A Bishop Saint
Bartolomé Bermejo·c. 1480
Historical Context
Bartolomé Bermejo painted this Bishop Saint around 1480, one of his extraordinary works that make him the greatest Spanish painter of the fifteenth century. Bermejo, whose name means "red" (possibly referring to his hair), was trained in the Netherlandish oil painting tradition and brought its meticulous realism to Spain. His powerful characterizations and extraordinary technical skill in rendering textiles, jewelry, and light effects place him among the finest painters of his era anywhere in Europe.
Technical Analysis
Bermejo's oil on panel demonstrates his mastery of the Netherlandish oil technique with its luminous glazes and meticulous surface detail. The bishop's vestments are rendered with extraordinary precision, the gold thread and jewels achieving an almost trompe-l'oeil realism that reflects his training in the Van Eyckian tradition.
Provenance
Private collection, Spain, before 1931 [letter from Abris Silberman to Daniel Catton Rich, March 31, 1947, Art Institute Archives]; E. and A. Silberman Galleries, Vienna, as Saint Augustine by Simon Marmion, by January 1931 [note by Max Friedländer on the reverse of a photograph in the Friedländer Archive, Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague]. New York art market, 1934 [according to Angulo 1935, p. 302; this was probably Silberman’s New York gallery]. Dr. Oscar Bondy (died 1944), Vienna and New York ; his widow, Elisabeth Soinig Bondy, until 1947 [the painting was not among the objects sealed in Bondy’s Vienna apartment in 1938; for this list see Sophie Lillie, Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens, Vienna, 2003, pp. 218-44; the letter from Silberman to Rich cited above indicates that the dealer had recently acquired the painting from Mrs. Bondy]; sold by E. and A. Silberman, New York, to the Art Institute, 1947 [purchased with deaccession funds].
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