THE MASTER OF THE ALTARPIECE OF THE TWO SAINT JOHNS (active in Palencia in the first half of the 16th century) “The Last Supper” “Christ before Pilate” “The Flagellation of Christ” Three oils on panel 51 x 64 cm, 51.5 x 64 cm and 53.5 x 64.5 cm, respectively Provenance: Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York. Sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries. New York, 28 March 1956, lot 119, as German School, circa 1500. Sale, Christie’s New York, 16 January 1992, as German School, 16th century Literature: Various Authors, De la Edad Media al Romanticismo. Galería Caylus, Madrid, 1993, pp. 40- 43. (Isabel Mateo Gómez). Fiz, Irune, “A propósito del Maestro de los Santos Juanes”, in Archivo Español de Arte, no. 295. LXXIV. 2001. Exhibitions: Salamanca, Del Gótico al Neoclásico, Caja de Ahorros de Salamanca y Soria, San Eloy Gallery, 1995, pp. 32-39. The Altarpiece of the two Saint Johns, which was to be found in Italy in the early 20th century, comprises eight central panels on these two saints and a predella with episodes from the Life of Christ. The present three panels made up the predella or lower section, from which this artist takes his name. One of the panels, now in the collection of the Banca Toscana in Florence, depicting Three Benedictine Monks adoring the Head of Saint John the Baptist, suggests that the altarpiece may have been painted for a monastery of the Benedictine Order in Tierra de Campos, where this artist worked. Stylistically, this artist is most similar to the work of the painter who must have been his master, Juan de Flandes. The interest in landscape of a type reminiscent of Perugino and the Renaissance style architectural elements recall the Master of Astorga, who according to Irune Fiz may have collaborated with this painter in the creation of the altarpiece for the parish church of San Facundo y San Primitivo in Cisneros (Palencia). For that commission, the Master of the two Saint Johns painted the panels of The Presentation in the Temple and The Adoration of the Magi (Archivo Español de Arte, no. 295, 2001). Among the characteristics of this artist’s oeuvre is his interest in painting male headwear and elegant clothing in the fashion of the period. Together with some of the figures’ poses and the shot colours of an incipient Mannerism, this allows us to date the present panels from the Altarpiece of the two Saint Johns to around 1540.

Another panel from the same altarpiece which is notable for its unusual iconography is Julian the Apostate burning the Bones of Saint John the Baptist, a subject that has no known precedents in Spanish Renaissance painting and is more commonly found in northern art (fig. 1). This artist must have based himself on prints by Dürer for some of his compositions, from whom he could have derived that subject.

 

Fig.1