The Visitation

The Maestro de Perea was an anonymous Valencian painter active around 1490–1510, associated with the circle of Rodrigo de Osona and the Valencian school of Hispano-Flemish painting. The Visitation, now in the Museo del Prado, depicts Mary's journey to visit Elizabeth after the Annunciation — one of the standard Marian narrative subjects appearing in altarpiece programs devoted to the Life of the Virgin. Valencian painting of this period represents one of the richest regional schools in Spain, combining the influence of Flemish masters (transmitted through the close commercial ties between Valencia and the Burgundian Netherlands) with the increasingly visible influence of Italian Renaissance painting arriving through Naples and the Aragonese Mediterranean network. The Maestro de Perea's version reflects this synthesis with the assurance of a well-trained workshop painter.

The Maestro de Perea employs the Hispano-Flemish approach characteristic of the Valencia school — precise oil technique, careful figure modeling, and Flemish-influenced landscape backgrounds — combined with the formal compositional clarity of Spanish altarpiece painting. Mary and Elizabeth's embrace is rendered with warmth and dignity, their figures placed within an architectural or landscape setting that grounds the sacred meeting in a convincing physical world.