MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - PA169.jpg


Category	Painting
Origin: artist/workshop	Master of Baltimore
Date	14C/3
Reference No	MNAC/MAC 15855
Size
Provenance	Cardona
Present Location	Barcelona, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
Bibliography	Gothic Art Guide 2000, 77-8

Illustration From	photo - Museum (detail)
Other illustrations	Duran 1953, ill 10; Duran 1990, pl 3 (whole panel)
	Gothic Art Guide, 77 (whole panel)
Country	Spain

Description:
An altarpiece from Cardona dated c 1347-60 of which the left-hand side panel with the main themes of the Annunciation (above) and Epiphany (below) has been preserved (the other side panel has the Nativity and is now in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts). On the two sides are columns with four standing male saints and six smaller circular busts of women saints. On the left (above) is the figure of a nimbed and bearded Bernard in a white cowl with a simple golden crozier in his left hand and a red book in his right. Below is an unknown Cistercian saint. On the right are St Benedict (above) and St Anthony. The significant presence of two Cistercian saints supports the hypothesis linking its origin to a Cistercian monastery and rules out the traditional attribution to the collegiate church of St Vincent in Cardona.

Description:

An altarpiece from Cardona dated c 1347-60 of which the left-hand side panel with the main themes of the Annunciation (above) and Epiphany (below) has been preserved (the other side panel has the Nativity and is now in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts). On the two sides are columns with four standing male saints and six smaller circular busts of women saints. On the left (above) is the figure of a nimbed and bearded Bernard in a white cowl with a simple golden crozier in his left hand and a red book in his right. Below is an unknown Cistercian saint. On the right are St Benedict (above) and St Anthony. The significant presence of two Cistercian saints supports the hypothesis linking its origin to a Cistercian monastery and rules out the traditional attribution to the collegiate church of St Vincent in Cardona.