Our Lady of Grace and the Grand Masters of the Montesa Order
Ca. 1412. Tempera on panel.Room A
Following the iconography of the Virgin of Mercy, Mary’s outstretched cloak affords protection to the Grand Masters and Knights of the Order of Montesa, who - accompanied by Saint Bernard and Saint Benedict - pray for their eternal salvation. This was the central panel of an altarpiece, now in the Archbishop’s Palace in Valencia, intended for the knights’ pantheon at the castle-convent of Montesa. Noteworthy features include the sensitive use of colour, the delicate draughtsmanship and, especially, the Virgin’s sumptuous dress. In white satin, similar to those produced in Lucca, is decorated with motifs picked out in gild threads - phoenixes, plumes, leopards and pseudoKufic inscriptions- resembling those adorning ancient Chinese silk fabrics.
This Valencian Gothic masterpiece was restored using a combination of innovation and traditional techniques. In the course of its long history, the original painting had been radically transformed, due to a series of interventions of great-ly-varying facture and quality: faces and costumes had been concealed or disfigured by extensive overpainting, while the original gilt background had been entirely replaced by a new one featuring numerous incised rays; the Madonna was also given a rather ostentatious crown. Removal of this retouching revealed the artist´s technique and use of colour, which - hidden beneath - remained in an excellent state of repair. The original backgrounds of the altarpiece from which this painting was taken - now in Valencia - were scanned using 3D technology; the relief was subsequently copied in a fine layer onto the non-original gilt background. The forms, profiles and textures of the relief work of the altarpiece were also reproduced using the same techniques, in order to create a new frame; the first in the collection to be made using this technology.
