The Death of Saint Bernard
Ca. 1545. Oil on panel.On display elsewhere
On his deathbed, Saint Bernard is visited by the Virgin Mary, who places her right hand on his chest. She is accompanied by Saint Laurence and Saint Benedict. Two Bernadine Monks witness the scene from the background. In 1773, Antonio Ponz mentioned this composition, which he located in the cloister of the monastery of de Santa María la Real de Valdeiglesias (Pelayos de la Presa, Madrid). Another work at that monastery was The Apparition of the Virgin Mary to Saint Bernard (P2832), a larger piece with a semicircular arched top. The present work´s dimensions are practically identical to those of other panels on Christ-related subjects by Correa, which also come from that Cistercian monastery. This saint´s death was rarely depicted, so the monks must have given the painter a text or explicit reference to the meaning of the scene and the figures to be included. There is a clear relation between this work and the Transit of the Virgin, a fresco painted by Juan de Borgoña between 1509 and 1511 at Toledo Cathedral´s chapter hall. In both, the saint´s bed is parallel to the viewer, with the figures of Mary, Saint Laurence and Saint Benedict behind it and two monks in the background as witnesses to the miracle. In front of the bed, close to its headboard, a table bears a pewter plate or salver with two quinces. In Borgoña´s fresco, instead of a salver, the two fruits rest on a book. Both works also have a sort of situla with a swab in the immediate foreground, although the one appearing here, at Saint Bernard´s feet, is very straightforward and poor. The scene takes place indoors, in a noble setting with an arcade that opens onto the garden of a monastery cloister.
Ruiz Gómez, Leticia, 'Juan Correa de Vivar. Muerte de San Bernardo'. en: Juan Correa de Vivar, c. 1510-1566, maestro del Renacimiento español, Toledo, Sociedad Don Quijote de Conmemoraciones culturales de Castilla la Mancha, 2010, p.116-117 n.9
