Miracles of the Doctor Saints Cosmas and Damian
Ca. 1510. Oil on panel.Room 051A
Rincón worked in Aragon but primarily in Castile where he contributed to introducing the Renaissance style. This large-format panel from Guadalajara combines a Renaissance spatial approach and forms with medieval elements such as the profusion of elaborate brocade fabrics. The panel depicts two of the miracles of Cosmas and Damian, twins who promoted both medicine and Christianity. Through a miraculous dream, the doctor saints transplant the leg of a deceased Ethiopian to a white sacristan. The pejorative view of the African is reflected in the position of the corpse at the foot of the painting, and especially in the subsequent insertion of the gangrenous amputated leg in the lifeless remains. The second miracle shown is the expulsion of a snake from the mouth of a reaper. Rincón here proposes a kind of fusion between Renaissance elements (the busts on the architectural gallery) and mediaeval formulae (rich brocades).