Tátrai Vilmos szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 90-91.(Budapest, 1999)

NYERGES, ÉVA: A New Acquisition: The Christ on the Cross by the Master of Los Balbases

A NEW ACQUISITION: THE CHRIST ON THE CROSS BY THE MASTER OF LOS BALBASES Until recently the most significant item in the Budapest Spanish collection has been an Entombment of Christ, the only signed work by Pedro Sanchez, purchased in 1907 by the Szépművészeti Múzeum.

1 This work had once probably belonged to the same altar as the Crucifixion that, according to Valdivieso, had been in the possession of Don Pedro Sandoval in Seville.

2 The Crucifixion had been restored in 1610 by Francisco Pacheco, who also provided a description of it in his work titled A rte de la Pintura? The relatively modest medieval material of the Budapest collection has,

4 since 1997, been enriched by the addition of several significant pieces that constitute a successful augmentation of the assembled Catalonian and Castilian works.

5 After the acquisition of two so-called door 'wing panels' from the Altar of the Virgin by Pedro Garcia de Benabarre, originally from the former parish church of Montanyana, in 1998 the museum has purchased the Christ on the Cross altar panel, which shows close stylistic connections to the Master of Los Balbases (fig. 93).

6 In the spring of 1999 we were able to acquire the altar panel depicting the Apostle St. Philip by the so-called Retascón Master, an important figure of the Aragónián School, which had hitherto not been represented in our collection.

7 On our Crucifixion panel the figures appear divided into two groups, one on each side, at the foot of the cross that rises in the central axis. On the left, St. John embraces 1 Pigler, A., Katalog der Galerie Alter Meister, Budapest 1967, 613-14. 2 The painting was sold most recently at the Caylus Gallery in Madrid. Cf. De la Edad Media al Romanticismo. Caylus 1993-1994, Madrid, pp. 20-23. (The entry was written by E. Valdivieso.) 3 Pacheco, F., Arte de la Pintura, su antigüedad

y grandezas, Sevilla 1649 (ed. B. Passegoda, Madrid 1950, 547). Although Pacheco's description makes no mention of the Budapest Entombment, and gives details only of the iconography of the Crucifixion, the related facial types and the nearly identical dimensions suggest a common origin. 4 For the most recent account of the medieval paintings in Budapest see Nyerges, E., Pintura espanola. Museo de Bellas Artes Budapest, Budapest 1996, pp. 20-39. 5 Nyerges, É., Nouvelles acquisitions: deux panneaux de Pedro Garcia dc Benabarre, BullMusHongrBA 88-89(1998)135-138. 6 Inv. No. 98.4, oil on panel, 151 x 104 cm. Pilar Silva Maroto has dealt with the work at some length earlier, and attributed it to the so-called Maestro de Los Balbases. 7 This altar panel, surviving in excellent condition, was first published by Post, Ch. R., A History of Spanish Painting, Cambridge (Mass.) 13, 1966, 317-319, fig. 127. Purchase, Madrid, Caylus. See «Très siglos de pintura», Caylus, 1995, Madrid, 22-25. The entry was written by X. Company i Climent and L. H. Guandiola. We shall soon report on the results of a more thorough examination of the work.