The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple - Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

Buy image

The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple

Master of Cervera de la Cañada

Active second half of the 15th century

Tempera on panel

90 x 91 cm

c. 1450-1460

Second half of the 15th century

69/132

Acquired in 1959

  • Saint Joachim and Saint Anne at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem and The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple are the titles of two panels from the parish church of Cervera de la Cañada now in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. The two panels were most likely part of an ample set of works of Marian devotion today dispersed in a number of museums and collections. These works provide the starting point for a profile of an anonymous artist, the Master of Cervera de la Cañada, probably active in what is now the province of Zaragoza in the late 15th century. Although for the moment we do not know his name and virtually nothing about his life and career, which means it is hard to pin down where exactly he trained and worked as an artist, the style of the panels from Cervera de la Cañada, and of several other works that, in my view, may be attributed to him, provides a link with the movement of painting in Aragon led by the Master of Saint George and the Princess, this being the artist responsible for the iconic panel featuring the knight-saint and his lady now in the MNAC, the national museum of art of Catalonia. Both this superbly rendered panel and the two from Cervera de la Cañada, more modest perhaps but just as interesting, were attributed by many 20th-century historians to the leading Catalonian painter of the second half of the 15th century, Jaume Huguet. However, recent stylistic revisions of Saint George and the Princess and works from Aragon traditionally associated with it, together with greater knowledge and understanding of the art scene in Aragon and Huguet's body of work (all made possible largely by the discovery of new works and documents) have led to a major rethink with respect to these attributions. (Guadaira Macías Prieto)

Selected bibliography

  • Post, Chandler Rathfon. A History of Spanish Painting. Harvard, Harvard University Press, 1930-1966. Vol. VIII, Part. I, p. 132 y Vol. X, pp.376-377.
  • Exposición Huguet [Cat. exp.]. Barcelona, Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, 1949. p. 3, n° cat. 1.
  • Lasterra, Crisanto de. Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : catálogo descriptivo : sección de arte antiguo. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1969. pp. 61-62, n° cat. 132. (Con el título Presentación de la Virgen en el templo, y atribuido a HUGUET, Jaime).
  • Galilea Antón, Ana María. Catalogación y estudio de los fondos de Pintura Española del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao del siglo XIII al XVIII (de 1270 a 1700) [tesis inédita]. 1993. pp. 247-250. (Con el título Presentación de la Virgen en el Templo, y atribuido a Anónimo aragonés del tercer cuarto del siglo XV)
  • Galilea Antón, Ana María. Catalogación y estudio de los fondos de Pintura Española del Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao del siglo XIII al XVIII (de 1270 a 1700) [tesis inédita]. 1993. pp. 121-123, figs. 72, 72a, 72b. (Con el título 'Presentación de la Virgen en el Templo', y como Anónimo Aragonés del tercer cuarto del siglo XV
  • Galilea Antón, Ana María. "La colección de Pintura Española anterior a 1700 en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao", Urtekaria 1994 : asterlanak, albistak = Anuario 1994 : estudios, crónicas. 1995. pp. 21, 24, 41. (Con el título Presentación de la Virgen en el Templo, y atribuido a ANÓNIMO ARAGONÉS DEL TERCER CUARTO DEL SIGLO XV)..
  • Galilea Antón, Ana María. La pintura gótica española en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao : catálogo. Bilbao, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, 1995. pp. 164-165. (Con el título ”Presentación de la Virgen en el templo”, y como Anónimo aragonés del tercer cuarto del siglo XV)
  • Macías Prieto, Gudaira. "Dos tablas del Maestro de Cervera de la Cañada en el Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao = Two panels by the Master of Cervera de la Cañada in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum = Cervera de la Cañadako Maisuaren bi ohol Bilboko Arte Arts Museum", Buletina = Boletín = Bulletin, n° 9. 2015. pp. 19-50, 195-207.

The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple