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13 - The Dormition of the Virgin Altarpiece From the Kerry Stokes Collection
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- By Ursula Betka
- Edited by Anne Dunlop
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- Book:
- Antipodean Early Modern
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 05 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 15 February 2018, pp 237-250
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- Chapter
- Export citation
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Summary
Abstract
The paper aims to elucidate the significance of this Spanish altarpiece in relation to the imagery of the Dormition of the Virgin along with its distinctive inscription and crowning crest. Based on the large size of the painting and the recent conservators’ report, the work is interpreted as a single-panelled altarpiece in which the composition also refers to the Virgin's Assumption and Glorification as one of the Seven Joys – a prevalent theme for altarpiece dedication in the Catalonia region.
Keywords: Catalonia; Spanish art; Spanish altarpieces; Dormition of the Virgin; Seven Joys of the Virgin; Mateu Ortoneda
The remarkable Spanish painting of The Dormition of the Virgin (hereafter the Stokes Dormition) was purchased from Christie's in New York on 29 January 2014 (Figure 13.1). It takes the form of a horizontal rectangle with a trapezoidal top. A gilded timber structure frames the work, which includes an inscription across the full width of the base. At its apex is the distinctive feature of a raised red lozenge with the crest of a silver goat, flanked by a representation of two figures robed in white and kneeling in shallow tombs. The altarpiece's 2013 attribution by Rene Millet to an anonymous Catalonian painter known as the Master of Cabassers, with a date of 1410–1415, was based on comparison to an unsigned altarpiece of The Seven Joys of the Mother of God in the church of the Nativity in Cabassers or Cabaces (Priorat), Tarragona, which gives the master his name (Figure 13.2). In the same year, however, the Catalonian art historian Francesc Ruiz i Quesada convincingly argued for an identification of the anonymous master and the attribution of the Stokes panel to Mateu Ortoneda and his family workshop. He also suggested a possible origin of the commission in the Catalonian town of Cabra, now Cabra del Camp, near Tarragona, proposing the reconstruction of a monumental altarpiece in which the Stokes Dormition formed the central panel, capped by an image of the Deesis (or ‘entreaty’) with the Resurrection of the Dead. However, the most recent conservators’ report confirms that the Stokes Dormition was a stand-alone panel rather than part of a larger construction (Figure 13.3).