piece of bread refer to the legend of the saint. Finally, a smaller angel holds a medicine jar to heal Saint Roch's wounds.

According to Silva Maroto (2006), the angel "shows greater fidelity to the models that Juan de Flandes selected for his figures." It can be compared to Saint Michael and Saint Francis at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, United States). Similarly, the faces of Saint Augustine and Saint Roch, as well as the landscape, can be linked to other works by Juan de Flandes, such as The Baptism of Christ from the church of San Lázaro in Palencia, which is currently in the National Gallery of Art (Washington, United States).

Locations

• XVI^th c. - 1926

  monastery

  Monastery of St. Miguel de los Ángeles, Burgos, Villadiego (Spain)

• ca. 1926 - Second quarter of the XX^th c.

  private collection

  Private collection, Spain (Spain) *

• 1953

  dealer/antiquarian

  Clyde Newhouse, New York (United States) *

• 1953 - present

  museum

  Museum & Gallery at Bob Jones University, Greenville (United States)