La Vierge de douleur et Saint Jean l’Évangéliste et Saint Antoine

The Master of Albocàsser is named for works associated with the town of Albocàsser in the Valencian interior, and his triptych panel showing the Virgin of Sorrows with Saints John the Evangelist and Anthony Abbot belongs to the Hispano-Flemish altarpiece tradition of the Valencian school in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. The grouping of the Mater Dolorosa with the Beloved Disciple and the desert hermit reflects a devotional programme combining Passion imagery with two of the most widely venerated saints in the region. Valencian painting of this period had absorbed Flemish technique while maintaining an Iberian directness of devotional address.

The Master works in the Hispano-Flemish manner, with oil glazes over a prepared ground creating luminous flesh and saturated drapery colours. The Virgin's blue mantle against the patterned gold ground is characteristic of Valencian altarpiece chromatics. John's youthful figure and Anthony's aged one create a deliberate physiognomic contrast that structures the composition's emotional range.