MADRID.- Long before the Renaissance swept across Europe, Italy was the birthplace of an artistic revolution spearheaded by masters such as Giotto, Duccio, Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, a revolution destined to resonate across the continent. It is not by coincidence that the Hispanic kingdoms were among the first Western regions to embrace the artistic manifestations of the Italian Trecento, where they astonished viewers due to their innovative aesthetic and technical refinement. In addition to the highly effective Mediterranean communication networks (commercial, diplomatic, political, etc.,) that facilitated the arrival of artists and works, Spanish masters paid particular attention to the innovations emanating from the Italian peninsula. This was a fascinating creative sensibility.
Among the principal arguments demonstrated in this exhibition, which is benefiting from the exclusive sponsorship of Fundación BBVA, is the fact that in the hands of Hispanic masters, the Trecento style was a true lingura franca, open to a wide range of versions and adaptations. It thus served as a starting point for refined, hybrid works that transcend conventional artistic categories. In the creations of Ferrer and Arnau Bassa, for example, Italian formulas merged with elements of French and Neo-Byzantine origin, resulting in a synthesis unparalleled in the Italian world.
Images not only travelled: they were translated and acclimatised, generating diffuse and hybrid identities arising from the fertile conjunction of different aesthetic approaches.
The Spanish masters’ creativity is evident in areas other than purely formal ones. These include iconography, with the appearance of interesting variations on themes and compositions of Italian origin, from Roman Marian icons to the extensive imagery generated by the new Franciscan saints. In other cases, the change is reflected in the meanings acquired when imported works were introduced into different visual and mental contexts. In this sense, Italian models and prototypes took on a new life and a second nature through their transfer to the Iberian Peninsula.
The originality of the Hispanic masters is evident in their use of distinctive formats for panel painting, such as the monumental altarpiece, the preferred “stage machinery” for presiding over places of worship. Altarpieces were also the favoured medium for experimenting with sophisticated, mixed-method painting techniques. As in Italy, the application of gold was not just decoration but rather an aesthetic strategy that allowed for the emulation of the textures and sumptuousness of costly fabrics, brocades and jewels. This was continued further, transforming the surfaces of large altarpieces into active backgrounds that absorb and modulate the light according to its intensity and the viewpoint. In the hands of the Hispanic Trecento painters, the altarpiece became an optical and symbolic experience.
The exhibition concludes with an unexpected twist that illustrates the extent to which the vagaries of artistic exchange defy any preconceptions or categories established by traditional art-historical approaches. While the exhibition’s principal focus is the influence of Trecento Italian models on the artistic landscape of the Hispanic kingdoms, the final section is devpted to analysing the reverse. The key figure here is Gherardo Starnina, a Tuscan master who, following a period spent in the Crowns of Castile and Aragon, agitated the artistic milieu of early 15th-century Florence with the innovative late Gothic style he had adopted during his time in Valencia. The example of Starnina reveals that the permeability of artistic contexts, observed up to this point in the exhibition from the Hispanic perspective, also affected the Italian world. This offers further proof that artistic circulation in the western Mediterranean generated realities rich in distinctive characteristics and alternatives: “In the Italian manner” becomes “In the Spanish manner”.
Image of the exhibition galleries “In the Italian manner”. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado
The exhibition includes over one hundred works in a range of techniques (painting, sculpture, goldsmithing, illuminated manuscripts, drawings, embroidery, silk textiles, etc.), loaned from 31 Spanish and 25 international institutions. Among them are examples by renowned Italian masters such as Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Gherardo Starnina, Lupo di Francesco, Barnaba da Modena, Andrea di Petruccio and Geri Lapi, as well as prominent Spanish artists such as Ferrer and Arnau Bassa, the Serra brothers, Pedro de Córdoba and Miquel Alcañiz.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book by its curator, Joan Molina Figueras, which presents a detailed study and analysis of the themes addressed and the works on display. Many of them will also be the subject of critical analysis at an international conference to be held at the Museo del Prado from 9 to 11 September.
Restoration
The Museo del Prado has restored thirteen of the works included in the exhibition In the Italian Manner. Spain and the Mediterranean Gothic (1320-1420). Three are paintings in Museum’s own collection and the remainder are in other collections. It should be noted that some of them are ensembles comprising several paintings, such as the Altarpiece of Saint Mark and Saint Anianus from Manresa cathedral and the Polyptych of the Virgin lactans from Córdoba cathedral. Also included among these works are two sculptures from the Sanctuary of Lluc.
Over time, many of these paintings suffered from neglect and lack of conservation and in some cases were even modified to adapt their appearance to changing aesthetic tastes. Preparing the present exhibition has involved significant research and restoration, reinstating the transparency of the colours and the gilding, which were obscured and dulled by previous interventions. The restoration undertaken at the Museum by specialists in sculpture, painting, wood supports and frames has largely succeeded in recovering the original luminosity and technical perfection of the works.
As a result of intense exchanges across the Mediterranean, the Spanish kingdoms were the first areas of the West to be receptive to the artistic expressions of the Italian Trecento. Championed by Giotto, Duccio, Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, among others, these artworks amazed viewers on the Iberian Peninsula with their innovative aesthetic and technical sophistication.
In the hands of Spanish masters, the Italian Trecento language became something of a lingua franca prone to all kinds of versions and adaptations, a starting point for creating refined works that were excitingly original (in aesthetic, iconography and type) and defy conventional artistic categories. Images did not just travel; they were interpreted and became acclimatised, and in the process gave rise to blurred and hybrid identities stemming from the productive convergence of different approaches. This atmosphere of fruitful creativity also saw the emergence of new forms of multi-material painting: the application of gold became a technical strategy that made it possible to mimic the textures of luxury fabrics and, especially, to transform large Spanish altarpieces into scenic devices that generated optical and symbolic experiences.
Far from proposing a one-sided narrative, the exhibition highlights the complexity of these artistic exchanges with a revealing ending: the impact of Spanish Late Gothic culture on Italy. This final twist demonstrates the extent to which the Mediterranean routes erased the traditional boundaries between centre and periphery, replacing them with a world of crossroads and fascinating alternatives.
1. BEFORE THE BLACK DEATH. INFLECTIONS OF ITALIAN ART
The assimilation of the new aesthetic trends that emerged in Italy was stimulated by the most distinguished patrons of Aragonese and Mallorcan society. Beginning in the 1320s, they encouraged the arrival of Italian masters and the importation of
works from the Italian peninsula, but above all they fostered the activity of local
artists familiar with the new artistic language, particularly painters and miniaturists. Joan Loert in the kingdom of Mallorca and Ferrer Bassa and his son Arnau in the
Crown of Aragon were the most prominent artists. Their respective interpretations or reworkings of Italian models gave rise to hybrid designs that were highly original both in their formal features and in their application to new supports – such as altarpieces – and innovative cycles of images. The result is a series of works that have a heavy Italian accent yet are unmistakeably Spanish. This output speaks for itself about the distinctive character of the visual language created by these local masters’ brushes. Although the devastating Black Death claimed the lives of the main architects of this renewal, its seed sprouted.
On a Mediterranean Island: Joan Loert and Collaborators
Located at the intersection of Mediterranean trade routes, the short-lived kingdom of Mallorca (1276–1349) was one of the earliest scenes of hybridisation between local artistic styles and Italian Trecento models. A prominent figure in the 1330s and 1340s was Joan Loert, known as the Master of the Privileges, a painter and miniaturist first documented in Perpignan and later in Palma de Mallorca, where he worked for the court of James III, Bishop Berenguer Batle and institutions of the urban oligarchy. As a painter of altarpieces and illuminator of luxury manuscripts, he relied on the collaboration of other masters. This explains the various hands that are recognisable in his works, despite the evident unity of language.
Ferrer Bassa: Pioneer and Master
Following a more than likely trip to Italy, in Barcelona Ferrer Bassa developed his own personal interpretation of Tuscan painting, particularly Sienese, which he combined with elements of the linear French Gothic tradition and even Byzantine art. From the Italian world he also incorporated religious iconographic themes – particularly from the Gospels – and ideas for developing the new format of the monumental altarpiece. The result is a more complex and innovative artistic language than that proposed by Joan Loert. From the 1330s onwards, it captivated the most refined circles of the Crown of Aragon, from King Peter IV – who gave him numerous commissions – to the members of the wealthiest guilds. Beginning in 1340, Ferrer was aided by his son Arnau. After both artists died during the Black Death epidemic, their visual innovations became an essential reference for the masters of the second half of the 1300s, from his workshop’s successors, such as Ramon Destorrents, to the prolific Serra brothers.
Arnau Bassa and Bassian Mannerism
Arnau Bassa brought a new twist to his father’s pictorial language during the final years the family workshop operated. Drawing on the new Sienese approaches practised in Avignon by Simone Martini and his numerous followers, Arnau developed a sort of formal mannerism that progressed towards more sophisticated and innovative solutions. He accordingly sought three-dimensional effects, while also embracing a greater formal stylisation and, above all, enhancing the multi- material aspect of his paintings through a growing use of gold and goldwork techniques. As demonstrated by the altarpiece of Saint Mark and Saint Anianus, Arnau also built on his father's contributions to the establishment of the monumental type of altarpiece: a large-scale structure with a fixed format, several sections and pilasters and a marked vertical thrust, which foreshadowed the evolution of these scenic constructions in the Gothic art of the Iberian Peninsula over the following centuries.
