Nicolas Borras

NICOLÁS BORRAS (Cocentaina, 1530-Monastery of San Jerónimo de Cotalba, 1610).
"Eucharistic Christ".
Attached report issued by Don José María Gómez Frechina.
Oil on canvas.
Measurements: 101 x 76 cm; 114 x 87 cm (frame).
The iconography of this work, which represents the Eucharistic Christ holding the consecrated form with the inscription "IHS", refers directly to a devotional motif widely spread in Valencian painting of the sixteenth century and, in particular, to the model established by Juan de Juanes. However, the present painting should be attributed to Nicolás Borrás (Cocentaina, 1530 - Monasterio de San Jerónimo de Cotalba, 1610), one of the most faithful and qualified followers of the master, whose production assimilates and reworks with remarkable coherence the Juanesque language.

Trained in the orbit of Juan de Juanes, Borrás developed a style deeply marked by the classicist idealization and spiritual clarity of the model, but tinged by a more restrained and reflective personal sensitivity. In this work, the face of Christ responds to this ideal of serene and humanized beauty: the balanced facial oval, the smooth transition between light and shadow and the careful treatment of the beard and hair reveal an expert hand, attentive to drawing and precise modeling. The almond-shaped eyes, with a recollected expression, and the slight inclination of the neck transmit a silent spirituality, in accordance with the meditative character that defines a good part of Borrás' production.

The treatment of the fabrics also shows the legacy of Juan de Juanes, reinterpreted with his own language. The red mantle presents wide and orderly folds, of firm volume and clear construction, which refer to the Renaissance tradition of Italian roots, filtered by the Valencian aesthetics. However, in this version the backdrop stands out in a special way, a green cloth richly decorated with golden brocades, whose meticulous execution brings depth and solemnity to the scene. Borrás demonstrates here a remarkable mastery of color and pictorial texture, integrating the background as an element of symbolic enhancement without detracting from the figure of Christ.

The white tablecloth in the foreground deserves special mention, treated with exceptional care. Its angular folds, the cold luminosity of the fabric and the precision in the definition of the edges reveal an almost miniaturist attention to detail, a characteristic trait of Nicolás Borrás. This taste for formal accuracy and technical neatness, inherited from the workshop of Juanes, becomes in his work an expressive resource at the service of visual clarity and devotional message.

As a whole, the painting is fully inscribed in the splendor of the Valencian school of the 16th century, headed by Juan de Juanes and prolonged by artists such as Nicolás Borrás. It brings together the influence of Raphael - assimilated through Italianizing engravings and models - and the Hispanic tradition of a clear, didactic and luminous spirituality. The balanced composition, the purity of the drawing, the harmonious coloring and the narrative clarity confirm Borrás as a faithful and refined interpreter of the Johannine ideal, capable of endowing it with its own personality within the artistic panorama of his time.