Saint Clare Monstrance Portillo
Saint Clare of Assisi with the Monstrance
Master of Portillo
1500-1530
Seated statue of the founder of the Order of Saint Clare, the female branch of the Order of Saint Francis established in 1212. She is dressed in the habit of a Poor Clare—brown sackcloth and mantle—and wears a white headdress covered by a black veil. In her hands, she holds two of her most common iconographic attributes: the palm, which is a unique characteristic of martyrs and represents their victory over death; and the monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament, with which she repelled the Saracen soldiers who accompanied Emperor Frederick II in his assault on the city of Assisi.
The female model and technical virtuosity are characteristic of the anonymous Castilian artist, whom Diego Angulo designated in 1940 with the nickname Maestro de Portillo, due to his resemblance to a series of panels that came from an altarpiece in the church of San Esteban de Portillo, now in the chapel of the archiepiscopal palace in Valladolid. He was a painter active during the first quarter of the 16th century, working in Palencia and Valladolid clays and well acquainted with the work of Pedro Berruguete. From the Palencia painter, he takes his brilliant colors and volumetric effects, as well as the way of arranging the saint in the same seated position on a bench and behind a parapet, reminiscent of the sacred figures in Berruguete's altarpiece predellas.
However, as Pilar Silva (1995) points out, these elements were already incorporated into the artistic language of Castilian painters at that time. Her human types are unmistakable because they display the same soft treatment of features, which might recall the painting of the French region of Picardy—due to its geographical location in northern France, in contact with Flemish painting—of the late 15th century. However, the way her hands and other details are painted can be somewhat clumsy, as they appear outlined with thick black outlines.
She also agrees with Berruguete in the abundant use of gold, which the painter uses here to depict the saint's halo, the monstrance, and the golden background of rosettes, imitating brocade work. This background is surrounded by a decorative border, traversed by vertical rods that simulate an intelligible inscription, matching the surrounding elements that run around the saint's halo, details that may seem somewhat reminiscent of a certain Gothic style.
The Royal Monastery of Santa Clara in Tordesillas preserves a set of panels depicting the lives of Saint Clare and Saint Francis of Assisi by the same artist, belonging to a dismantled altarpiece, perhaps the one on the main altar of its church. However, this Saint Clare does not appear to be part of the same set.
This image is a public domain image, which means either that copyright has expired in the image or the copyright holder has waived their copyright. Franciscan Gallery charges for the access to high resolution copy of the image. Manually restoration was necessary in order to improve quality, without covering the original image.
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