Saint Vincent Ferrer

Vincent Ferrer, the Dominican friar from Valencia who became one of the most famous preachers of the late medieval period, was canonized in 1455, and images of him proliferated rapidly across the Iberian Peninsula and southern France in the decades following canonization. Miguel Alcañiz the Elder, a Valencian painter working in the International Gothic tradition, would have been well-positioned to receive commissions relating to the locally-born saint. Vincent is usually shown in Dominican habit with the book of Scripture, sometimes with an angel, and the inscribed trumpet he allegedly used to be heard by huge crowds.

The scale and finish appropriate to a newly canonized local saint — fine detail, precious materials, formal presentation — would characterize a commission like this. Alcañiz's Valencian style shows the characteristic International Gothic fusion of Sienese elegance with the increasing Flemish influence that was transforming Iberian painting in the first quarter of the fifteenth century.