The Adoration of the Shepherds

Details

Juan Mates (Villafranca del Panadès c. 1370-1431 Barcelona)
The Adoration of the Shepherds
tempera and gold on panel
30 1/8 x 28 5/8 in. (76.5 x 72.7 cm.)

Provenance

Mrs. Dohan, Darling, Pennsylvania.
Miguel Otero Silva and by descent; Christie’s, New York, 27 January 2000, lot 127 ($63,000).

Literature

C.R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting, 1941, VIII, pt. 2, p. 602, fig. 283; 1947, IX, pt. 2, p. 752; 1953, XI, p. 377, as The Master of Peñafiel.
J. Ainaud, 'Tablas inéditas de Joan Mates', Anales y Boletín de los Museos de Arte de Barcelona, VI, June-December 1948, p. 344.
J.A. Gaya Nuño, La pintura española fuera de España, 1958, p. 233, no. 1760.
J. Gudiol and S.A.I. Blanchi, Pintura Gótica Catalana, 1986, p. 90, 352, no. 224, fig. 438.

Exhibited

Caracas, Museo de Bellas Artes, Exposicion Grandes Maestros, 5 November-17 December 1967, no. 1.

Lot Essay

For many years the artist Juan Mates was known by the anonymous sobriquet 'The Master of Peñafiel', whose oeuvre was built around a pair of retables formerly in the ermita at Peñafiel by C.R. Post (op. cit.). It was Juan Ainaud who identified the Master of Peñafiel as Juan Mates (loc. cit.), on the basis of a contract and receipts documenting the commission of his works. He also found the actual record of the installation of the retables and was therefore able to date their execution to 1411-1415. A native of Villafranca del Panadés, Mates was active in Barcelona by 1400.

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