TRIPTYCH; SAINT JOHN THE APOSTLE, SAINT JOHN BAPTIST, PIETÁ. OIL ON WOOD, METAL. SPANISH SCHOOL, 16TH CENTURY.

Wall triptych, Pietà and Saints John. Oil on panel, metal. Spanish school, 16th century. Triptych with a hanging ring that shows, when closed, a heraldic decoration on the wings with a total of eight shields accompanied by their surnames in phylacteries (Matanza, Pardo, Miranda, López, Astudillo, Cisneros, Lerma and Salinas) and, in the centre, that of Matanza with a helmet and plant forms on one door and that of Astudillo combined with that of Matanza in a rhombus, with an angel holding it by means of ribbons, on another door of the triptych. When opened, you can see a Pietà in the centre, and Saint John the Evangelist on one wing and Saint John the Baptist on the other. Given its size, it is possible that it is an object intended for private devotion (chapel, altar in a palace, etc.) and not intended for a church. The surnames on its exterior appear in the work by Johannes Baptista Rietstap (1828-1891) entitled Armorial Général, in French, where he collected the coats of arms of more than 130,000 European families and whose first edition was published in 1861. Stylistically, these elements can be compared to the choir stalls of the Cathedral of Barcelona, painted with heraldic panels by Juan de Borgoña for the chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece that was held there in 1519. It should be noted that, normally, the exterior of this type of work was painted in grisaille or with fewer colours than the interior, to save costs, unlike what happens here. As for the interior, the Pietà is reminiscent of models by Luis de Morales (compare, for example, the one in the Museum of Fine Arts in Badajoz from around 1565, the one in the Almudena in Madrid, or the one in the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao), with the particularity of presenting the Holy Spirit in the upper part. The Saint Johns (of whom Isabella the Catholic was very devoted) are presented on a neutral background, standing and with their usual attributes. Saint John the Evangelist carries a chalice with a snake (an attribute taken from an apocryphal) and Saint John the Baptist is shown wearing a leather tunic and pointing to a Lamb placed on a book, in a posture that can already be seen in Spanish works from the mid-16th century, in German engravings from around 1480, in a painting by Juan Sánchez Cotán (Chapter House, Monastery of the Cartuja in Granada), etc. Iconography allows us to mention the Pietà with Saints John and the Catholic Monarchs from the Diocesan Museum of the Cathedral of Granada in Spain, dating from the 15th century and linked to the circle of Pedro Sánchez.

· Size: 70x3x56 cms. Cerrado: 36x4,5x56 cms