Bartolomé Bermejo

Although it is unclear where Bermejo received his training, his complete mastery of the oil glaze technique suggests direct contact with 15th century Flemish painting, which he was able to adapt perfectly to the demands of Spanish altarpieces of the period: large-scale retables with many panels.

Also, in a period and place where painting was a business, and work was generally negotiated by contract, there is both direct and indirect evidence that he was professionally unreliable, though apparently his outstanding talent made patrons willing to take the risk.

At least three major altarpieces that he undertook, the high altar retables of Santo Domingo de Silos in Daroca and Santa Anna in Barcelona, and the triptych of the Virgin of Montserrat in Valencia, were left incomplete for others to finish.

No documentation of other work from that period seems to have survived, but there is evidence that he returned there for a short time around 1485, when he painted the signed central panel of the Triptych of the Virgin of Montserrat, ordered by an Italian merchant who was living there, Francesco della Chiesa, for the Cathedral of Acqui Terme, his hometown.

[3] By 1474, Bermejo had moved on to the Aragonese town of Daroca, where he signed a contract to paint the high altarpiece for the church of Santo Domingo de Silos.

This contract is full of guarantees to keep Bermejo working on the altarpiece, including the threat of excommunication if he didn't complete it, suggesting his reputation for unreliability.

[5] The doubts to his reliability proved true: by 1477, Bermejo had moved on to Zaragoza, having left only the central panel of the Santo Domingo de Silos altarpiece complete and being duly excommunicated.

[10] It is a testament to his skills and talent that though Barcelona was in a severe economic depression at this period, Bermejo continued to receive commissions from both its Cathedral Chapter and the municipal government.

Beyond his skill in oil glaze painting, Bermejo's distinctive style can be seen in his physical types, a lively sense of drama in his narrative scenes, and above all in his attention to landscape, particularly in the extensive sunrise and sunset settings in the Triptych of the Virgin of Montserrat and the Pietà.