Vicente Berdusán

VICENTE BERDUSÁN (Ejea de los Caballeros, Aragón, 1632 - Tudela, Navarra, 1697).
"Jesus at the last supper".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 68 x 52 cm; 84,5 x 67 cm (frame).
In this canvas attributed to the Navarrese-Aragonese painter Vicente Berdusán, the essential features that define his artistic personality are clearly manifested. The composition, deliberately simple and concentrated, presents Christ half-length, cut out against a neutral background that intensifies his physical and spiritual presence. The lighting, uniform and classically rooted, softly models the body and gives volume to the anatomy without resorting to excessively dramatic hallmarks. This clear and orderly light, which reveals the knowledge of Italian novelties, connects with the stylistic evolution of Berdusán, who, after an initial stage of a certain compositional archaism, developed from the 1660s onwards a more mature language in which color and light acquire a decisive protagonism. In the present work, the serene corporeality of Christ, the tonal gradation and expressive restraint are evidence of this assimilation of Italian models reinterpreted from the Castilian sensibility.
An extraordinarily prolific artist, with more than three hundred signed and dated works preserved, he left a deep mark in Aragon, La Rioja and Navarre, extending his activity to Madrid, Catalonia and the Basque Country. His production, represented today in institutions such as the Museo del Prado, the Museo de Navarra, the Museo de Huesca and the Museo de Tudela, allows us to contextualize this canvas within a coherent corpus in which compositional clarity, the dignity of the figures and the prominence of light constitute the fundamental pillars of his style.