Valencian school, late 15th century

Valencian school, late 15th century.
"Saint Jude Thaddeus and Saint Simon.
Altarpiece or altar frontal.
Painting on panel.
Carved wood, gilded and polychrome.
It presents light craquelure.
Measurements: 96 x 63 cm.

Valencian altarpiece with the representation of the apostles Judas Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot, two apostles who often appeared together in the devotional iconography because both were killed at the hands of the Persian priests for preaching the Gospel. Simon was cut from head to crotch with a saw, which serves as a symbol, as we can see in this excellent painting. We are before a Renaissance altarpiece, which inherits from the late medieval period the solution of the golden background, although in this case it has been decorated with carvings, scrolls and borders that emulate damascene brocades. The two figures, with large almond-shaped eyes, exchange glances in a silent dialogue. The expressiveness of their features and the naturalness of their gestures denote a certain Italian influence filtered by the aura of proximity of Los Hernandos (the painters Fernando Llanos and Fernando Yáñez), who introduced the novelties of the Quattrocento and the Italian Cinquecento into the Valencian and Murcian schools. Specifically, it is the wake of the Florentine painters of the Quattrocento, in the line of Masaccio or Piero della Francesca that most influenced the Valencian school, and that is evident in the rough and angular faces that we are dealing with, of somber expression, resolved with an excellent drawing and contrasting ranges of satin finishes.
During the Renaissance, the series of apostles represented in pairs or individually on a neutral background and carrying their iconographic attributes became popular in Spanish painting. They derived from late medieval altarpieces, but in the sixteenth century the expressions and gestures deepened in a naturalism characteristic of the time.