In the Italian Manner. Spain and the Mediterranean Gothic, 1320-1420

The assimilation of the new aesthetic trends that emerged in Italy was stimulated by the most distinguished patrons of Aragonese and Mallorcan society. Beginning in the 1320s, they encouraged the arrival of Italian masters and the importation of works from the Italian peninsula, but above all they fostered the activity of local artists familiar with the new artistic language, particularly painters and miniaturists. Joan Loert in the kingdom of Mallorca and Ferrer Bassa and his son Arnau in the Crown of Aragon were the most prominent artists. Their respective interpretations or reworkings of Italian models gave rise to hybrid designs that were highly original both in their formal features and in their application to new supports – such as altarpieces – and innovative cycles of images. The result is a series of works that have a heavy Italian accent yet are unmistakeably Spanish. This output speaks for itself about the distinctive character of the visual language created by these local masters’ brushes. Although the devastating Black Death claimed the lives of the main architects of this renewal, its seed sprouted.

On a Mediterranean Island: Joan Loert and Collaborators

Located at the intersection of Mediterranean trade routes, the short-lived kingdom of Mallorca (1276–1349) was one of the earliest scenes of hybridisation between local artistic styles and Italian Trecento models. A prominent figure in the 1330s and 1340s was Joan Loert, known as the Master of the Privileges, a painter and miniaturist first documented in Perpignan and later in Palma de Mallorca, where he worked for the court of James III, Bishop Berenguer Batle and institutions of the urban oligarchy. As a painter of altarpieces and illuminator of luxury manuscripts, he relied on the collaboration of other masters. This explains the various hands that are recognisable in his works, despite the evident unity of language.

Ferrer Bassa: Pioneer and Master

Following a more than likely trip to Italy, in Barcelona Ferrer Bassa developed his own personal interpretation of Tuscan painting, particularly Sienese, which he combined with elements of the linear French Gothic tradition and even Byzantine art. From the Italian world he also incorporated religious iconographic themes – particularly from the Gospels – and ideas for developing the new format of the monumental altarpiece. The result is a more complex and innovative artistic language than that proposed by Joan Loert. From the 1330s onwards, it captivated the most refined circles of the Crown of Aragon, from King Peter IV – who gave him numerous commissions – to the members of the wealthiest guilds. Beginning in 1340, Ferrer was aided by his son Arnau. After both artists died during the Black Death epidemic, their visual innovations became an essential reference for the masters of the second half of the 1300s, from his workshop’s successors, such as Ramon Destorrents, to the prolific Serra brothers.

Arnau Bassa and Bassian Mannerism

Arnau Bassa brought a new twist to his father’s pictorial language during the final years the family workshop operated. Drawing on the new Sienese approaches practised in Avignon by Simone Martini and his numerous followers, Arnau developed a sort of formal mannerism that progressed towards more sophisticated and innovative solutions. He accordingly sought three-dimensional effects, while also embracing a greater formal stylisation and, above all, enhancing the multi-material aspect of his paintings through a growing use of gold and goldwork techniques. As demonstrated by the altarpiece of Saint Mark and Saint Anianus, Arnau also built on his father's contributions to the establishment of the monumental type of altarpiece: a large-scale structure with a fixed format, several sections and pilasters and a marked vertical thrust, which foreshadowed the evolution of these scenic constructions in the Gothic art of the Iberian Peninsula over the following centuries.

Geography is a determining factor: the sea erases borders and is conducive to cultural exchanges. Notable among the Mediterranean hubs that fostered artistic relations in the early 1300s was Avignon, the papal capital between 1307 and 1403. Reached by sailing up the Rhône, it was a cosmopolitan city that welcomed Italian painters and goldsmiths, particularly Sienese, headed by Simone Martini and his circle. Some of them arrived in the Crown of Aragon, where they influenced the careers of masters such as Arnau Bassa and helped shape the artistic landscape of the mid-1300s. In addition, works produced in Avignon were acquired by Spanish clergymen: at the papal court, such as Benedict XIII or Cardinal Gil Álvarez de Albornoz. And merchants from the western Mediterranean satisfied the aesthetic and devotional concerns of the elites of the Iberian Peninsula with innovative and sophisticated Italian works. This occurred in Castile, where this trade coincided, perhaps not by chance, with Henry II Trastámara’s accession to the throne: dynastic change went hand in hand with a shift in artistic taste.

The Neo-Byzantine Aesthetic of Barnaba da Modena

Beginning in around 1360, Barnaba da Modena ran a workshop in Genoa that achieved great success by blending Neo-Byzantine formulas with the precepts of fourteenth-century Bolognese and Sienese naturalism. Merchants plying the western Mediterranean transported some of his works – which he proudly signed – to places far beyond the Ligurian city. The three on display here found their way to Murcia. Two were acquired by Queen Juana Manuel, wife of Henry II of Castile: the Dossal of the Virgin nursing the Child (which shows her and her father kneeling before the Virgin) and the side panels of a triptych (in one of which she is depicted beside her cousin). The third, the Polyptych of Saint Lucy, may have been commissioned by Fernando Oller, a member of the Murcian oligarchy, who is portrayed with his wife in the Crucifixion scene. The paintings reflect devotional concerns and a desire for self-representation and prestige. However, Barnaba's attractive and exotic works were most likely chosen as visual statements by members of the elite who supported the new Trastámara dynasty and wished to distinguish themselves from traditional tastes.

The assimilation of Italian models also involved incorporating themes originating from Italy, albeit translated and adapted to the reality of the Spanish kingdoms. Monarchs and their courts were particularly active in this regard. They reworked highly symbolic images, such as the Veronica of the Virgin (based on Roman models) or the Virgin of Humility (derived from prototypes developed by Simone Martini in Avignon). In their hands, expressions of piety and culture became displays of power and prestige. Similarly creative iconography is found in certain distinguished convents – Santa Clara in Palma de Mallorca, Santa Maria in Pedralbes (Barcelona) and the Santo Sepulcro in Zaragoza – where the nuns’ way of life was closer to courtly customs than to the rule they had professed. They were refined and permeable spaces, ideal settings for the development of original images and cycles linked to the new forms of mendicant spirituality, as well as of privately commissioned works that reflect the devotions and expectations of their prominent patrons.

The King’s Veronica

Collecting sacred objects was a common practice among medieval monarchs as an expression of their Christian devotion and a means of enhancing their prestige. Notable among the items in the treasure trove of relics assembled by Martin I of Aragon in the chapel of his royal palace in Barcelona is the Veronica of the Virgin, considered an acheiropoietic image (not made by human hands). It is based on the prototype of the Roman Marian icons of the Maria Advocata, a series of Virgins attributed to Saint Luke, though the royally owned image is a close-up of the Virgin’s face, ending at her shoulders. The Veronica of the Virgin achieved great fame and began to be copied soon after 1400. These copies were based primarily on two iconographic prototypes: one very faithful to the original; the other, a freer version. Nowhere in the late medieval West did true images of the Virgin enjoy such success as in the Crown of Aragon.

In the Convent

Themes linked to Franciscan spirituality were subject to particular interpretations in convents inhabited by noblewomen. The cloistered convent of Santa Clara in Palma is a case in point, as it boasts one of the most fascinating collections of early 14th-century paintings, three of which are displayed here: a Dossal of the Passion, probably the work of a Genoese painter with echoes of Byzantine culture (as seen in the scene of the mockery of Christ, featuring musicians playing various instruments); a small panel with an unusual Crucifixion, from the Adriatic region; and a majestic image of Saint Clare by a Mallorcan artist influenced by Pisan-Sienese models. These three works, which are original in iconography, format and aesthetic, illustrate the hybrid approaches characteristic of the art produced in Mallorca, a crossroads of Mediterranean paths and routes. The selection also includes a refined portable altar. A courtly tribute to Franciscan religiosity, it is the result of exchanges between the Balearic Islands and Naples.

Devices for Telling Stories

Building on the Italian-inspired formulas employed by the Bassas, the Serra brothers developed a distinctive pictorial variant in Barcelona. Based on formal elegance – both in the figures and in the decoration of the gilded backgrounds – and on experimentation with iconographic models, it dominated the art scene of the Crown of Aragon throughout the second half of the 1300s. Jaume and Pere progressed towards an aesthetic centred on the combination of colour and gold, of pigment and gilding, which elevated Marian and hagiographic themes to new forms of multisensory perception. Although they employed various formats – some highly innovative, such as the self-contained horizontal panel or bancal – their primary means of expression were altarpieces, to whose typological and monumental development they contributed decisively. With the Serras, altarpieces became ideal supports for structuring narratives, establishing a hierarchy of figures and proposing devotional itineraries. They were scenic storytelling devices.

This survey ends with an unexpected twist that illustrates how the vagaries of cultural exchanges refute any a priori assumptions or categories established by traditional historical narratives. Although the exhibition’s argument has so far been centred on the profound influence Italian Trecento models enjoyed in the Spanish kingdoms, this final section examines the situation in reverse. It focuses on Gherardo Starnina, a Tuscan master who, after living in the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon between 1393 and 1402, revolutionised the art scene in early 15th-century Florence with the innovative Late Gothic language adopted during his stay in Valencia. His return journey reveals the extent to which certain artists’ adventures in other parts of the western Mediterranean and the works they left behind gave rise to plural and hybrid realities that are difficult to categorise but essential to understanding the evolution of art forms. It arguably demonstrates how In the Italian manner can end up becoming In the Spanish manner.

Italians in Toledo Cathedral

In the final decade of the 1300s Toledo cathedral became one of the centres of Italianate art outside Italy thanks to Bishop Pedro Tenorio, who commissioned two projects closely linked to Florentine Trecento painting: the great high altarpiece (c. 1388–94) and the chapel of Saint Blaise (c. 1399–1404). Although the altarpiece was replaced by the current one and all that remains of it are a few heavily retouched panels depicting Christological scenes and three figures of apostles, there is every indication that it was the work of Gherardo Starnina. The frescoes decorating the chapel of Saint Blaise are still preserved, but badly deteriorated. Another as yet anonymous Tuscan master was involved in their creation, together with a varied group of painters who, influenced by his style, applied the visual models used in the Toledo chapel to a few works on panel and canvas. Four examples are shown here.

Valencia 1400. The Prodigious Decades

Around 1394 Gherardo Starnina moved to Valencia, one of the most dynamic ports in the western Mediterranean and home to one of the most cosmopolitan artistic communities of the European International Gothic. It was made up of masters from other parts of the Iberian Peninsula, mainly elsewhere in the Crown of Aragon, as well as from all over the continent, from Flanders to Italy. The Valencian art scene from 1390 to 1410 was a dazzling and diverse visual laboratory, a creative melting pot where various aesthetic trends coexisted and blended with each other. As the works in this section demonstrate, there was a preference for whimsical curvilinear forms and intense colours, as well as for gold backgrounds and luxurious fabrics reproduced using a variety of materials. Most commissions, particularly altarpieces, were undertaken by several artists – often from varied backgrounds – working in partnership, a system which fostered artistic exchange.

Gherardo Starnina’s Conversion to Valencian Late Gothic

The International Gothic traits adopted by Pere Nicolau and Marçal de Sas steered Starnina’s Florentine visual culture towards an approach defined by the coexistence and blending of the two models then in vogue. Formulas based on volume and space – learned as part of his training in Agnolo Gaddi’s workshop and consolidated in the high altarpiece of Toledo cathedral – were accordingly adapted five years later to the decorative exuberance of golden surfaces, saturated colours and flowing lines. After leaving Toledo and coming into contact with the dynamic artistic milieu of late 14th-century Valencia, Starnina evolved into a more complex and hybrid painter who defies the strict categories established by art historical studies. The presence of drawings by both Starnina and Marçal in the Valencian sketchbook now in the Uffizi confirms this fascinating convergence.

The Return of a Gentle and Courteous Painter

The Gherardo Starnina who returned to Florence in 1402 was a master who, rather than eschewing outright the spatial sense and solidity of form characteristic of his Tuscan culture, succeeded in blending them with a fluid and rebellious line, a kaleidoscopic use of colour, and a profusion of fantasy in his handling of the gilded areas. Giorgio Vasari described this transformation in the 16th century, noting that when he left Italy, he was ‘exceedingly harsh and rude’ and that in Spain ‘he learned to be gentle and courteous’. What is beyond doubt is that when he returned to Tuscany his sophisticated Late Gothic language was something of a provocation in early 15th-century Florence, which was still dominated by conservative trends stemming from the post-Giottesque tradition.  Together with Lorenzo Ghiberti, Starnina spearheaded the introduction of International Gothic to Florence, a style that attracted a legion of followers, most notably Lorenzo Monaco and Fra Angelico. It is fair to say that it all began with Starnina.