Vergós Group, last quarter of the 15th century

Group of the Vergós, last quarter of the 15th century.
"Calvary".
Oil and tempera on panel. Gilded parts.
Work published in "A History of Spanish Painting. The Catalan school in the late middle ages", Chandler Rathfon Post, Vol. VII, part 1, 1938.
Measurements: 115 x 63 x 3 cm.

The excellent Calvary panel presented here was made by a member of the influential lineage of Vergós painters, active in Barcelona between the 15th and 16th centuries, probably dating from the last quarter of the 15th century. The magnificent technique used allows us to compare it with other altarpieces attributed to the family, such as the Calvary preserved in the Rijksmuseum (in both compositions we can appreciate the figure of the suffering Christ, wearing the crown of thorns and exasperating with bleeding ribs), although with a serene acceptance of his destiny) or the altarpiece of St. Stephen Protomartyr in Granollers (of which scholars José Gudiol Ricart and Santiago Alcolea Blanch have shown a considerable dependence on the compositional schemes of Huguet, a master considered one of the greatest artists of the late Middle Ages in Europe whose style evolved from International Gothic towards the innovations incorporated from Flemish painting, in whose workshop members of the Vergós family had been trained. Both scholars continue that this would be confirmed by a simple comparison of the Calvary of Granollers with the homologous panel of the Altarpiece of San Antonio Abad, or those of the Santa Cena and Camino del Calvario with the homologous ones of the Altarpiece of San Agustín by Jaume Huguet).

In addition, this Calvary has a close compositional and stylistic link with the triptych of the MNAC (Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew; Calvary; Death of St. Mary Magdalene), the work of the master Jaume Huguet. This artistic relationship is not casual, since the personal connections between both families were known, with Huguet being a wedding witness of Jaume Vergós (II), as well as, as previously mentioned, they were disciples of his workshop.

Iconographically, our Calvary represents one of the most intense and theologically charged scenes in Christian art: the crucifixion of Christ on Golgotha. The composition is articulated around the central figure of the Crucified, arranged vertically, with his arms stretched out on the cross and his head turned to the right side in a gesture of serene pain. The body of Christ, treated with anatomical precision and restrained naturalism, stands out for its pale pallor. Above the cross appears the cartouche with the acronym "INRI", Latin acronym for Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, framing the motif within its biblical context. On both sides of the wood are two of the essential characters in this iconography: the Virgin Mary, her face darkened by grief, dressed in a dark tunic and white headdress that reinforce her character as the Sorrowful Mother, and St. John the Evangelist, dressed in a bright red that visually distinguishes him and underlines his role as a faithful witness of the Passion. The frontal and contained disposition of both characters, with restrained gestures of recollection and affliction, reinforces the devotional dimension of the work, undoubtedly conceived to arouse the pious meditation of the spectator. The background of the painting reveals the city of Jerusalem.

The Vergós workshop stood out in 15th and 16th century Barcelona as one of the most representative of Catalan painting. They are considered the last representatives in Catalonia of the fourteenth-century painting, although with reduced projection, since the new pictorial tendencies did not find in Catalonia a land where to develop. The brothers Francesc and Jaume Vergós (¿-Barcelona, 1460) and their respective sons: Francesc and Jaume Vergós (Barcelona, ? - 1503) and the sons of the latter: Pau and Rafael Vergós (Barcelona, 1463 (?) - 1495). The technique of this workshop clearly derives from that of Master Huguet, with whom they even collaborated.