{"id":15978,"date":"2019-04-17T08:04:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T08:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/?p=15978"},"modified":"2019-04-23T06:45:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T06:45:51","slug":"bermejo-a-fifteenth-century-rebel-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.museunacional.cat\/en\/bermejo-a-fifteenth-century-rebel-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"Bermejo, a Fifteenth-century Rebel Genius"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joan Molina<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As soon as you enter the exhibition Bermejo: The 15th Century Rebel Genius<\/em><\/a> a painting catches your eye. It is Christ of the Piet\u00e0<\/em>, a work painted around 1470. You will be moved by, among other things, finding yourself looking at a depiction of the naked Christ, covered only by a transparent gauze, refined and preciosista<\/em>, beneath which his genitals are clearly visible. Added to the surprise due to the exceptional nature of the religious image, to some extent heterodox, there is the admiration for the very high quality of its technique. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visitants
Visitors admiring Christ of the Piet\u00e0<\/em> (circa 1465-75). Photo: Marta M\u00e9rida<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The painter, Bartolom\u00e9 de C\u00e1rdenas, alias el Bermejo (c.<\/em> 1445-c.<\/em> 1501), was one of the most fascinating painters of the fifteenth century. His indisputable technical skill and the originality of many of his compositions have aroused the admiration of numerous international specialists for more than a century. In spite of this he is almost unknown to the general public<\/strong>. For this reason, a couple of years ago, the Museo Nacional del Prado<\/a> and the Museu Nacional d\u2019Art de Catalunya decided to organize a retrospective, bringing together for the first time most of his conserved works, these days distributed around museums and collections in Spain, Europe and the United States. <\/strong>We have endeavoured to present these paintings in an attractive and enlightening way in an exhibition with eight sections that enable us to look at his artistic career, admire the principal creations, and discover his links with colleagues and contemporaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bermejo, a painter with extraordinary technical skill and a language of his own <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bermejo stands out for his mastery of the potential of the then new<\/strong> oil-painting technique<\/strong>. With it he was able to develop a realistic personal idiom<\/strong>, especially attentive to illusory effects, but also to the definition of spectacular colour ranges. One only has to look at the stylized figure of Saint Michael from Tous, his first recorded work (1468), in which we can admire the textures of the material in the red cape that flutters in the wind and the shine of the gleaming golden armour, decorated with all kinds of precious stones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Sant<\/a>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Saint Michael Triumphs Over the Devil<\/em> with the donor Antoni Joan, 1468. \u00a9The National Gallery, London. Purchased through a private agreement with a grant from the American Friends of the National Gallery in London, made possible thanks to the financial endowment from J. Paul Getty Jnr, 1995, NG 6553 <\/h6>\n\n\n\n

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It seems clear that our painter\u2019s<\/strong> principal artistic reference was Flemish painting<\/strong>, the school begun by Jan van Eyck<\/a> and Rogier van der Weyden<\/a> which had conquered the whole of Europe, Italy included, by the second half of the fifteenth century. However, even though there has been speculation that Bermejo was able to train in northern European workshops, it is more likely that he learned to paint in cosmopolitan Valencia in the middle third of the fifteenth century<\/strong>, a city open to both Flemish and Italian models, also reflected by the painter from C\u00f3rdoba. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/a>
The exhibition Bermejo: The 15th Century Rebel Genius<\/em><\/a> at Museu Nacional. Foto: Marta M\u00e9rida <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A sought-after painter, with a complicated and itinerant career<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The scant information about his life that we have indicates that Bermejo had a complicated professional career<\/strong>. Born in C\u00f3rdoba, his being a converso<\/em> (a Jew converted to Christianity) very possibly forced him to lead an itinerant life <\/strong>that took him, at least, to live in Valencia, Daroca, Zaragoza and, finally, Barcelona. One of the problems with this circumstance in his life is that, to get round the guild limitations of the period, he had to associate with local masters in those cities, far less talented than him<\/strong>. This gave rise to troubled situations, such as the abandonment of some commissions and even being punished with a sentence of excommunication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite that, the proud use of his alias, el Bermejo, perhaps\nadopted due to some physical trait, with which he signed some of his most\ninnovative works, is evidence that he was a\npainter with a strong personality, probably conscious and proud of his talent<\/strong>\n\u2013 a real fifteenth-century rebel genius. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bartolom\u00e9<\/a>
Triptych of the Virgin of Montserrat<\/em>, around 1483-1489. Alessandria, Acqui Terme, Cattedrale di Nostra Signora Assunta, Aula Capitolare <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bermejo, the creator of his own language <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Besides his technical skill, Bermejo is also surprising for his ability to make new interpretations of all kinds of themes and iconographies<\/strong>. Indeed, his interest in continuing to explore new areas, especially in the field of landscape and portraiture, enabled him to produce some of his most complex and innovative works towards the end of his professional life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Bartolom\u00e9<\/a>
Despl\u00e0 Piet\u00e0<\/em>, 1490. \u00a9 Catedral de Barcelona (Photographer: Guillem F-H) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A paradigmatic example is his last known work, Canon Llu\u00eds\nDespl\u00e0\u2019s Piet\u00e0<\/em> (1490). Beyond the evocation of a devotional subject,\nBermejo presents us with a pictorial\nspectacle, the depiction of an extraordinary landscape <\/strong>that stands out for\nits background full of atmospheric effects and the detailed picture of a Celestial\nJerusalem, and for the meticulous recreation, in the foreground, of a real\nbotanical and animal universe that the viewer observes with a mixture of curiosity\nand astonishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
    Despl\u00e0 Piet\u00e0,<\/em> 1490. Details \u00a9 Catedral de Barcelona (Fot\u00f2graf: Guillem F-H) <\/h6>\n\n\n\n

    After his death, Bermejo and his work were completely forgotten. Indeed, the artist and his work were not recovered until the late nineteenth century, when some of his most distinguished panel paintings aroused the interest of important international collectors and forgers of old paintings. Some of these fakes serve to end the exhibition and bear witness to how far Bermejo became, in the early twentieth century, one of the best-known representatives of what could be an imaginary museum of Flemish painting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    He was a magnificent master, to whom we pay a deserved, long-overdue\ntribute, and at the same time we introduce him to the general public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n