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The Healing of the Blind Bartimaeus, by Fernando Gallego (c. 1440 - 1507) and his workshop, is one of the twenty-six remaining paintings of the altarpiece from the Cathedral in Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain. Art historians dispute the number of panels that were in the original altarpiece. Some believe there could have been as many as thirty-five. The painting was done between 1480 -1488, although the date of the painting is also is a disputed. There is no documentation of the early history of the altarpiece, therefore details from this period are under debate. The known information is described below. The work is now in the collection of The University of Arizona Museum of Art and is referred to as The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo.

The altarpiece depicts two scenes from the Old Testament, Chaos, and the Creation of Eve with the remaining panels from New Testament, one of which is The Healing of the Blind Bartimaeus. The story for this painting comes from Mark 10:46-52 and is also referenced in Luke 18:35-43 and Matthew 20:29-34. Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, when the blind man Bartimaeus called to him. Bartimaeus was told to be quiet, but Christ called to him and asked what he wanted. Bartimaeus said, “My sight”. Jesus responded, “Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole.” And Bartimaeus’ sight was restored. The Altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo is thought to have been fifty to sixty feet high and twenty-five feet wide. Each oil and tempera on panel painting measures 154.8 x 111.1 cm (60 15/16 x 43 3/4 in.) and probably had a heavily guilded frame, similar to the surviving main altarpiece of the church of Santa Maria in Trujillo, attributed to Fernando Gallego and Maestro Bartolome ca. 1490. Documentation of The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo is limited and the details are not always clear. The following is a list of its history.
 * The altarpiece was removed from the apse during repair in 1539-1555.
 * There were two earthquakes in 1755 and 1761, which caused damage to the cathedral.
 * In 1812 during the Peninsula War the cathedral was in the middle of the fighting and some panels were damaged.
 * In 1879 the diocese sold 29 panels to an art dealer and the panels were sold again in 1882; during this time at least 3 panels disappeared.
 * In 1882 Sir Francis Cook bought 26 pieces and took them to his home in Richmond, Surry (England)
 * In 1933 Chandler Rathfon Post wrote about the altarpiece in History of Spanish Painting.
 * In 1945 the altarpiece was shown in a gallery in Toledo, Ohio, (United States) for safekeeping during World War II.
 * Gaya Nuno wrote an article about details of the history of the altarpiece, with a possible arrangement of pieces.
 * Knoedler’s in New York sold the work for Cook to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1954.
 * From 1955-1957, under ownership of the Kress Foundation the retablo was extensively restored by Mario Modestini.
 * In 1961 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation gave the altarpiece to the University of Arizona Museum of Art with the stipulation that it always be on display.
 * Also in 1961 Robert M. Quinn, associate professor of art history at the University of Arizona, published Fernando Gallego and the Retablo of Ciudad Rodrigo.
 * In 1977 Colin Eisler published, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, European Schools Excluding Italian, which describes the paintings given to the University of Arizona Museum of Art.
 * In 2004 Pilar Silva Marotos published monograph on Fernando Gallego.
 * In 2004 The Meadows Museum and Samuel H. Kress Foundation funded a $500,000 research project of the retablo. The Kimball Art Museum made infrared reflectographs of the pieces in its world-renowned conservation laboratory. Scholars from the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Prado Art Museum in Madrid helped interpret the underdrawings.

In the center of The Healing of the Blind Bartimaeus, Christ stands before Bartimaeus and with his blessing gesture touches Bartimaeus’ left eye. Bartimaeus is knelling with his hands held in prayer. There are two apostles standing behind Bartimaeus on the left, and one apostle standing behind Christ. There are also townspeople standing behind the apostles in the edges of the frame. The figures are painted fairly realistically with natural lighting and shadows. The robes are painted with exaggerated, flowing drapery. The background is a white wall, presumably the Wall of Jericho, with stylized trees behind the wall. There is a scroll verbalizing “Who did this sin” (John 9:2) from the mouth of Peter, and from Christ’s mouth a scroll stating, “But that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:3). Christ’s scroll is lifted by towards the heavens, as if God is sending energy to Christ to heal Bartimaeus. The townspeople are dressed in contemporary fifteenth-century clothing, hats, head covering, and shoes. The drapery is in oranges, greens and browns set against the white wall, adding a contrast that brings the figures forward. Also, the lavish drapery demonstrates the skill level of the artist. The faces are wrought with expression. The townspeople look at Bartimaeus with concern and empathy, one woman has her hand on her heart. A disciple with his hand on Peter’s shoulder reaches over to look at the miracle. The third apostle, behind Jesus, looks directly at the viewer, with his head slightly tilted to the left and his right palm pointed outward. His eyebrows are together. He is drawing us into the painting to be a witness of the divinity of Jesus.

Fernando Gallego

Documentation of Gallego’s life is as limited as that of the altarpiece. The first writing about Gallego comes in 1714, two hundred years after his death, from the painter and art historian Antonio Palomino. Chandler Rathfon Post warns us that specific details of Gallego’s life should be viewed with caution. It is believed that he was born sometime between 1440 and 1443, and Palomino wrote that Gallego came from the city of Salamanca. Post states he came from the province of Galicia. What is known is the area where he worked, which is seen in the map.

The details of his life and work have to be surmised from the few documents commissioning the paintings and the paintings that have been signed. There are three known signed works, but they were not always dated: Altarpiece of St. Ildefonso, from the Cathedral of Zamora, c. 1456-1467; Pieta, from the Prado Museum, 1470; and Triptych of the Virgin of the Rose from the museum of the Cathedral of Salamanca, 1470-1475. The dates of these works are calculated by contracts. As an example, The Altarpiece of St. Ildefonso was ordered by Bishop Juan de Mella sometime during his reign 1456-1467, the year of his death. But then it seems unlikely that the painting was done before the church was sanctioned by Pope Paul II in 1466. Also the dates of the paintings are deduced by Gallego’s quoting other artists, such as Martin Schongauer. The entire works are not copied, just some of the figures and gestures. In 1507 the last known document referring to Gallego was a contract with fellow painter Pedro de Tolosa for payment for a painting at University of Salamaca.

The other works attributed to him have been determined by his distinctive style and the way human figures were painted. Typically his female figures had broad features with little structure, short straight eyebrows, with downward gazing elongated eyes. The male figures carry more structure in the eyelids, noses are longer, chins sharper. The major figures are painted similarly from one painting to another.

Gallego was a prolific painter, receiving multiple contracts like the six altarpieces for the Cathedral of Coria in 1473. Unfortunately many of his works have been lost or destroyed. In order to create so many works of art he used assistants, which accounts for the numerous discussions regarding the artist of the paintings of the Ciudad Rodrigo retablo. Post held that Gallego did not do any of the paintings and that there were a few people involved with the painting. Art historian, Gaya Nuño believed The Healing of the Blind Bartimaeus was done by an inferior assistant. In 1961 Robert Quinn determined that there were five hands involved with the retablo, and that The Healing of the Blind Bartimaeus was done by “hand IV…the weakest in handling space. Recently, the extensive underdrawings of the paintings were documented by the conservation studio of the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, which validated that there were two Masters behind the paintings of The Altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo, Fernando Gallego, and Maestro Bartolome.

The underdrawings were revealed using infrared wavelengths to penetrate the paint and then captured on sensors to create infrared reflectograms. The underdrawings of the two artists are quite different. This article will deal only with the preparatory sketches done by Gallego and his workshop for The Healing of the Blind Bartimaeus. Gallego outlined forms, using parallel hatching to indicate shadows. His lines were “loose, energetic and short curved, parallel strokes with hooked ends, applied for volume and shading.” There is more detail in the faces of the apostles and Jesus, the central figures. Also extensive color notes were given. In some of the panels, the color notes were visible to the naked eye. The underdrawings have been compared to Galleogo’s Pieta and the technique is consistent. Comparison of the infrared reflectograms reveals an immature, less refined underdrawing of The Healing of the Blind Bartimaeus that was done in a collaboration of master and apprentice. During King Henry IV’s reign (1454-1474) the Iberian peninsula was a period of continual war, civil strife, and economic depression. Because of the instability, painting was not a priority. Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile married in 1469 and united the two territories, creating a stability, which made painting and the arts flourish. In the second half of the fifteenth century, Castilian painters were influenced by the Flemish school of painting. The northern influence reached its apex during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs. The Hispano-Flemish painting style uses the Flemish style of rendering faces, drapery, the medium of oil paints, scrolls for vocalization, with the addition of the brighter Spanish palette, flat golden halos, and larger works. Another reason why Flemish painting was embraced was the naturalistic trend was in agreement with Spanish aesthetics. Dieric Bouts, a painter from the Netherlands who worked in the early fifteenth century influenced Gallego’s work. Bout’s work was highly expressive and rich in color, and usually of a religious nature, characteristics seen in Gallego’s paintings.

There are many reasons for this hybrid style. Queen Isabella was an enthusiastic collector of art, and encouraged the importation of works from Flanders as well as Germany. The Catholic Monarchy, through the Spanish Inquisition, expelled the Jews and the Moors by 1492, uniting Spain under the Catholic religion. She was influential in the subject matter of painting being predominantly religious. Fernando Gallego is considered the master of Hispano-Flemish painting, The Altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo, its finest example.

Citations

Bibliography

Anderson, Barbara C., Fernando Gallego and His Workshop, The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo, ISBN 978-London: Philip Wilson, 2008. ISBN0-85667-651-2

Barry, Claire, “The Making of the Ciudad Rodrigo Altarpiece,” Fernando Gallego and His Workshop, The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo, London: Philip Wilson, 2008.

Bermejo, Elisa, “Painting in the Period of Isabella the Catholic” Isabella, The Catholic Queen of Castile, ed. Palacio, Pedro Navascues,

Eisler, Colin, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, European Schools Excluding Italian, Phaidon Press, Oxford, 1977.

Holy Bible, Abundant Life Edition. Oral Roberts, editor. Philadelphia, PA: The National Bible Press, 1958. Horton, Renee Schafer, “15th-century retablo returns to UA, its secrets...,” Tucson Citizen, July 16, 2008, http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/91172.php.

Liss, Peggy, “Isabella I of Castile, Queen of Spain,” Isabella, The Catholic Queen of Castile, ed. Palacio, Pedro Navascues,

Maroto, Pilar Silva, “Fernando Gallego and the Altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo” Fernando Gallego and His Workshop, The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo, ISBN 978-London: Philip Wilson, 2008.

Post, Chandler Rathfon, “Fernando Gallego and The School of Salamanca and Zamora,” A History of Spanish Painting, Volume IV-Part I, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1933.

Quinn, Robert, Fernando Gallego and the Retablo of Ciudad Rodrigo, The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1961.