12 - Pere Mates (documented 1512-1558)

Pere Mates (documented 1512-1558) Predella of an altarpiece. Oil painting on wood. Girona, circa 1525. 43 x 144 cm. This is a previously unattributed predella of an altarpiece, which clearly must be attributed to Pere Mates, one of the best-known painters among those documented in Girona during the first half of the 16th century. It is divided into five compartments. The main one is wider than the rest and shows a depiction of Christ, Man of Sorrows flanked by the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, with the Arma Christi as a backdrop. The rest of the compartments show Saint Peter, Saint Sebastian, Saint Margaret and Saint Christopher. The style of the painting leaves no room for doubt as to the attribution to Mates, since the characters have close parallels to those in other works by the painter. This is the case of Saint Peter, who has exactly the same bodily form as the same character depicted on one of the panels of the Segueró altarpiece, now in the Museu d'Art de Girona, and on a predella from the old Anton Casamor collection. The Saint Christopher is very similar to the Saint Andrew in another of the compartments of the aforementioned Segueró altarpiece. Saint Sebastian, here, is reminiscent of the Saint Andrew from the main compartment of the missing altarpiece of the church of Sant Andreu de Llorona. Another feature to point out is the treatment of the nimbus, which is completely smooth and outlined in black, as in many of Mates' paintings. Pere Mates was the most preeminent painter of an important family of artists from Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Catalonia, Spain). He is documented for the first time in 1512 and he developed a long and fruitful career until 1558, the year in which he died. His workshop carried out important pictorial activity in Renaissance times in the lands of the bishopric of Girona, with works carried out for the cathedral and the church of Sant Nicolau in Girona, for the monasteries of Sant Pere de Rodes, Sant Llorenç del Mont and Sant Pere de Cercada, and for parishes such as Roses, Vilablareix, Millars, Vilamarí, Verges, Segueró and Montagut, among others. His works are kept in Girona Cathedral, in different churches in the province of Girona, in the Museu d'Art de Girona and in private collections. We would like to thank Dr. Alberto Velasco González for identifying and cataloguing this work. Provenance: France, private collection. Bibliography on the panels: The predella was previously unattributed. Bibliography on the painter (selected): - MIQUEL ÀNGEL ALARCIA, Pedro Matas, unpublished degree thesis, Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, 1973. - JOAQUIM GARRIGA, “La geometria espacial de Pere Mates”, Annals de l’Institut d’Estudis Gironins, XXXIII, 1984, pp. 527-562. - JOAQUIM GARRIGA, “Pere Mates. C. 1490/1495-1558 (†)”, en De Flandes a Itàlia. El canvi de model en la pintura catalana del segle XVI: el bisbat de Girona, Girona, Museu d’Art de Girona, 1998, pp. 205-206. - JOAN BOSCH Y FRANCESC MIRALPEIX (EDS.), Falsos verdaders. L’art de l’engany, Girona, Museu d’Art de Girona, 2019.