31Alberto VelascoAlejo Fernández (doc. 1496-1545)

Jesus on the Way to CalvarySeville, around 1510-1520

Oil painting on oak wood109.7 x 91.2 cm

Provenance / France, private collection.

Literature / Nicholas Herman, “Alejo Fernández (c. 1475-1545). The Arrest of Christ”, in Susie Nash (ed.), Late Medieval Panel Paintings II.

Materials, Methods, Meanings, London, Sam Fogg, 2015, p. 117, fig. 20 (illustrated).

Medieval and Renaissance Spain Paintings and sculpture from 1200 to 1550, London, Sam Fogg, 2017, p. 94, fig. 1 (illustrated) (catalog entry by

Nicholas Herman).

32 33SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

DescriptionThe painting shows one of the episodes from the Passion, the one in which

Jesus walks towards the Golgotha in order to be crucified. Christ is in the

center, carrying the cross, which rests over his left shoulder and which he

holds by the transom with both hands. His face is right in the center of the

picture plane, at the exact point where also the arms of the cross crisscross,

thus the audience must focus attention there. The weight of the wood

makes him bend his body. The effort can be seen in his face, which, even

though it looks calm, it suggests an evident fatigue. Jesus goes barefoot

and wears a blue tunic with golden borders in sleeves, neck and lower part.

He carries the crown of thorns in his head and blood goes down through

his face and neck. The halo has been done with gold foil and has been

outlined in black, while in the interior some curt rays appear that were

made with a sharp tool, as the ones of the rest of the characters.

Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the weight of the cross, as the Gospels

of Mark, Matthew, and Luke tell. He wears a simple red wine colored coat

with white light tones, which are very dramatic and play with chromatic

degradation. His figure acts as a counterbalance to the presence of the

Jews that martyr and hinder the Son of God’s walk. One of them holds a

rope with a loop that he has put around Jesus’ neck and that he is ready

to tighten. Another Jew is hidden by the cross and raises his right arm

to punish Jesus with a rope he uses as a whip; while a third Jew, also half

hidden, appears behind Christ, at the other side of the cross.

Before the pace of the pathetic procession, a woman wearing an ethereal

white mantle and a grayish tunic prostrates before Jesus and shows him

a veil. She is Veronica, the woman that cleaned Christ’s face with a piece

of cloth on his way to the Golgotha. Her head is masterfully depicted

under one of the Jews’ sleeve, and her clothing becomes a powerful spot

of color that focuses the audience attention. To the left of the piece, right

in front of Simon of Cyrene and on the other side of the cross, a group

of characters consisting of the Maries and John the Evangelist appears, all

of them with golden halos. The Mother looks at her Son in an apparently

impassive and restrained way, while John, with both hands together as a

sign of prayer and with fingers crossed, looks at Mary.

On the right, the terrible retinue towards mount Golgotha continues;

there, Christ and the two thieves will receive punishment and death.

The thieves were Dimas and Gestas, and in this painting they appear

backwards, guarded by different Roman centurions. Their bodies are

naked and one of them is handcuffed with a rope that one of the soldiers

is holding. In a meandering way, the procession climbs to the fatal place.

It is mainly composed of centurions that are not dressed as such, but as

anachronistic soldiers of the early 16th century. Some of them walk and

others ride horses, some have lances and others pikes, but all of them

carry golden armors made of gold leaf. The character that concludes the

dramatic procession must be excluded, a man with thick black hair that

blows a horn. In the upper part of the mount, two men dig and prepare

the crosses for the prisoners.

The action takes place in a natural environment where greenish and

brownish tones prevail, with flat large surfaces among which few

vegetable elements, as foreground herbs and bushes, protrude. This

favors the characters because they gain presence and can be seen in a

clear way. In an apparent strange way – we will then see that it is not

so –, the painter depicted a big mound in the ax of the composition, a

geographical feature that blocks the vision of a dilapidated building that

appears in the background. In turn, behind it he placed a second mount

crowned with a simple house and some trees that hides the background

landscape, represented in a bluish gradation. Finally, to the left, in front

of a river, a pink walled building can be seen; it stands out for its classical

configuration drawn from a big tower and a porch with rounded arches.

IconographyThe Way to Calvary is one of the usual episodes in the cycles dedicated

to the Passion, and one of the most explicit as regards the suffering that

the Son of God was subjected to. The story is told in the four Gospels

(Matthew 27: 31-33, Mark 15: 20-22, Luke 23: 26-32, and John 19:

16-18), even though from the 13th century large Christocentric sources

introduced many details and anecdotes related to the episode that were

not in the canonical Gospels. All of these stories narrate different incidents

that happened to Jesus outside Jerusalem during his journey – Via Dolorosa

– to the Golgotha, where he was going to be crucified. Therefore, it is one

of the last scenes from the Passion of Jesus and it precedes the Crucifixion.

This is shown in our panel painting through the arrangements that are

taking place in the mount located to the right of the audience, where we

can see that the installation of the crosses is coming to an end.

The aim of these extremely dramatic scenes was to affect the faithful

that prays before them. This is pointed out by Jesus bleeding face, or the

cruelty and violence he was treated with, since he was tied up through

the neck and dragged like an animal.1 Torturers’ violence and brutality

is manifested in the psalms and Gospel texts, and it is a topic with

many late Christocentric texts that came to identify tormentors with

animals. In the particular case where Christ is shown bearing the cross,

surrounded by angry Jews, psalm 21 says that “circundederunt me canes

multi” (I was surrounded by many dogs) (Psalms 21: 17) that prevent

Mary from approaching his Son.2

This is exactly what is represented in the panel we are studying, following

a well-known model in Europe. Besides, the painter has depicted the

screams, the ferocity and expressivity of the Jews, which contrast with

the peacefulness of the beatific faces of those who accompany Jesus.3

That confrontation can also be appreciated in the color scheme of the

landscape, where we can see that the pink building on the background,

the blue setting and the green tone of the mounts contrasts with the

brownish tone, the poor vegetation and the dry appearance of the

road that guides Jesus to his death.4 The grim tone of the road is only

interrupted by the white and immaculate presence of Veronica, who still

does not show in her veil the printed image of Christ’s Vera Facies, thus

inviting the audiences to complete the manifestation of the miracle with

their imagination.5

The presence of the Jews incorporates different iconographic issues that

are interesting to comment. Some of them wear clothes that reinforce

their negative character. Thus, the one who has put the rope around

Christ’s neck is wearing a sort of shirt in red and blue tones that give

way to a fantastic iridescent, a detail that is repeated in the biretta and

that exhibits the painter’s great domain in the application of glazing.

The garment, which reveals part of the character’s chest through a large

neckline, does not cover his arms because it is short sleeved. Narrowing

his waistline is a black belt where he carries a hammer that let us identify

the character with one of those that would nail Christ to the cross. Half-

nakedness can also be seen in his legs, since we can see that he is wearing

breeches rolled up to his knees, and in the footwear, as he is wearing a

lightweight sandal that completely exposes his left foot and a kind of boot

that covers his right one, even though toes are shown. The half-naked

body of the character reminds us the image of the fool, the one who

does not recognize the word of the Gospels and who denies the divine

nature of the Son of God.6 This is also reinforced with the presence of

two different types of footwear. Another peculiar detail is the kind of

band aid that he has in his left leg, under the knee, which strengthens the

character’s absurdity with an almost imperceptible detail.

The same ridiculousness appears in the characterization of the second

Jew; a character with a grotesque face that tries to whip Jesus with

a rope he uses as a lash. As in the previous case, we can see part of

his legs, and he is wearing a shirt with the same large neckline that

reveals part of his chest. It is yellow, which is not a trivial detail since

in the Middle Ages this color was frequently associated with Jews.7 Its

negativity is reinforced with its ragged nature because it is torn in the

chest and in the neck, besides it has a delicate mend also in the neck.

These are almost imperceptible features that again show the great eye

for details that the painting has as well as the technical outstanding

the painter performed in its materialization. As regards the Jew who is

behind Christ, at the other side of the cross, he has a color combination

of green breeches and orange shirt, which present him as a negative

character. On his hand he has a stick with which he seems to be ready

to whip Jesus’ legs, in addition to pliers that he carries in his belt, which

identify him as another one of the executioners that will nail Christ to

the cross. His outrageously shaped hat, and the one that wears the Jew

that is holding Christ by the neck, represents folly and barbarism of the

ones who wear them.

34 35SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

Composition and modelsComposition certifies that the painter knew the models widespread in

the prints field. On the first place, the influence of engravers such as

Schongauer and Dürer can be seen.8 The most evident borrowing can be

found in the couple of characters integrated by the Virgin and John the

Evangelist who, due to their position, gesture and posturing seem to have

been copied from the woodcut that Dürer stamped in 1509. On the other

hand, the character that is holding Christ by his neck reminds us the ones

present in different Dürer’s prints, specifically a woodcut from 1498-1499

and an engraving from 1512.9 Besides, in the same print there is a soldier

shouting to the right of Christ, a character that clearly resembles the

executioner that screams in the same position in our painting, although it is

not the case of a centurion. This kind of character, also located near Christ

and who is distinguished by his scream, can be found in Schongauer’s

previous compositions, such as an engraving from around 1475-1480.10

In that work from the master of Colmar, to the right of Christ is a Jew

flipping a rope in the air, which is exactly the same action the shouting

character of our painting is performing. Nevertheless, even a closer case

can be found in a print from Hans Schaüfelein, a German master who

was Dürer’s disciple and was active in the beginnings of the 16th century,

where we can see a very similar character to the one in the panel we are

analyzing: located in the same place, he raises his right arm holding a rope

and he is strongly shouting.11 Therefore, it stands out that the painter

knew these models from the Germanic world and that adapted them in a

versatile and creative way. Another engraving our author seems to know,

most probably through intermediate models, is a drypoint of the Master

of the Amsterdam Cabinet, who was active in South Germany around

1475-1490,12 where we can see that the two characters to the right, that is,

the Jew who is in front of Jesus and the backwards soldier, are in a similar

position to the ones in the painting that concerns us.

The strong Germanic ascendant of the painter of Jesus on the Way to Calvary

can also be noticed in the undeniable coincidences with a panel painting

kept in the Musée du Louvre (inv. MNR 444) related to the circle of the

Master of Delft (Fig. 1), a Germanic painter who was active around 1480-

1520.13 In our opinion, both pieces originate from a common model. The

organization of the scene is similar in both cases and details that strongly

capture our attention are repeated: the position of Christ and Simon of

Cyrene, the type of cross, the soldier to the right with a lance over his

shoulder, the military procession that ascends to the Golgotha, where

we can also see horses and soldiers on the mount, the blue landscape on

the background, the architecture on the left side, and, finally, the same

way of treating the natural environment with brown and green tones,

including, moreover, the central mounds that complete the painting.

Fig. 1 / Circle of the

Master of Delft, Jesus

on the Way to Calvary,

Paris, Musée du Louvre.

Fig. 2 / Anonymous

Master, Jesus on

the Way to Calvary,

Monastery of Salem

(Germany).

36 37SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

The attribution: technical issuesAs regards the attribution of the panel, its style must be undoubtedly

related to Alejo Fernández. This has been recently certified by Nicholas

Herman, who made the panel painting known – it was unpublished until

that moment – when he was studying a compartment of an altarpiece with

the representation of The Betrayal of Christ (Fig. 3), which, because of its

style, characteristics and dimensions, was part of the same retable that our

Jesus on the Way to Calvary. That author had access to an old photograph of

the panel painting and he presented it as a piece with unknown location.20

Fortunately, the piece has come to light again and we can study it today.

Besides the style and the dimensions (109.5 x 92 cm, The Betrayal of

Christ) the fact that both panel paintings belong to the same retable is

certified by the trace of the missing polylobed carpentry that remains in

the upper part of the Way to Calvary, with four arches separated by a kind

of little brackets. The two in the extremes are reduced archs, a feature

that is repeated in both compartments. The coincidences can be traced in

many other aspects. We see the same treatment of the scarce foreground

vegetation; the armors of the soldiers are similar, in their parts as well as in

the use of gilding; and the configuration of the halos, outlined in black, is

equally analogous. The bluish tones of Christ’s robe, which in both cases

has golden borders in neck, sleeves and lower part, are also repeated. The

color green with light reflections of Peter’s robe in The Betrayal of Christ

reappears in the breeches of one of the Jews in Jesus on the Way to Calvary.

Even the kind of corded sandal that the Jew holding Christ by the neck

wears is the same we see in the Jew who is flipping the rope in the air in

the scene of the arrest.21

Moreover, the technical study of Jesus on the Way to Calvary has certified

this joint origin.22 Both compartments were built with four boards of

Baltic oak, which were assembled with the same lace system. Our panel

was slightly lowered in the back part in order to apply the engatillado

(cradling) that presents nowadays. On the other hand, The Betrayal of

Christ still has part of the preparation with gesso and hemp fibers over

which two crossbars were recently added. Although the lowering of our

panel, the width of the boards is equal to the ones of The Betrayal of

Christ, that is to say, 2.8 cm (aprox.). In both cases, recent repainting

on the black reserve of the missing gilded carpentry has been detected.

Regarding the underlying drawing, in both compartments the use of

carbonated ink coincides. As we can observe in infrared reflectography,

the drawing is vigorous and shows the special features of Alejo Fernández,

with few pentimenti. One of those regrets affects the same element in

both panels. We are referring to the cords that some of the Jews hold,

which were previously drawn longer than the ones the painter finally

executed in the pictorial phase.

Another aspect that the corresponding technical studies have highlighted

is that both compartments suffered some deterioration caused by the

proximity of candles, as can be seen in some areas of the pictorial surface.

In turn, this shows that they were part of a predella of the retable. Oil

paint was the binding agent used for the pigments. In both cases, Christ’s

tunic shows a bluish tone that allows seeing the use of azurite mixed

with white lead, maybe with the addition of ultramarine blue on a top

layer. In the dark parts of the tunic, residues from a red glazing used to

reinforce those shadows were documented in both cases. There is also a

significant coincidence in the application of glazing over some elements

of the soldiers’ armors, or the use of black pigment to reinforce the cords

of belts and other accessories. The coat of mail was made with little black

lines that were applied over the gold leaf. In both panels, we can also see

the same way of making the golden halos, which are with incised rays

following Northern models. Christ has a Cruciferous halo that shows in

both compartments an equal treatment of the red color to make the arms

of the cross.

Fig. 3 / Alejo

Fernández, The

Betrayal of Christ,

London, Sam Fogg.

All of these parallels between an active painter in Castile at the beginnings

of the 15th century and another one more or less contemporary that works

in the area of Delft (Netherlands) are surprising if they are not adequately

contextualized, which is what we will do further on.

To this we should add other parallels that reinforce what was mentioned.

In the first place, we cite a panel painting with the same topic of the

Rhenish Derick Baegert from around 1480-1490 (Münster, Westfälisches

Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte),14 where we see the

soldier with a lance over his shoulder reappearing on the right, pointing to

the interior of the composition, as in the painting we are analyzing and in

the already mentioned panel of the Master of Delft kept in the Musée du

Louvre. An engraving of around 1505-1508 of the also mentioned Hans

Schaüfelein shows a soldier of similar characterization, what illustrates us

about his widespread distribution in the Germanic environment.15

On the other hand, the composition of our painting resembles in many

points the one shown in a painting of Wolfgang Katzheimer the Elder in

the Stifsmuseum of Sankt Florian (Austria),16 and also one of the panels of

the Rothenburg Passion in the Reichsstadtmuseum (1494),17 where we see a

similar distribution and characterization of Simon of Cyrene, Mary, John

the Evangelist or the Jew who grabs Jesus through his chest. We should also

mention a panel painting in the Monastery of Salem (Fig. 2), near Konstanz

(Germany), which coincides in the attitude and position of Mary and John

the Evangelist and, above all, of the Jews to the right, the one holding

Christ with a rope and the one who carries a mace on the shoulder in the

painting of Salem. Due to his location in front of the cross and in profile,

the last one must also be related to the character that is blowing a horn

in our panel painting.18 This iconographic detail reappears in a Way to

Calvary attributed to the workshop of the Master of Crailsheim Altar kept

in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of Nuremberg, of around 1490-

1500. The topic has a long tradition in the Germanic world and is seen

in some of the works of the Master of the Karlsruhe Passion of mid 15th

century, as a compartment of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne

or another one in the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe, where in both

cases the horn is substituted by trumpets.19 All in all, it is interesting to

highlight these important iconographic connections with the Germanic

environment because they will help us establish what we propose further

on about our author.

38 39SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

Alejo Fernández, painterAlejo Fernández is a painter documented in Andalusia between 1496 and

1545, a large period of time that covers from the last breath of the late

gothic to the full consolidation of the Renaissance forms.23 Although

it is believed that he was born towards 1475, the first documentary

sources we have locate him in the Cordova of the nineties, where he

married María, daughter of the painter Pedro Fernández. That might

have been useful for him to have a good work positioning in the artistic

Cordovan setting. It is also possible that he adopted the surname of the

Fernández for professional reasons. As regards documented orders, from

that moment there is only indirect news about the accomplishment of

different retables for the monastery of San Jerónimo de Córdoba, which

are not preserved.24

Around 1508, he moved to Seville with his brother Jorge, sculptor with

whom he frequently collaborated, where they became involved in the

realization of the main retable of the cathedral. It was a project that

received a new impulse under the archbishopric of Diego de Deza and

in which Alejo worked until 1525.25 Even though it was a sculptured

retable, documents corroborate that Alejo played an important role

in its design and materialization. From his arrival to the capital of

Seville, his prestige increased until he became the main painter in

a city where in 1526 worked more than thirty painters.26 Therefore,

Alejo was undoubtedly the most important Sevillian master of the first

third of the 16th century, which led many painters to imitate his style

and his way of working.27 That is the case of Juan de Zamora, author

of two retables for the Colegiata de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción

and the retable of Cala (Huelva), which, together with the Virgin

of Los Remedios of Santa Ana de Triana, show a great ascending of

Alejo’s art.28

In his workshop, which was first settled in the colación (neighborhood)

of San Ildefonso and later in the one of San Pedro, he received orders

not only from the Sevillian surroundings, but also from other places

of the Crown of Castile, like Cuenca or Burgos. From those years

date the documented commands for the Seville Cathedral (portrait

of King Ferdinand, 1508); Monastery of the Cartuja (two retables,

1509); Seville Cathedral (repair of a painting, 1510); Church of

Santa María of Carmona (realization of a custodia, 1510); Seville

Cathedral (miniatures for a book and unspecified job, 1514 and

1520); Santa Clara of Seville (order for a retable in cooperation with

Pedro Fernández de Guadalupe and Antón Sánchez, 1520); Seville

Cathedral (muestras for a retable and rejas (ironwork), 1520); Church

of San Juan and of the Hospital de la Sangre in Jerez de la Frontera

(several retables and polychromed images, 1520 and 1523); San

Juan of Marchena (payments for the realization of a retable, 1520-

1521); unspecified job in Cuenca (1522); Santa María de Manzanilla

(Huelva) (retable, 1525); entrance of Charles V in Seville (1526);

Seville Cathedral (retable for the chapel of Mencía de Salazar,

1527); Monastery of San Pablo of Seville (retable for Constanza de

Guzmán, 1528); church of Santiago in Jerez de la Frontera (retable in

cooperation with other painters, 1543); and, finally, church of San

Pedro in Seville (repair of an image and painting of a retable, 1543

and 1544-1545, respectively).29

As regards well-known or preserved works, the sarga with the Christ

tied to the Column and Donors kept at the Museo de Bellas Artes de

Córdoba (Fig. 4), which has been dated in around 1500,30 the triptych

of the Lord’s Supper of the Basilica of Pilar in Saragossa,31 and The

Flagellation in the Museo Nacional del Prado (Fig. 5) correspond to

the early work of the artist from Cordova.32 From his Seville stage,

four Marian panels are kept at the Seville cathedral and, at first,

were placed on the back of the beam of the main retable. They were

made between 1508 and 1513.33 The retable which is still kept at the

chapel of the Maese Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella is from around

1510-1520 (Fig. 6).34 Sancho de Matienzo (†1521) was from Burgos

and ended up as a Canon at the Seville cathedral. He commissioned

Alejo Fernández to make two retables intended to be placed in the

Franciscan convent in Villasana de Mena (Burgos), dedicated to

the Conception and the Virgin of the Milk, the latter signed by the

painter in its main compartment. They have been dated in around

1517-1521, and perished during the Spanish Civil War.35

Fig. 5 / Alejo Fernández, The

Flagellation, Madrid, Museo

Nacional del Prado.

Fig. 4 / Alejo Fernández,

Christ tied to the Column

and Donors, Cordova,

Museo de Bellas Artes

de Córdoba.

40 41SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

A second Marian panel which is signed is the Madonna of the Rose of the

church of Santa Ana in Seville (circa 1525),36 and not long ago, it was

found out that the panel with the Virgin and Child of the Archbishop’s

Palace in Seville was also an autograph work.37 Alejo Fernández also

signed one Adoration of the Magi, which used to be part of the collection

of the Conde de la Viñaza, and one Saint John the Baptist which has been

in a private collection in Madrid for years.38 An Archangel Saint Gabriel

(86 x 61 cm), which appeared in the market a few years ago, dated in

around 1515-1520, must be part of an Annunciation.39 It must have been

together with a second panel with the Virgin Mary, which is unknown.

However, the general style, the face modeling, the type of halo, and the

gilded decoration of Gabriel’s robe collar are directly linked with a Virgin

and Child with Saint Anne and donors, unpublished and recently auctioned

in Seville, which also presents similar measurements (96 x 62 cm).40 To

that we should add the repetition of the textile canopy of the back side

and the type of cornice that appears next to a Saint Anne and also in the

belvedere behind Gabriel. All these coincidences let us assume that both

panels were part of the same retable.

In collaboration with another painter, around 1526-1527, Alejo Fernández

worked on the retable of the Lamentation over the Dead Christ of the

cathedral of Seville, paid for by Mencía de Salazar.41 A Beheading of Saint

John the Baptist has also been dated in that time – around 1525-1530

–, which appeared in the market in 1997.42 Among his later works –

between 1531 and 1536 – is The Virgin of the Navigators (Fig. 7), central

panel of the altarpiece in the Casa de Contratación (the House of Trade)

in Seville, which is today exhibited in the Alcázar of the city.43

Since the twenties, Alejo’s assistants played a leading role due to the large

number of commissions received at the workshop. This is why retables

such as the one of Écija,44 and even the one of Marchena – a work

documented around 1520-1521, and definitively installed in 1533 –, show

an obvious stylistic dissonance with previous works.45 Something similar

could be said about the so-called Triptych of the Virgin of the Angels of

the Marquesa de Hoyos old collection (Jérez de la Frontera), a fictitious

ensemble of panels which has been recently recovered for his catalog of

Fig. 6 / Alejo Fernández,

retable of the chapel of the

Maese Rodrigo Fernández de

Santaella, Sevilla.

Fig. 7 / Alejo Fernández,

retable of the The Virgin of the

Navigators., Seville, Alcázar.

42 43SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

works, and which has not been attributed clearly by the historiography.46

The same happens with the Crown of Thorns of the Museo de Cádiz, which

would be another example of how difficult it is to distinguish between the

master’s autograph works and those where the workshop’s intervention was

predominant.47

Angulo also published a rich set of works, of private and public

collections, about which he demanded detailed studies to determine

the degree of intervention of the master in them. Among them was the

Annunciation of the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla, one Annunciation

and one Adoration of the Magi – on canvas – being traded in Madrid,48

one Prayer in the Garden and one Flagellation of the Conde de Montseny’s

collection, the aforementioned panels of the Marquesa de Hoyos, the

retable of Marchena, or the Flagellation of the Museo Nacional del Prado

(Fig. 5), the authorship of which is no longer disputed.49

After the publications by Angulo and Post, the painter’s works catalog

has been increased with new attributions, such as the retable of Saint

Martin of Villanueva de la Jara (Cuenca), which may be linked with

the documented trip of the painter to Cuenca in 1522.50 A Doubting

Thomas of the church of Hinojos (Huelva)51 and a Joachim and Anna

Meeting at the Golden Gate of the parish of Espera (Cádiz) have been

attributed to him.52 We should add a Descent from the Cross which was

being traded in London in 194353 and a panel of the same theme, of

good quality and dimensions (188 x 186 cm), which was auctioned in

Sotheby’s in 2010.54 Nonetheless, it is difficult to assert the degree of

participation of Alejo in all of them, but some of them must have been

made at the workshop or even by contemporary painters from Seville

who had been influenced by his style.

In his prolific workshop, the work of which was intensified since 1520, his

son Sebastián Alejo and his slave Juan de Güejar worked together with

the master. He collaborated with other painters, with whom he shared

orders, such as Juan de Mayorga, Pedro Fernández, Antón Sánchez de

Guadalupe or Cristóbal de Cárdenas, his brother-in-law. The fact that

he was a versatile artist is shown by his work being documented as a

manuscript illuminator, and even a miniature of a choir book of the

Cathedral of Seville has been attributed to him (no. 51).55 And also his

work as a painter of religious sculptures – some of which were sent to

Portugal –, which we have documented before.

As regard his personal life, we know he wrote his first will and testament

in 1523, when he was already a widower of María Fernández, a

document where he requires to be buried in the Dominicans monastery

of San Pablo. He freed his slave Juan de Güejar, whom he gave goods

and muestras so that he could carry out his trade, and forced him to

serve in his son’s workshop for four years. This will and testament tells

us that he had three more children: Catalina, Fernando, and Luisa – a

fifth son, Fernando, had died before.56 A document from 1525 tells us

that he had remarried to Catalina de Avilés, the painter Cristóbal de

Cárdenas’s sister-in-law, who was his friend and executor.

He made a second will and testament in 1542, which states that

his son Sebastián Alejo and his old servant Juan had died. This

document is interesting because it offers a relation of several orders

he had started right when his first wife had died (before 1523),

including the beam of the main retable of the Cathedral of Seville,

the retable of the church of Marchena, a retable for the chapel of

the jurado Nicolás Durango in the Cathedral, a sculpted image

intended to go to Portugal, a retable paid for by the council of

Seville for an unspecified parish, or a retable for Sanlúcar promoted

by the lawyer Ribera, among others. It also states that Alejo had

an accounting book where he, his son and his servant had entered

the corresponding data.57 He had a well-off economic status, based

on his asset growth from his arrival in Seville to the dates where

he made his two wills. This was possible due to the large number

of orders he received and his good business management, which

allowed him to have many real estate properties, servants, and

even slaves from different places, as well as making donations for

captives’ redemption.58

44 45SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

The panels of Jesus on the Way to Calvary and The Betrayal of Christ in the master’s careerOnce the painter’s career has been analyzed, we should contextualize in it

the compartment of Jesus on the Way to Calvary and its accompanying panel

with The Betrayal of Christ (see. fig. 3). To begin with, we should point out

that those two panels cannot be linked with any of the ensembles that are

known today as Alejo Fernández’s or any of his documented works. We do

not know to which retable they belonged, but we should assume that they

may have been part of an altar made by Alejo for a parish in Seville or its

environment. The retable must have been separated in an indefinite time

and both panels were traded. Besides the technical and stylistic evidence

that put them together and allow us to assign a common origin, we should

consider that both panels went through French collections,59 which means

that they must have left Spain together and traded at the same time.

Among the works related with our painter and his direct entourage, the

theme of Christ going to the Golgotha carrying the cross only appears in

one of the compartments of the retable in Santiago de Écija, which should

be dated around 1520-1530. Although the composition is still a different

and upside-down model, we can see parallelisms in the shape of Jesus and

in the soldier who rests on the cross and whips him with a stick, which

is similar to the one in our panel bashing Jesus with a rope. This curious

and expressive character is similar to a few more works by the painter, the

Flagellation in the Museo Nacional del Prado (see. fig. 5) and in one of the

paintings with scenes of the life of Saint Giles kept in Écija, in particular,

that where the saint cures a possessed person.60

Stylistically, the panel of Jesus on the Way to Calvary points to the first years

of Alejo Fernández in Seville, that is, since 1508.61 This is based on the links

we have observed, for example, with the alleged panels of the bean of the

main retable of the Cathedral, which are dated in around 1508-1513. So we

can see a great similarity between Christ’s face and Saint Joachim’s face in

the Meeting at the Golden Gate, between the Simon of Cyrene with one of

the Magi that is kneeling in the Epiphany, or the faces of the Marys with the

feminine characters of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. The Veronica of

the panel we are studying responds to the same physical type as Saint Anne in

the Meeting at the Golden Gate, with a face of clear Northern origin which we

will see throughout Alejo’s career. We will see it, for example, in some feminine

characters in the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist of the retable in Marchena.

We can also see clear similarities between the face of Mary and the

archangel Gabriel in one of the compartments of the retable of Maese

Rodrigo, dated around 1510-1520. In that work, in the panel with the

Pentecost, Saint Peter shows a profile face with features that are identical

to Simon of Cyrene’s in the panel of Jesus on the Way to Calvary, while

Saint Paul’s can be compared to Christ’s. This last one also shows the same

delicacy, melancholic look, and nose of Saint Michael. Even the knot on

the rope hanging from Jesus’ neck is similar to the one we can see on the

Man of Sorrows in one of the compartments of the predella of the retable

of Maese Rodrigo. In that predella we can see a representation of Saint

Catherine with a face of sweet features, full lips, and thin eyebrows, which

reminds us of Saint John in our panel, and Saint Claire of the retable of the

Conception in Villasana de Mena (circa 1517-1521). The Saint Nicholas

of the predella in this retable, with its profile position, is comparable to the

Jew holding Jesus by his neck in our panel. In that ensemble we can see a

Mass of Saint Gregory, where the saint’s face, although inverted, presents

the same features as the Simon of Cyrene in the panel we are studying.

Saint John’s face reminds us of the same saint in the Lord’s Supper of the

triptych of the Basilica of Pilar in Zaragoza, which is usually attributed to

the Cordova period of the artist, before his arrival in Seville. One of the

side wings also includes an Agony in the Garden, of a similar chiaroscuro

to the one we can see on the background of the panel with The Betrayal of

Christ (see. fig. 3), which shows a light treatment related to what used to

be done by then in the area of Antwerp. The background vegetation and

characters in that scene remind us of the ones in the panel we are studying.

Other noteworthy links are those with one of Alejo’s autograph panels,

the Madonna of the Rose, kept at the church of Santa Ana in Seville (circa

1525), where the faces of Mary and the angels show melancholic looks

and features that are similar to those of the feminine characters in the

panel with Jesus on the Way to Calvary. The coincidence is also seen in

46 47SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

negativity of a certain character, since we can see this in the Beheading of

Saint John the Baptist of the retable in Marchena, in the executioner who

had just beheaded the saint.62 His skill is also displayed when we analyze

his palette of colors, with spectacular details such as the iridescent shirt of

the Jew who is holding Jesus by his neck, which he could perform thanks

to a full mastery of the application of glazing.

Alejo Fernández, a German painterThe panel of Jesus on the Way to Calvary presents the personality of a very

complete artist who incorporates all kinds of sources to his art, and this is how

historiography has traditionally described him. We have mentioned how Alejo

Fernández used the engravings as a source of inspiration for his compositions,

not only Schongauer’s and Dürer’s usual ones, but in some cases he worked

with Italian prints inspired in Bramante.63 The treatment of the landscape

in the panel in question shows, once again, the Flemish influence and, in

particular, the impact of landscape developed by masters of the Antwerpian

entourage. What is interesting is that Alejo combined it with the incorporation

of Italian elements, such as the inclusion of classical architectures, a mixture

which, in his production, is constantly and multifacetedly displayed.

However, as we have already analyzed, the clearest linkage shown by the

panel of Jesus on the Way to Calvary is the Germanic world, particularly

due to the type of composition, the selected aspects of certain prints,

and the inclusion of iconographic details that were characteristic of that

entourage. The aforementioned composition parallelisms of our panel and

works by the Master of Delft, Derick Baegert, or Wolfgang Katzheimer

just reinforce an issue that has been stressed for quite a long time – the

possible German origin of Alejo Fernández. Due to this, some of his works

have been wrongly said to be German when they were first traded, such

as the panel we are studying, and also The Betrayal of Christ (see. fig. 3),

which was classified that way by Salomon Reinach in 1907.64

The main argument on which the historiography was based for considering

Alejo Fernández as a German artist is the fact that he was documented

as “Alemán” (German) in Seville a few times.65 However, as he was

declared to be the son of Leonisio (Dionisio) and Juana Garrido, from

Cordova, he was considered to be a local painter. This made Valverde

justify in a quite curious way the reason why the painter appeared in the

documents as German, deducing that the term was used to describe his

way of painting, that is, the Flemish or Northern style.66 For Valdivieso,

however, Alejo Fernández’s German origin is beyond doubt,67 an opinion

which has been gaining supporters in the last studies. So, for example, it

has been determined that the Germanic style of the works by Alejo and his

brother Jorge, a sculptor, is particularly observed in the main retable of the

Cathedral of Seville, where the style of the sculpture, the composition and

iconographic models, and even the carpentry take us to Northern Europe.68

Therefore, we should conclude that Alejo must have been a master who

came to Cordova when he had already been trained, and he settled there

and married the daughter of a famous painter, Pedro Fernández. This is

why later he took his in-laws’ last name, probably to enter the Cordovan

pictorial market more easily. Although his works show a clear acculturation

and adaptation to the Spanish context, his art never stopped reflecting

aspects related with his German origin, such as those mentioned above.

Anyhow, nowadays it is difficult to establish the area in Germany where

he was from. However, his style, color scheme, and compositions have

a lot to do with the paintings produced in regions such as Westphalia,

located by the Rhine river and very close to the Netherlands. One of the

main workshops in the region was the one in the city of Wesel managed by

the painter Derick Baegert (circa 1440-1502), together with his son Jan,

with the collaboration of Jan Joest. A magnificent Betrayal of Christ has

been attributed to the entourage of this workshop and has been recently

auctioned in Sotheby’s.69 Due to its characteristics, it is very close to the

panel with the same theme which was part of the same retable as the

painting we are studying here. Jesus is wearing an electric blue robe which

is very similar in both cases; the soldiers respond to similar prototypes;

and even some anecdote details are repeated, such as the lamp on the floor

or the vegetation treatment in the foreground. All of this reinforces the

aforementioned comments and makes us consider the possibility of Alejo

Fernández being a painter who was trained in the Rhine river area, which

would explain those important linkages with the paintings produced in

Northern Germany, and with the masters of the Antwerp area.

Mary’s halo, scratched with incisions, and also in black outlines. A similar

face is shown by Mary in the retable of the Lamentation in the Cathedral

of Seville (circa 1526-1527), which is exactly the same as the one of the

feminine figure to the left of the Virgin in our panel.

We should rule out the possibility of the Jesus on the Way to Calvary and

the panel with The Betrayal of Christ being both compartments of a retable

made by Alejo during his commercially successful years in Seville, that

is, during the 20s and 30s. We think so because of the differences with

the panels of the retable of Marchena, which, although it was started in

the twenties, was not placed definitely until 1533. In Marchena there is a

certain degeneration of the master’s original style, since we can see more

svelte figures and more elongated, quixotic faces, although we should note

that the human types and, in general, Alejo’s mark is still recognized. So,

Saint Christopher’s head in the guardapolvos is not too far from Christ’s

head in the panel we are studying, as the Jews of the Circumcision are close

to the male characters in our panel. The same could be said about the

executioner who has beheaded Saint John, showing a type of face, a profile,

which is very similar to the Jew who holds Jesus by his neck in the panel of

the Way to Calvary. Finally, it should be noted that the soldiers and horse

riders of the panels of Marchena were made with a greater economy of

effort, which is why they do not show the delicate work with gold leaf in

the armors that we can see in our panel and in The Betrayal of Christ.

The classic architectures of the left side of the compartment with Jesus on the

Way to Calvary respond to Alejo Fernández’s works usual models, as we can

see in the Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem of the triptych kept in Zaragoza.

Structures that stand out are those with openings with half-point arches, as

we can see in the Annunciation of the missing retable of the Conception of

Villasana de Mena. One of the most interesting parallels is that of the panel

including Saint John the Baptist Preaching of the retable of Marchena, where

we can see a building of a similar architecture equally placed in front of the sea.

The landscape matches that of the compartments of the Cathedral of

Seville, the Flagellation of the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Madonna of

the Rose of the church of Santa Ana in Seville, or the Baptism of Jesus of

the retable in Marchena, showing the distinctive bluish gradation of the

Flemish world. Some typical characteristics of Alejo’s works are dirt floors of

brownish tones, with scarce, wild vegetation, on which the shadows of the

characters that inhabit them are projected, as we can see in our panel and in

the one of the Museo Nacional del Prado (see. fig. 5). The landscape and the

type of vegetation match those of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple in

the Cathedral of Seville and the signed Saint John the Baptist which is part

of a private collection, which also shows the typical background with the

stream and the bridge. The trees of the central mound in Jesus on the Way

to Calvary also remind us of those of the compartment with Saint Jerome

of the Conception retable in Villasana de Mena, from around 1517-1521.

The soldiers’ armors, with a delicate and dramatic treatment of water

gilding complemented with touches of pictorial estofado, are found in

other works by Alejo, such as the Flagellation of Christ found in the Conde

de Montseny’s collection, where we can see a few soldiers with very similar

helmets. On the same panel, Jesus’ cruciferous halo, gilded and outlined

in black, is also similar. The aforementioned Flagellation was part of an

ensemble together with an Agony in the Garden, where we can see a similar

light treatment as in The Betrayal of Christ (see. fig. 3), since both scenes

are at night. We should add that Jesus’ and the apostle’s faces show the

same features as the Christ of our Way to Calvary, and the trims of the robe

have been executed similarly.

In the panel of Jesus on the Way to Calvary, Alejo Fernández displays his

great technical skills in different ways, as we have been detailing. His agile

brushstroke, his ability to face compositions where different actions or

episodes occur, or his skill shown when recreating details, all of this evinces

his technical mastery. Alejo displays a virtuosity shown by very few artists,

as we appreciate in his interest in reflecting shadows on the ground or the

cross, an element on which the shadows of the arm and the rope of one of

the Jews, as well as Simon of Cyrene’s cane are projected. Such attention

to detail and interest in anecdotes can be appreciated again in the torn and

mended shirt of the Jew who is dressed in yellow, and in the little band

aid applied on the naked leg of one of the tormentors. That is not the only

time when Alejo Fernández used that curious resource to reinforce the

48 49SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

1. This detail is connected to Isaiah’s prophecy, which stated that “like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah, 53:7). See James H. Marrow, Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance: A Study of the Transformation of Sacred Metaphor into Descriptive Narrative, Kortrijk, Van Ghemmert Publishing Company, 1979, pp. 163-164.

2. James Marrow, “Circumdederunt me canes multi: Christ’s Tormentors in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance”, Art Bulletin, 59 (1977), p. 174.

3. Marrow, Passion Iconography…, pp. 95-96.4. Elliot D. Wise, “Cycles of Memory and Circular Compassion in a Germanic Passion

Diptych”, Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, 10:1 (Winter 2018), DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2018.10.1.1 (accessed on: July 18, 2018).

5. Wise, “Cycles of Memory…”, paragraph 13.6. See L. B. Philip, “The Prado Epiphany by Jerome Bosch”, The Art Bulletin, 35 (1953), pp.

267-293.7. M. Pastoureau, “Rouge, jaune et gaucher. Note sur l’iconographie médiévale de Judas”,

in Couleurs, Images, Symboles. Etudes d’histoire et d’anthropologie, Paris, Le Léopard d’Or, 1989, pp. 69-83.

8. The influence of both between the Hispanic artists of the late Gothic and first Renaissance has been studied by different authors. In order not to be exhaustive, see Diego Angulo, “Durero y los pintores catalanes del siglo XVI”, Archivo Español de Arte, XVII (1965), pp. 327-328; María del Carmen Lacarra, “Influencia de Martin Schongauer en los primitivos aragoneses”, Boletín del Museo e Instituto ‘Camón Aznar’, XVII (1984), pp. 15-39; Pilar Silva Maroto, “Influencia de los grabados nórdicos en la pintura hispanoflamenca”, Archivo Español de Arte, 243 (1988), pp. 271-289; Carmen Morte, “Del gótico al Renacimiento en los retablos de pintura aragonesa durante el reinado de Fernando el Católico”, in La pintura gótica durante el siglo XV en tierras de Aragón y en otros territorios peninsulares, Zaragoza, Institución “Fernando el Católico”, 2007, pp. 335-372.

9. Joseph Meder, Durer-Katalog; ein Handbuch uber Albrecht Durers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustande, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen, Vienna, Verlag Gilhofer und Ranschburg, 1932, no. 146, 119, and 12, respectively.

10. Adam von Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur, vol. II, Vienna, Imprimerie de J. V. Degen, 1803, cat. VI.128.21.

11. Adam von Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur, vol. VII, Vienna, Imprimerie de J. V. Degen, 1808, cat. VII.253.34.

12. J. P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Livelier than Life, The Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet, or the Housebook Master 1470-1500, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Garry Schwartz, Princeton University Press, 1985.

13. About said painter, see M. J. Friedländer, “A painter in Delft at the beginning of the 16th century”, The Burlington Magazine, XX (1913), pp. 102-107; Christine Vogt, Meister von Frankfurt, Meister von Delft. Das Annentriptychon der Delfter Familie van Beest im Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, 2002. As well as the very complete cataloguing data of J. P. Filedt Kok, “Master of Delft, Triptych with the Virgin and Child and saints (centre panel), the Donor with St Martin (inner left wing), the Donor’s wife with St Cunera (inner right wing) and the Annunciation (outer wings), c. 1500 - c. 1510”, in J. P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online collection catalog, Amsterdam, 2010. Online: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9539 (accessed on: July 28, 2018).

14. Jürgen Becks and Martin Wilhelm Roelen (eds.), Derick Baegert und sein Werk, Wesel, Stadt Wesel, 2011.

15. Adam von Bartsch, Le Peintre graveur, vol. VII, Vienna, Imprimerie de J. V. Degen, 1808, cat. VII.251.28.

NOTES

16. Marrow, “Circumdederunt…”, p. 169, fig. 2.17. Hartmut Krohm, Die Rothenburger Passion im Reichsstadtmuseum Rothenburg ob der Tauber,

Rothenburg, Verlag des Vereins Alt-Rothenburg, 1985.18. We do not know if the presence of the horn may me an allusion to one of the psalms

that says: “Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns” (Psalms 22: 21).

19. There are many examples in the Hispanic world, as we can see in one of the reliefs of the main retable of Seville Cathedral, which should be related to Jorge Fernández, Alejo Fernández’s brother. We also find it in a mid 16th century sculptured relief done by some sculptor of the area of Valladolid, and that has been recently sold by Mullany Gallery. See a brief study and different images in http://www.mullanyfineart.com/view/christ-carrying-the-cross-spain-castile-valladolid-mid-16th-century (accessed on July 18, 2018). It can also be mentioned the panel painting of the Catalan Jaume Huguet kept in Museu Marès in Barcelona, where one of the soldiers also blows a trumpet (Rosa Alcoy, “Retaule de Sant Agustí de la Confraria dels Blanquers”, in Jaume Huguet. 500 anys, Barcelona, Departament de Cultura, Generalitat de Catalunya, 1993, p. 191).

20. The Betrayal of Christ was published in 2015, when it was a property of Sam Fogg gallery (London). See Nicholas Herman, “Alejo Fernández (c. 1475-1545). The Arrest of Christ”, in Susie Nash (ed.), Late Medieval Panel Paintings II. Materials, Methods, Meanings, London, Sam Fogg, 2015, pp. 100-199 (pp. 116-117, fig. 20 for Jesus on the Way to Calvary). A summary of Herman’s study has been published in Medieval and Renaissance Spain Paintings and sculpture from 1200 to 1550, London, Sam Fogg, 2017, pp. 91-97, with a reproduction of the Jesus on the Way to Calvary on p. 94, fig. 1.

21. It is a kind of sandal that we find in other works of the painter, like The Flagellation in the Museo Nacional del Prado, or the one that Saint Peter wears in the retable of Maese Rodrigo in Seville. On the first one, see Javier García-Máiquez and Carmen Garrido, “La Flagelación (1505-1510). Alejo Fernández (doc. entre 1496 y 1545-1546)”, in Gabriele Finaldi and Carmen Garrido (eds.), El trazo oculto. Dibujos subyacentes en pinturas de los siglos XV y XVI, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2006, pp. 230-239.

22. For the technical study of Jesus on the Way to Calvary see the corresponding section in this publication signed by Adelina Illán and Rafael Romero. As regards the technical study of The Betrayal of Christ see Nicholas Herman, “Alejo Fernández…”, pp. 100-109.

23. About the painter, see Diego Angulo, Alejo Fernández, Seville, Universidad de Sevilla, 1946; Chandler Rathfon Post, The Early Renaissance in Andalusia (A History of Spanish Painting, vol. X), Cambridge (Massachusetts), Harvard University Press, 1950, pp. 8-93; María Luz Martín Cubero, Alejo Fernández, Madrid, Fundación Universitaria Española, 1988; Juan Antonio Gómez Sánchez, Alejo Fernández y la pintura sevillana del primer tercio del siglo XVI, PhD, Sevilla, Universidad de Sevilla, 2016, (non vidimus).

24. Juan Agustín Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes en España, Madrid, Imprenta de la Viuda de Ibarra, 1800, vol. V, pp. 304-305.

25. Jesús Miguel Palomero Páramo, “La viga de imaginería”, in El retablo mayor de la catedral de Sevilla: estudios e investigaciones realizados con motivo de su restauración, Seville, Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Sevilla, 1981, pp. 91-120; María Fernanda Morón de Castro, “Análisis histórico-estilístico”, in El retablo mayor…, pp. 121-172; Francisco J. Herrera García, “Los orígenes de una afortunada creación artística. El retablo gótico en Sevilla”, in El retablo sevillano. Desde sus orígenes a la actualidad, Seville, Fundación Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla, Diputación de Sevilla, Fundación Cajasol, 2009, pp. 43-53.

26. Elena Escuredo Barrado, “Noticias de pintores en la Sevilla de 1526: documentación inédita de artistas ignorados”, Atrio, 21 (2015), p. 10.

27. Angulo, Alejo…, p. 7.28. Juan Luis Ravé Prieto, “Juan de Zamora y el retablo de la iglesia parroquial de Cala

(Huelva)”, Cuadernos de los Amigos de los Museos de Osuna, 7 (2005), pp. 14-19; Herrera,

“Los orígenes…”, pp. 64-65 y 67, plates 49-51. About Juan de Zamora, see Diego Angulo, “El pintor Juan de Zamora”, Archivo Español de Arte, XII, 36 (1936), pp. 201-207 and Post, The Early…, pp. 111-130, besides the recent contribution of Elena Escudero Barrado, “Juan de Zamora, ‘pintor de ymaginería’: nuevos datos sobre sus relaciones profesionales y familiares”, BSAA arte, LXXXII (2016), pp. 51-64.

29. For the sources of these references, see Martín, Alejo…, pp. 5-32.30. Angulo, Alejo…, pp. 11-12, plates. 1-3; Post, The Early…, pp. 51-54, fig. 10.31. Angulo, Alejo…, p. 12, plates. 4-5; Post, The Early…, pp. 56-59, fig. 12.32. García-Máiquez and Garrido, “La Flagelación…”, pp. 230-239.33. Angulo, Alejo…, pp. 13-14, plates. 6-12; Post, The Early…, pp. 62-66, fig. 14.34. Angulo, Alejo…, pp. 14-16, plates. 13-19; Post, The Early…, pp. 28-33, fig. 3. See also

Herrera, “Los orígenes…”, pp. 42-43, plate 31.35. Angulo, Alejo…, pp. 16-18, plates 20-25; Post, The Early…, pp. 21-27 and 66-69, figs. 1-2

and 15. See also Diego Angulo, “Alejo Fernández: los retablos de D. Sancho de Matienzo, de Villasana de Mena (Burgos)”, Archivo Español de Arte, XVI (1943), pp. 125-141.

36. Diego Angulo, “Alejo Fernández. La Adoración de los Reyes del Conde de la Viñaza. Algunas obras dudosas,” Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología, VI (1930), p. 246; Angulo, Alejo…, pp. 19-20, plates 26-27; Post, The Early…, pp. 42-44, fig. 6.

37. Post, The Early…, p. 76, fig. 20.38. Angulo, Alejo…, pp. 13-14, plates 28-29. About the Adoration of the Magi, see also Angulo,

“Alejo Fernández. La Adoración…”, pp. 241-246. As regards the Saint John the Baptist, a photograph of the Institut Amatller d’Art Hispànic in Barcelona (negative number Gudiol 58.135) certifies that later it became part of the Bertrán collection in Barcelona.

39. It was shown by Benito Navarrete, “Alejo Fernández. Arcángel San Gabriel”, in Pinturas de cuatro siglos, Madrid, Caylus, 1997, pp. 32-35.

40. Isbylia (Sevilla), April 14-15, 2015, Pintura antigua, lot 120.41. Angulo, Alejo…, pp. 22-23, plates 36-37; Post, The Early…, pp. 44-47, fig. 7; Álvaro Recio

Mir, “La versatilidad del Renacimiento: variedad material, icónica, tipológica y funcional”, in El retablo sevillano. Desde sus orígenes a la actualidad, Seville, Fundación Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla, Diputación de Sevilla, Fundación Cajasol, 2009, pp. 84-85, plate 10.

42. Benito Navarrete, “Alejo Fernández. Decapitación de San Juan Bautista”, in Pinturas de cuatro siglos…, pp. 28-31. Later it was auctioned in Sotheby’s, Old Master Paintings and British Paintings, London, April 29, 2010, lot 7.

43. Angulo, Alejo…, pp. 24-25, plates 42-45; Post, The Early…, pp. 76-82, fig. 21; Carla Rahn Phillips, “Visualizing Imperium: The Virgin of the Seafarers and Spain’s Self-Image in the Early Sixteenth Century”, Renaissance Quarterly, 58 (2005), pp. 815-856. The side compartments of the ensemble have been linked with his workshop or a follower.

44. The panels of the retable of Santiago de Écija have usually been linked with followers or members of Alejo's workshop. See Angulo, Alejo…, p. 23, plates 38-40; Post, The Early…, pp. 69-73, figs. 16-17; Enrique Valdivieso, Historia de la pintura sevillana, Seville, Ediciones Guadalquivir, 1992, p. 56; Herrera, “Los orígenes…”, pp. 58-60, plate 46.

45. Diego Angulo, “Varias obras de Alejo Fernández y de su escuela”, Anales de la Universidad Hispalense, year II, num. II (1939), pp. 48-57, figs. 5-12; Angulo, Alejo…, pp. 25-26, plates 46-47; Post, The Early…, pp. 33-42, figs. 4-5. About Marchena's retable, see also Herrera, “Los orígenes…”, pp. 53-55, plate 44. Valdivieso proposed that a great deal of the pictorial work ended up being outsourced to painters in Alejo's entourage (Valdiviseso, Historia…, p. 57).

46. Rosario Marchena Hidalgo, “Recuperación de una obra de Alejo Fernández”, Laboratorio de Arte, 17 (2004), pp. 117-135.

47. Post, The Early…, p. 82, fig. 22; César Pemán, Catálogo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Cádiz, Cádiz, 1952, pp. 17-18; Diego Angulo, Pintura del Renacimiento (Ars Hispaniae, vol. XII), Madrid, Plus Ultra, 1954, p. 140.

48. Angulo does not reproduce them in his article, but they must be the ones which appear in two photographs of the Institut Amatller d’Art Hispànic of Barcelona (negative numbers Gudiol 43343 and 43344).

49. Angulo, “Varias obras…”, pp. 41-63.50. Pedro Miguel Ibáñez Martínez, Pintura conquense del siglo XVI. I, Cuenca, Diputación de

Cuenca, 1993, fig. XVIII.51. Ave verum Corpus: Cristo eucaristía en el arte onubense: exposición conmemorativa del

cincuecentenario de la creación de la Diócesis de Huelva, Huelva, Obra Social y Cultural CajaSur, 2004, p. 210.

52. Rosario Marchena Hidalgo, “Una nueva obra de Alejo Fernández”, Laboratorio de Arte, 24 (2012), pp. 97-111.

53. Aida Padrón Mérida, “Dos tablas de Alejo Fernández y Juan de Borgoña hijo”, Archivo Español de Arte, 57, 227 (1984), pp. 324-325.

54. Sotheby’s, London, July 6, 2010, The Splendour of Venice, Important Furniture and Old Master Paintings from a Private Collection, lot 148, with attribution of Isabel Mateo.

55. Angulo, “Varias obras…”, pp. 43-44; Post, The Early…, pp. 49-50, fig. 9; Rosario Marchena Hidalgo, Las miniaturas de los libros de coro de la catedral de Sevilla: el siglo XVI, Seville, Universidad de Sevilla, Fundación Focus-Abengoa, 1998, pp. 117-119.

56. Antonio Muro Orejón, Documentos para la historia del arte en Andalucía. Tomo VIII. Pintores y doradores, Seville, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, 1935, pp. 19-20.

57. José Gestoso y Pérez, Ensayo de un Diccionario de los artífices que florecieron en Sevilla desde el siglo XIII al XVIII inclusive, Seville, Andalucía moderna, 1900, vol. III, pp. 314-321.

58. Angulo, Alejo…, p. 8.59. The Jesus on the Way to Calvary comes from a French collection, while The Betrayal of

Christ was auctioned in Christie’s (Paris) on June 21, 2011 (Tableaux anciens et du XIXème siècle, lot 42), where the previous origin was recorded to be at the Paul Wallraf collection, from which it went to the owners who auctioned it. Before that, when it was published by Reinach in 1907, it was known that the work had belonged to the Paris firm Durand-Ruel (Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de peintures du moyen âge et de la renaissance (1280-1580), Paris, Ernest Leroux Éditeur, 1907, vol. II, p. 397).

60. Angulo, Alejo…, plate 30.61. Herman, however, considers that The Betrayal of Christ —and therefore our panel— was

made during the first years of Alejo's work in Cordova (Herman, “Alejo…”, p. 115).62. Angulo, Alejo…, plate 46.63. García-Máiquez and Garrido, “La Flagelación…”, p. 233.64. Reinach, Répertoire…, vol. II, p. 397.65. M. Giménez Fernández, Documentos para la Historia del Arte en Andalucía, Seville,

Universidad de Sevilla, 1927, p. 14.66. José Valverde Madrid, “La pintura sevillana en la primera mitad del siglo XVI (1501-

1560)”, Archivo Hispalense, 76 (1956), pp. 132-133. About this issue, see different interpretations offered by Post, The Early…, pp. 11-12.

67. Valdivieso, Historia…, p. 47.68. Herrera, “Los orígenes…”, pp. 43-53.69. London, December 6, 2017, Old Masters Evening Sale, lot 1. Published in A. Stange,

Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, Nordwestdeutschland in der Zeit von 1450 bis 1515, vol. VI, Munich, 1954, p. 70, plate 116; U. Wolff-Thomsen, Jan Joest von Kalkar. Ein niederländischer Maler um 1500, Bielefeld, 1997, pp. 381-382, plate 146.

50 51SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

Alcoy, Rosa, “Retaule de Sant Agustí de la Confraria dels Blanquers”, in Jaume Huguet. 500 anys, Barcelona, Departament de Cultura, Generalitat de Catalunya, 1993, pp. 186-193.

Ave verum Corpus: Cristo eucaristía en el arte onubense: exposición conmemorativa del cincuecentenario de la creación de la Diócesis de Huelva, Huelva, Obra Social y Cultural CajaSur, 2004.

Ávila, Ana, Imágenes y símbolos en la arquitectura pintada española (1470-1560), Barcelona, Antrophos, 1993.

Angulo, Diego, “Alejo Fernández. La Adoración de los Reyes del Conde de la Viñaza. Algunas obras dudosas“, Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología, VI (1930), pp. 241-250.

Angulo, Diego “El pintor Juan de Zamora”, Archivo Español de Arte, XII, 36 (1936), pp. 201-207.

Angulo, Diego, “Varias obras de Alejo Fernández y de su escuela”, Anales de la Universidad Hispalense, II, 2 (1939), pp. 41-63.

Angulo, Diego, “Alejo Fernández: los retablos de D. Sancho de Matienzo, de Villasana de Mena (Burgos)”, Archivo Español de Arte, XVI (1943), pp. 125-141.

Angulo, Diego, Alejo Fernández, Seville, Laboratorio de Arte de la Universidad, 1946.

Angulo, Diego, “Bramante et la Flagellation du Musée du Prado”, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XLII (1953), pp. 5-8.

Angulo, Diego, Pintura del renacimiento (Ars Hispaniae, vol. XII), Madrid, Plus Ultra, 1954.

Angulo, Diego, “Durero y los pintores catalanes del siglo XVI”, Archivo Español de Arte, XVII (1965), pp. 327-328.

Bartsch, Adam von, Le Peintre graveur, vol. II, Vienna, Imprimerie de J. V. Degen, 1803.

Bartsch, Adam von, Le Peintre graveur, vol. VII, Vienna, Imprimerie de J. V. Degen, 1808.

Becks, Jürgen and Roelen, Martin Wilhelm (eds.), Derick Baegert und sein Werk, Wesel, Stadt Wesel, 2011.

Ceán Bermúdez, Juan Agustín, Diccionario histórico de los más ilustres profesores de las Bellas Artes en España, Madrid, Imprenta de la Viuda de Ibarra, 1800.

Escuredo Barrado, Elena, “Noticias de pintores en la Sevilla de 1526: documentación inédita de artistas ignorados”, Atrio, 21 (2015), pp. 8-21.

Escudero Barrado, Elena, “Juan de Zamora, ‘pintor de ymaginería’: nuevos datos sobre sus relaciones profesionales y familiares”, BSAA arte, LXXXII (2016), pp. 51-64.

Filedt Kok, J. P. (ed.), Livelier than Life, The Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet, or the Housebook Master 1470-1500, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Garry Schwartz, Princeton University Press, 1985.

Filedt Kok, J. P., “Master of Delft, Triptych with the Virgin and Child and saints (centre panel), the Donor with St Martin (inner left wing), the Donor’s wife with St Cunera (inner right wing) and the Annunciation (outer wings), c. 1500 - c. 1510”, in Filedt Kok, J. P. (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online collection catalogue, Amsterdam, 2010. Online: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.9539 (accessed on: 28 July 2018).

Friedländer, M. J., “A painter in Delft at the beginning of the 16th century”, The Burlington Magazine, XX (1913), pp. 102-107.

García-Máiquez, Jaime and Garrido, Carmen, “La Flagelación (1505-1510)”, in El trazo oculto. Dibujos subyacentes en pinturas de los siglos XV y XVI, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2006, pp. 230-239.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gestoso y Pérez, José, Ensayo de un Diccionario de los artífices que florecieron en Sevilla desde el siglo XIII al XVIII inclusive, Seville, Andalucía moderna, 1900, 3 vols.

Giménez Fernández, M., Documentos para la Historia del Arte en Andalucía, Seville, Universidad de Sevilla, 1927.

Gómez Sánchez, Juan Antonio, Alejo Fernández y la pintura sevillana del primer tercio del siglo XVI, PhD, Seville, Universidad de Sevilla, 2016.

Herman, Nicholas, “Alejo Fernández (c. 1475-1545). The Arrest of Christ”, in Nash Susie (ed.), Late Medieval Panel Paintings II. Materials, Methods, Meanings, London, Sam Fogg, 2015, pp. 100-119.

Herrera García, Francisco J., “Los orígenes de una afortunada creación artística. El retablo gótico en Sevilla”, in El retablo sevillano. Desde sus orígenes a la actualidad, Seville, Fundación Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla, Diputación de Sevilla, Fundación Cajasol, 2009, pp. 15-68.

Ibáñez Martínez, Pedro Miguel, Pintura conquense del siglo XVI. I, Cuenca, Diputación de Cuenca, 1993.

Krohm, Hartmut, Die Rothenburger Passion im Reichsstadtmuseum Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Rothenburg, Verlag des Vereins Alt-Rothenburg, 1985.

Lacarra, María del Carmen, “Influencia de Martin Schongauer en los primitivos aragoneses”, Boletín del Museo e Instituto ‘Camón Aznar’, XVII (1984), pp. 15-39.

Marchena Hidalgo, Rosario, Las miniaturas de los libros de coro de la catedral de Sevilla: el siglo XVI, Seville, Universidad de Sevilla, Fundación Focus-Abengoa, 1998.

Marchena Hidalgo, Rosario, “Recuperación de una obra de Alejo Fernández”, Laboratorio de Arte, 17 (2004), pp. 117-135.

Marchena Hidalgo, Rosario, “Una nueva obra de Alejo Fernández”, Laboratorio de Arte, 24 (2012), pp. 97-111.

Marrow, James H., “Circumdederunt me canes multi: Christ’s Tormentors in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance”, Art Bulletin, 59 (1977), pp. 167-181.

Marrow, James H., Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance: A Study of the Transformation of Sacred Metaphor into Descriptive Narrative, Kortrijk, Van Ghemmert Publishing Company, 1979.

Martín Cubero, María Luz, Alejo Fernández, Madrid, Fundación Universitaria Española, 1988.

Meder, Joseph, Durer-Katalog; ein Handbuch uber Albrecht Durers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustande, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen, Vienna, Verlag Gilhofer und Ranschburg, 1932.

Medieval and Renaissance Spain Paintings and sculpture from 1200 to 1550, London, Sam Fogg, 2017.

Morón de Castro, María Fernanda “Análisis histórico-estilístico”, in El retablo mayor de la catedral de Sevilla: estudios e investigaciones realizados con motivo de su restauración, Seville, Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Sevilla, 1981, pp. 121-172.

Morte, Carmen, “Del gótico al renacimiento en los retablos de pintura aragonesa durante el reinado de Fernando el Católico”, in La pintura gótica durante el siglo XV en tierras de Aragón y en otros territorios peninsulares, Saragossa, Institución “Fernando el Católico”, 2007, pp. 335-372.

Muro Orejón, Antonio, Documentos para la historia del arte en Andalucía. Tomo VIII. Pintores y doradores, Seville, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, 1935.

Navarrete, Benito, “Alejo Fernández. Arcángel San Gabriel”, in Pinturas de cuatro siglos, Madrid, Caylus, 1997, pp. 32-35.

Navarrete, Benito, “Alejo Fernández. Decapitación de San Juan Bautista”, in Pinturas de cuatro siglos, Madrid, Caylus, 1997, pp. 28-31.

Padrón Mérida, Aida, “Dos tablas de Alejo Fernández y Juan de Borgoña hijo”, Archivo Español de Arte, 57, 227 (1984), pp. 324-325.

Palomero Páramo, Jesús Miguel, “La viga de imaginería”, in El retablo mayor de la catedral de Sevilla: estudios e investigaciones realizados con motivo de su restauración, Seville, Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Sevilla, 1981, pp. 91-120.

Pemán, César, Catálogo del Museo de Bellas Artes de Cádiz, Cádiz, 1952.

Philip, L. B., “The Prado Epiphany by Jerome Bosch”, The Art Bulletin, 35 (1953), pp. 267-293.

Post, Chandler Rathfon, The Early Renaissance in Andalusia (A History of Spanish Painting, vol. X), Cambridge (Massachusetts), Harvard University Press, 1950.

Padrón Mérida, Aida, “Dos tablas de Alejo Fernández y Juan de Borgoña hijo”, Archivo Español de Arte, 57, 227 (1984), pp. 324-325.

Pastoureau, Michel, “Rouge, jaune et gaucher. Note sur l’iconographie médiévale de Judas”, in Couleurs, Images, Symboles. Etudes d’histoire et d’anthropologie, Paris, Le Léopard d’Or, 1989, pp. 69-83.

Phillips, Carla Rahn, “Visualizing Imperium: The Virgin of the Seafarers and Spain’s Self-Image in the Early Sixteenth Century”, Renaissance Quarterly, 58 (2005), pp. 815-856.

Ravé Prieto, Juan Luis, “Juan de Zamora y el retablo de la iglesia parroquial de Cala (Huelva)”, Cuadernos de los Amigos de los Museos de Osuna, 7 (2005), pp. 14-19.

Recio Mir, Álvaro, “La versatilidad del Renacimiento: variedad material, icónica, tipológica y funcional”, in El retablo sevillano. Desde sus orígenes a la actualidad, Seville, Fundación Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla, Diputación de Sevilla, Fundación Cajasol, 2009, pp. 71-126.

Reinach, Salomon, Répertoire de peintures du moyen âge et de la renaissance (1280-1580), Paris, Ernest Leroux Éditeur, 1907, 2 vols.

Silva Maroto, Pilar, “Influencia de los grabados nórdicos en la pintura hispanoflamenca”, Archivo Español de Arte, 243 (1988), pp. 271-289.

Stange, A., Deutsche Malerei der Gotik, Nordwestdeutschland in der Zeit von 1450 bis 1515, vol. VI, Munich, 1954.

Wolff-Thomsen, U., Jan Joest von Kalkar. Ein niederländischer Maler um 1500, Bielefeld, 1997.

Valdivieso, Enrique, Historia de la pintura sevillana, Seville, Ediciones Guadalquivir, 1992.

Valverde Madrid, José, “La pintura sevillana en la primera mitad del siglo XVI (1501-1560)”, Archivo Hispalense, 76 (1956), pp. 117-150.

Vogt, Christine, Meister von Frankfurt, Meister von Delft. Das Annentriptychon der Delfter Familie van Beest im Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, 2002.

Wise, Elliot D., “Cycles of Memory and Circular Compassion in a Germanic Passion Diptych”, Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art, 10:1 (Winter 2018), DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2018.10.1.1 (accessed on: 18 julio 2018).

53

Fact SheetAlejo Fernández is perhaps the most influential figure in the transition

between the late Gothic period and the Renaissance in Andalusia.

The knowledge of his artistic corpus, his biographical facts and the

evolution of his style will increase as long as we are able to further in

his technique and painting procedures. Recent investigations provide

key facts about his activity, such as the type of supports used, the

singular and unique richness of his underdrawing, or the range of

pigments and painting techniques employed.1

The work upon which we focus had to have formed part of an

important altarpiece of noteworthy dimensions and was probably

carried out between 1510 and 1520, as Alberto Velasco has pointed

out in the preceding text. The panel would have formed part of the

predella, alongside the Betrayal of Christ in the Sam Fogg Gallery in

London. Structurally, the support is made up of Baltic oak wood panels

(Quercus rubur). As we shall see, show a meticulous craftsmanship

and they are made following the tradition of the Sevillian painting on

panel of his time.2 Indeed, oak was employed regularly in 16th century

Sevillian painting and was always imported by sea from Northern

Europe.

The Calvary was slightly modified on the reverse in the 19th century:

the reverse was made thinner in order to fix a cradle.3 This one and the

other painting in the London’s gallery are meticulously manufactured

to the very last detail, so we suppose that the work formed part of

an important commission. Our panel is constructed with four vertical

pieces of similar widths that are attached with a complex assemblage

of Z-shaped joints. Curiously, this kind of panel manufacturing

is more usual in Northern Europe than in Spain (Fig. 1).4 Another

extraordinary peculiarity present in the two works preserved of this

altarpiece is the considerable thickness of the panels, varying between

2.5 and 3 cm. This is completely unusual for this format, even among

Flemish paintings on oak panel. Due to the thickness of the panels and

the hard and stable nature of the wood, they would not require any

system of reinforcement.

To understand the original appearance of the reverse of our panels, it

is necessary to examine the panel from the London gallery. Despite

two transversal reinforcement bars subsequently added, it still

preserves the vegetable fibers and gypsum, a typical technique for

the stabilization and insulation of Spanish panels of the 15th and 16th

centuries.

Icono I&RTechnical Review

Alejo Fernández (doc. 1496-1545)Jesus on the Way to CalvarySeville, around 1510-1520

54 55SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

The vegetable fibers in the work upon which we focus has been applied on

the front of the panel before the ground layer. This is not the case in the

London work, in it, the vegetable fibers have been substituted with a piece

of fabric – probably linen. These slight variations in panel preparation are

typical while building an altarpiece of this magnitude.

The next step in the elaboration of the panel – and after a previous gluing

– was the application of a ground layer that would leave an optimal

surface for the painting process. As is typical of the Peninsular school, this

is made up of gypsum bounded with animal glue. Once dry, it was leveled

and sanded.5 Next, underdrawing was carried out over the priming. The

drawing was mainly made up of carbon and defined all the elements of the

composition: its compositional details, chiaroscuro and volume.

Alejo Fernández’s underdrawing is especially characteristic and detailed; it

is neatly seen in the infrared image of the work (Fig. 2). It is interesting to

point out that the composition – above all in the background landscape

– was much more complex at the time of the preliminary drawing. For

example, in the foreground there were elements of vegetation, rocks and

stones that were not ultimately painted (Fig. 3). In the sky, on the left,

he planned to make the trees in the landscape much bigger; in regards to

the crosses in the top right corner, there was initially one driven into the

ground and another fallen down (Fig. 4). During the painting process, he

moved the cross driven into the ground more to the right and eliminated

the fallen cross, putting two stacked logs in its place (Fig. 5).

A unique quality of Alejo Fernández’s underdrawing is the way he defines

the volume and the lights and shadows of the compositional elements by

means of parallel lines, especially in the anatomy of the figures and draperies.

Combined with drawn lines that define the details of the composition, the

resultant is a meticulous and exquisite drawing (Fig. 6). Such thoroughness

and precision of drawing has to be related to Flemish and German

painting. This harkens to the possible Northern European origin of the

artist, as Velasco correctly indicates in his text. We do find this exhaustive

type of drawing in the work of other artists active in Seville during this

period, such as it is the case of, for example, the Maestro de la Mendicidad.

Fig. 1 / Detail of the

interesting joinery between

the different oak panels that

make up the panel.

Fig. 2 / Digital infrared image

(general).

56 57SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

However, in the latter the drawing lines are straighter and show other

stylistic characteristics.6 As the 16th century advanced, drawing in most

major workshops became more summary. Parallel lines were gradually

reduced, with workshops limiting themselves to a delineation of contours

and essential details. Even in some works by certain leading artists, it can

be difficult to detect drawings through infrared radiation, such as in the

case of Luis de Vargas.

The application of a fine layer of white priming, lightly pigmented, upon the

aforementioned underdrawing is also characteristic of the 16th century; it is

thin (always less than 40 µm) and allows the drawing to come through. This

priming provided a vibrant white or ivory-colored base and, in addition,

isolated the thin preparation from the layers of oil paint to follow.7

The painting process in this work denotes a clear mastery of technique, with

a solid knowledge and command of the painting procedures of the time. It

also employs the very best quality materials, as we will see further on. The

confidence of execution is observed in the complete absence of corrections

or pentimenti in this step of painting. As we already saw, the variations

in composition were already carried out in the underdrawing. During

brushwork, the artist keeps to the predetermined design with precision

and does not introduce any variation, as seen in the radiography (Fig. 7).

Alejo Fernández works in the Flemish painting tradition of adding light

covering grounds and overlapping darker and more transparent layers on

top, in order to achieve rich transparent chromatic effects. In the deep

red cloak of Simon of Cyrene, he applies a base of reddish-violet color,

made up of white lead, red lacquer and azurite. He covers this with a dark

glaze of organic red lacquer with azurite and traces of white lead.8 The

azurite serves to darken the red lacquer and to correct its color, giving it

a bluish-purple tone (Fig. 8).

In much the same way the figure who plays the horn to the right of Christ,

dressed in an orange tunic, is painted with a base of vermillion and red

earth with traces of black. Over this, in the dark areas, is a practically pure

organic red lacquer glaze.

In Christ’s tunic we observe that the artist has opted for a good-quality

azurite, which in the samples appears to be mixed with a large amount of

organic red lacquer and scarce amounts of ochre and white lead. Without

a doubt, this combination has to give light mauve or purple tones.

However, it appears as a greenish blue tone in the work, probably due to

some superficial chemical alteration of the pigment.

The quality of the pigments is excellent, as shown in the azurite used in

the execution of the background landscape as well as in the mountains and

foliage. Certainly this is due to it being a high-quality variety, with large

grains of unusual chromatic intensity.9

Again, we observe a technical indebtedness to the Netherlands and

Germany in the execution of golden details such as Christ’s halo, the

soldiers’ armor and other metallic elements: these have been carried out

by using mordant gilding (a la sisa). This technique consisted of applying

a gold leaf upon an oily or oil-resin material while still wet. It would then

adhere to the surface. This technique is of Northern European origin, yet

is employed in Hispanic-Flemish painting on occasion as an alternative to

the traditional gold in water in order to achieve different surface effects.10

Figs. 3, 4, 5 & 6 / Infrared

image (different details).

58 59SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700

In regards to this topic it is necessary to reference the extraordinarily

rich execution of the armor, which shows the aforementioned gold leaf

alongside a meticulous rendering of detail. For these, he employs a very

fine brush and black paint. As well – and as it is typical of Alejo Fernandez’s

work- the halos show an incised lines decoration in a radial shape. A red

cross embellishes the halo of Christ.

All technical aspects and procedures mentioned show us that Alejo

Fernández is an artist with extraordinary resources which he skillfully

manages. This, along with the quality of his painting, make him a reference

artist of the early Renaissance painting in Andalusia. The extraordinary

quality of this panel – if we imagine it in the context of its original setting

and as part of the iconographic scheme of an altarpiece of such great

dimensions and entity – allows us to conceive of it as part of a master

work in the artistic stage of its time.

1. For a recent text about Alejo’s technique in one work, in particular the Betrayal of Christ in the Sam Fogg Galley in London, see Nicholas Herman, “Alejo Fernández (c. 1475-1545). The Arrest of Christ”, in Susie Nash (ed.), Late Medieval Panel Paintings II. Materials, Methods, Meanings, London, Sam Fogg, 2015; pending publication is an investigation into the Gothic and Renaissance works of the Museo de Bellas Artes de Córdoba, focusing on the study of underdrawing. This project is the fruit of the collaboration between the Cordoba museum and the I&R of Madrid study-laboratory. It includes Alejo’s interesting sarga called Christ Tied to the Column with Two Donors.

2. The wood was analyzed under a microscope by taking a small sample from one of the sides. Oak was used regularly in Seville during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was used alongside other woods such as chestnut - which could come from Extremadura or Portugal – or thuja. See Véliz, Z., Wooden Panels and their Preparation for Painting from the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century in Spain, in “The Structural Conservation of Panel Painting”, The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles 1998 pp. 136-148; Prieto, M., Los antiguos soportes de madera fuentes de conocimiento para el restaurador (Doctoral thesis). Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid 1988.

3. Slight parallel transverse marks are shown in the radiograph. They are clearly curved and sometimes almost diagonal. They must correspond to the scrapes or scratches made on the back in order to improve the adhesion of the cradle.

4. Wadum, J., Historical Overview of Panel-Making Techniques in Northern Countries, in “The Structural Conservation of Panel Painting”, The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles 1998 pp. 149-177.

5. The spectrometry analysis through fluorescent x-ray lighting (EDXRF) and the microscopic study of the samples indicate that the ground layer consists of only a single thin stratum (≤70-80 µm). It is made up of anhydrite, with traces of plaster and earth. Staining tests with 2’, 7’-Dichlorofluorescein and Fuchsine acid tested positive for the detection of proteins in this stratum.

6. Gómez Sánchez, J.A. and Gutiérrez Carrasquilla, E., La restauración del Tríptico del Maestro de la Mendicidad del Ayuntamiento de Sevilla. Patrimonium Hispalense, Sevilla 2014.

7. The layer of priming shows a majority of white lead and traces of black carbon and earths. Staining tests with Rhodamine B and Amide Black test slightly positive for the presence of lipids, which would indicate that the binding agent could be a drying oil.

8. Although analysis to determine the colorant used in the red lacquer has not been carried out, the EDXRF analyses show a clear calcium peak at 3.69 and 4.01 KeV as well as sulfur at 2.31 KeV, alongside important levels of potassium at 3.31 KeV. Traces of aluminum are also detected at 1.49 KeV. This all indicates the presence of a precipitated organic uncolored dye upon an inorganic substrate of alumina and gypsum.

9. The analyses of the materials in this work are based upon the study carried out by different techniques of optical microscopy of the cross-sections and by pigment dispersions, as well as by superficial examination using the non-destructive technique of spectrometry analysis through fluorescent x-ray lighting (EDXRF). Following are the identified pigments and dyes: white lead, vermillion, red earth, organic red lacquer, azurite, verdigris, lead-tin yellow, yellow earth, brown earth, black coal and black bone (in the area covered by the panel’s cresting).

10. The ochre-brown gilding (thickness of ≤10µm) was carried out upon an earthy orange-colored bole and is mainly made up of minium, earths, copper blue, and silica; staining tests (Rhodamine B and Amide Black) suggest an oily nature.

NOTES

Fig. 7 / General radiograph

of the work. The image

has been digitally altered

in order to reduce the

presence of the clamp.

Fig. 8 / Stratigraphy of a sample taken from the red layer of Simon of Cyrene, on

the left border. The first layer corresponds to the ground, upon which one observes

the particles of the underlying drawing (2) and the white primer (3).

60 61SPANISH OLD MASTER PAINTINGS 1500–1700