Gift from American Friends: Gothic painting by Borrassà, 1414-1421. Recorded live June 15, 2022
Good morning and welcome again to the prada museum in madrid spain we’re here with our weekly sessions in english live on the museum’s social media programming a few moments before the museum opens and today we have a really special session to present a gift from american friends of the prada museum this wonderful
Impressive gothic painting that was made around the year 1420 for a chapel in the barcelona cathedral is now our fourth work of art contributed to enriching the prados collection and here with me today is the head of the spanish gothic painting department juan molina and we are very happy
To present this amazing painting and the gift of american friends and that it’s been really interesting this project to reinforce the gothic collection and we’re very happy that it’s materialized that it’s here hanging in the museum available for the public from just a few days ago hello thanks two years ago the museum
Decided to promote the collection of gothic paintings we approached this goal with enthusiasm and expertise we are very very grateful to american friends for the donation of this painting by usbor raza it’s a very important acquisition for the collection of spanish painting hopefully this will encourage other appealing acquisitions thank you
So the prados collection the gothic works there’s already a great ensemble of works from the castile area and this work adds an important catalan gothic example which is a very important school for the international gothic it is the central painting of an altarpiece dedicated to the chapel
Of saint martha within the cathedral of barcelona now and the gothic altarpiece it would have been the center um the center panel is a representation of the saints in a very stylized majestic formal manner and it would have been surrounded by smaller paintings with narrating scenes of their lives
We know that this painting was commissioned by a man named guillem despujo and he was actually a pharmacist you know gothic altarpieces were very expensive and normally commissioned by either the nobility or a religious order but here we have a professional who we know how it’s a very successful business
In his pharmacy he um had assistants and apprentices and he when he was given um conceded the chapel of saint martha he combined the image of saint martha with his also personal devotion to the dominicans with who were his confessors with the image of saint dominic and also saint peter martyr
He wanted his altarpiece for this chapel to be made by the most famous artist in barcelona who was juliss borrasa who for decades had been the preferred painter for the important most important clientele of the city and the area therese borassa also created a large workshop to satisfy the demand for his work
And so here with this panel he’s created the three images of the saints in a very majestic format but also within an architectural scene you see their own painted pedestals and painted niches also combined with the gothic architecture and in wood and this would contribute to giving a three-dimensional effect to
The images of the saints and we can recognize them because of their attributes saint martha in the center is holding a holy water font and sprinkler which is nowadays called an aspergillium in english that was interesting to find out that word um so in her medieval legend she
Conquered a dangerous dragon thanks to arresting him by blessing him with holy water and so this is the holy water sprinkler to send out blessings and we have saint dominic who is the spanish founder of the dominicans he is the founder of the order he has
Here a book in this hand which is inside a leather bag to protect a precious book the book could possibly be the norms of the religious order and he is also holding a lily’s ass of lilies to show a symbol of purity then we also have saint peter martyr who
Is a dominican monk who was assassinated in a conflict with heretics and he is raised to sainthood because of this martyrdom and so here we have images of the elements of his assassination with the sword and the head knife also carrying a liturgy book and image of lilies for purity um
All of this is within this freely inspired architecture gothic architecture that is also filled with images of in this case bears or angels other animals and even down here children and this is um this helps to reinforce the whole altarpiece so we are very pleased extremely pleased to contribute this panel
This gothic painting to the prado for everyone for the benefit of the public we encourage everyone to find out about american friends to consider helping us to do more and contribute to either american friends or our sister institution in spain the fundacion amigos and we thank you very much for listening
Today and we hope to see you soon
A gift from American Friends of the Prado Museum, an altarpiece originally from a chapel in the Cathedral of Barcelona – Saint Dominic, Saint Martha and Saint Peter Martyr – ( 1414-1421 ) by Lluís Borrassà, now hangs in the Prado Museum.
This painting represents the fourth work of art from American Friends to enrich the collections at the Museo del Prado.
In this live session, Christina Simmons, from of American Friends, and Joan Molina, Head of the Spanish Gothic Art Department of the Museo del Prado, present the work.
A U.S. non-profit dedicated to supporting the Prado Museum of Spain and the visibility of its art collection in the United States, all of our projects are made possible only by contributor support.
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