Bartolomé Bermejo

Bartolomé Bermejo (born Córdoba, c. 1440, died Barcelona, c. 1498) was a Spanish painter who adopted Dutch painting techniques and conventions. Bermejo, whose real name was Bartolomé de Cárdenas, was first documented in a receipt issued in Valencia in 1468 when a patron, Antonio Juan, commissioned him to paint the Retable of Saint Michael (the centre panel of which is currently housed in the National Gallery, London). He was last documented in the last decade of the fifteenth century and may have therefore died around this time.

Although it is uncertain where Bermejo received his training, it is clear that he was profoundly influenced by fifteenth century Dutch painting. Bermejo travelled extensively throughout Spain, completing a variety of commissions for his Spanish and foreign patrons (including the Triptych of the Virgin of Montserrat, the centre panel of which is by Bermejo). It is often maintained that Bermejo must have travelled to the Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium) to receive such a mastery of oil painting techniques, but this is not necessarily so as there was a strong presence of both Dutch painters and paintings in Spain during the fifteenth century.

Art historians have made a number of attempts to create a chronology for the surviving works attributed to Bermejo, that, with the exception of documented works, is based largely on the assumption that "his first works maintained the decorative character of Aragonese paintings" with his later works departing from this local tradition. Although Bermejo is greatly influenced by paintings produced by fifteenth century Dutch masters (Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck), it is his extraordinary ability to synthesise the painting techniques and conventions of Netherlandish and Spanish painting traditions that appealed to his patrons and made him one of the most celebrated Spanish painters of the period.

There are three surviving works that incorporate the artist's name within the composition: a painting of Saint Michael with Kneeling Donor, Antonio Juan (National Gallery, London); the Triptych of the Virgin of Montserrat (Cathedral of Acqui Terme); and La Piedad with Canon Desplá. A number of other works, including the Retable of Santo Domingo de Silos, have been attributed to Bermejo through the survival of documentary evidence. Caution must be exercised when examining a number of other paintings attributed to Bermejo, as they are often, rather unconvincingly, ascribed to him based on style.

Works

*"Centre panel from the Retable of Saint Michael (c. 1468), National Gallery, London
*"Centre panel from the Altarpiece of St. Dominique de Silos" (1474-1477), Museo del Prado, Madrid (central panel)
*"Altarpiece of St. Engracia" (v. 1476), collegial of Daroca ("Crucifixion")
*"Altarpiece of the Virgin of Montserrat" (v. 1485), cathedral of Acqui Terme, Italy
*"Pietà" (1490), cathedral of Barcelona

External links

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/bermejo_bartolome.html Bartolomé Bermejo in Artcyclopedia]