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Lot Essay
Professor Didier Martens and Dr. Ana Diéguez-Rodríguez, to whom we are grateful, have identified this Coronation of the Virgin as the work of the so-called Master of Portugalete, a Flemish painter active in the second half of the sixteenth century and associated with the group of altarpiece panels preserved in the Basílica de Santa María de Portugalete (Bilbao, Spain). The artist, whose oeuvre is characterised by a refined synthesis of late Flemish mannerism and the devotional sensibility prevalent in Iberian commissions of the period, is presently the subject of a forthcoming study by Martens and Diéguez-Rodríguez, entitled 'The Master of Portugalete (active in the second half of the 16th century): A Flemish Artist with a Particular Sensitivity toward Marian Themes'.
The present composition closely relates to the Virgin of the Angels in Portugalete, repeating the central figure of the Virgin and Child with notable fidelity while introducing variations in the angels’ physiognomies, gestures and ornamental details. These subtle divergences suggest the participation of the artist’s workshop, yet the work displays a high level of refinement, particularly evident in the delicate modelling of the Virgin’s face and the sumptuous rendering of textiles and wings. The gilded background, enlivened by a celestial hierarchy of cherubim, situates the scene within the long-standing Flemish tradition of luminous, gold-ground Marian imagery, while the emotive harmony and rhythmic symmetry of the angelic assembly attest to the painter’s sensitivity to the devotional tenor of the subject.
Firmly rooted in the Netherlandish pictorial vocabulary of the mid-sixteenth century, the Coronation of the Virgin demonstrates the artist’s assimilation of Antwerp Mannerist formulas tempered by a distinctly Iberian devotional sensibility, a synthesis that defines the artistic identity of the Master of Portugalete and affirms their role as a conduit of Flemish pictorial culture within the Spanish devotional milieu.
The present composition closely relates to the Virgin of the Angels in Portugalete, repeating the central figure of the Virgin and Child with notable fidelity while introducing variations in the angels’ physiognomies, gestures and ornamental details. These subtle divergences suggest the participation of the artist’s workshop, yet the work displays a high level of refinement, particularly evident in the delicate modelling of the Virgin’s face and the sumptuous rendering of textiles and wings. The gilded background, enlivened by a celestial hierarchy of cherubim, situates the scene within the long-standing Flemish tradition of luminous, gold-ground Marian imagery, while the emotive harmony and rhythmic symmetry of the angelic assembly attest to the painter’s sensitivity to the devotional tenor of the subject.
Firmly rooted in the Netherlandish pictorial vocabulary of the mid-sixteenth century, the Coronation of the Virgin demonstrates the artist’s assimilation of Antwerp Mannerist formulas tempered by a distinctly Iberian devotional sensibility, a synthesis that defines the artistic identity of the Master of Portugalete and affirms their role as a conduit of Flemish pictorial culture within the Spanish devotional milieu.