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
the lamenting Virgin, both kneeling; at the edge, the female figure raising her kerchief is probably Veronica. On the right, embracing the cross, we see Mary Magdalene, attired in an ornate brocaded gown, which, analysed from the perspective of the history of costumes, offers a basis for dating the work. Behind her is a holy woman whose raised kerchief nearly obscures her face, and at the right edge of the painting is another holy woman whose features greatly resemble those of Mary Magdalene. Since she is the only standing figure in the foreground, the effect she produces, due to this positional contrast, is especially monumental. From the foot of the cross, serpentine roads wind toward the background of the picture; on the right, a distinguished couple is passing on horseback, followed by a page. In their vicinity, to the right, we see a young man holding a leafless tree in a field, and a group of soldiers in the distance, departing from the cross. On the left, two horsemen are visible in back view; their diminutive figures, as well as the road, convey the spatial depth with utmost fidelity. On the rocks at the right edge there are trees bending toward the middle distance, where we see a hilly riverside landscape, with trees spreading their leafy boughs in the distance. On the left the landscape continues symmetrically although in less detail in the near distance; under Christ's fluttering loincloth the outlines of Jerusalem are limned in infinitely pale tones. 8 This work had been included by Trens in the 1945 Barcelona exhibition El arte de la Pasión de Nuestro Senor (sighs XIII al XVIII), identified as "Hispano-Flemish, circa 1500". 9 This first publication pinpointed with considerable accuracy the dating of the picture, as well as the area where we must look for its author. In the subsequent decades the painting has been neglected by scholars. 10 Prior to its recent sale, the panel had been restored. In the course of this work, as compared to the painting's state in 1945, significant repainting has been removed, including details that were especially disturbing in the female figure raising a kerchief in front of her face, since her face and hand had been re-worked by a former restorer. 11 On examining the work, the most remarkable aspects are the novel compositional approach, the individual grouping of the figures at the foot of the cross, the hearty narrative impulse revealed by the minute details in the background, and the rich invention of the landscape rendered in perspective. Almost the entire surface of the painting shows evidence of a high level of mastery in its execution. This technical perfection suggests a thorough familiarity with the Netherlandish masters, with the works of Rogier van der Weyden, the van Eycks, as well Dirk Bouts and Memling. The Hispano-Flem8 As shown by infrared reflectograph examination, the master in painting this detail departed from the pointed Gothic tower in the drawing and painted instead a building with a central cupola. 9 Trens, M., El arte de La Pasión de Nuestro Senor (sighs XIII al XVIII). Exhibition catalogue, Barcelona 1945, No. 47, (Photo published) p. 43. It was in the collection of Graells Pinos of Barcelona at the time. 10 The work is not included in Silva Maroto, P., Pintura hispanoflamenca castellana: Burgos y Palencia. 1-3., Valladolid, 1990. " I am grateful to the conservators Zsuzsa Kovács and András Fáy for the technical examination of the painting. The latter has prepared infrared reflectograms and u.V. photographs, from which a detail is here published to illustrate the brilliant technique of the drawing to be found underneath the entire painted surface (fig. 94).
