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Joan REIXACH (Valencia, documented from 1431 to 1486)
VERONI…
See original version (French)
Joan REIXACH (Valencia, documented from 1431 to 1486)
VERONI…
See original version (French)
Lot no. 1 - 1
Description
Joan REIXACH (Valencia, documented from 1431 to 1486)
VERONICA OF THE VIRGIN
Devotional panel Egg painting and gold ground on wooden panel
Height: 41.5 cm
Width: 27 cm
H. 47cm; W.32.5cm overall
H. 41.2cm; W. 27cm pictorial surface
Thickness: 3cm with frame moulding
1.5cm panel only
INSCRIPTION
At the lower edge of the panel, in Gothic letters painted in black and red on a gold background: AVE REGINA CELORUM AVE DOMINA AN (gelorum)
STATUS
Slightly curved panel, consisting of two boards measuring 28cm and 4.5cm wide, the reverse of which is covered with orange painted gesso. Original gilded wooden frame moulding.
Pictorial surface and gold background: wear and restorations, repainting in the left part of the blue veil.
Punched and engraved ornamentation: original.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
El Renacimiento Mediterraneo, exhibition Madrid, Museo Thyssen Bornemisza 31 January-6 May 2001, p. 327, fig. 46G, p. 328 n.15 (as Joan Reixach?)
La clave flamenca en los primitivos valencianos, exhibition Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes 30 May -2 September 2001 p.138-139, fig.7.4 (as Joan Reixach)
The Virgin, standing out against the golden background, appears in a bust, dressed in a pleated red dress, her head and shoulders completely covered by a large cloak with light golden motifs, under which her face is covered by a white veil draped over her chin. The gilded surface is enlivened by a border running around the edge of the frame and a large halo, both decorated with engraved and punched geometric and plant motifs.
Bordering the lower part of the image, the slightly curved phylactery bears the inscriptions of the antiphon recited during the office of Compline, the praise due to the Virgin during Lent.
The typology of the Virgin's face derives from the icons known as achéropoïetes (not made by human hands), which were present and venerated in Rome in the early days of Christianity, and whose model spread to Spain, particularly in the Valencia region. In Barcelona in 1398, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the King of Aragon, Martin the Human, had one of these venerable images exhibited, which King Alfonso the Magnanimous donated to Valencia Cathedral in 1437. (cf. El Renacimiento Mediterraneo, op. cit. pp. 139-142 repr). This gift led to the wide dissemination of this model in the 15th century, which is also found in the form of a double-sided painting associated with the "Vera icona" of Christ.
The creation of this devotional image, which concentrates the intimacy between the faithful and the sacred figure in a small space, was part of the same artistic context as that dominated in mid-15th-century Valencia by the Catalan painter Joan Reixach. Indeed, it was to this artist that recent criticism attributed it when it first appeared on the art market (see Bibliography). Reixach was particularly sensitive to the Flemish-Nordic trend disseminated by the works of Luis Dalmau, as can be seen in his altarpiece of Saint Ursula, the only work signed and dated 1468 by this artist (Barcelona, MNAC/MAC 15927), which is marked by a manifest aulic character still attached to the Gothic tradition.
This tradition is clearly visible in this Veronica of the Virgin, where the ornamental work on the gold background - a very large halo with plant motifs bordered by a circle of geometric figures - marks Reixach's personality, as do the stylistic elements still linked to the symbolism of the Gothic aesthetic. This is evidenced by the small size of the figure, its oval face with precise, strong features, the tapering design of the long, pointed nose, the rigorously drawn, half-closed eyelids and the meditative, expressive character of the eyes. All these features are particularly evident in the Predella de la Pasión (Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes, inv. 2101), which critics have dated to around 1450, and allow us to place the execution of our panel around the same period.
Expert : Cabinet Turquin.
See original version (French)
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