Creator Maestro de Perea

Medium Artwork: Painting

City Játiva | Region Valencia | Old kingdom Aragon

ARTWORK
The “Madonna and Child” featuring this vihuela-playing angel is a Hispano-Flemish work of the Aragonese school, dated late in the 15th century. It was a section of the altarpiece Retablo de Santa Ana, formerly in the Collegiate church in Játiva but destroyed during Spanish civil war. The painter, the Perea Master was a contemporary of Rodrigo de Osona. Most of his datable works are after 1491. Bordas (bordas1991), nevertheless suggests that it might date from mid-century.

INSTRUMENT
Angel musicians are depicted around Madonna. The vihuela appears among other instruments. Its body is of cornered waists less than 1/3 length of body. No soundhole is visible. The bridge is located approximately 1/6 along body. There are four geometric decorations on belly, inlaid taraceas. The neck is particularly narrow and carries 6 strings. It appears to have ten frets, with a flat pegbox at right angles to the neck. It was apparently meant to have double courses as at least five pegs visible on upper side of pegbox. The instrument is being played with a plectrum.

Bordas, Cristina (ed.). Instruments de musique espagnols du XVIe au XIXe siecle. Europalia 85 Espana. Bruxelles: Societe Generale, 1985.

Bordas, Cristina et al. La Guitarra Española - The Spanish Guitar. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario, 1991.

Corona-Alcalde, Antonio. “L’organologie de la vihuela”. Aux origines de la guitare: la vihuela de mano. Ed. Joël Dugot. Paris: Musée de la Musique, 2004. 16-28.

Post, Chandler Rathfon A History of Spanish Painting. 14 vols. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1930-1966; rpt New York: Kraus Reprint, 1970-1976.

Woodfield, Ian. The Early History of the Viol. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Alvarez Martínez, Rosario. “Los instrumentos musicales en la plástica española durante la Edad Media: los cordófonos.” 3 Vols. Diss. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1982.

Bordas, Cristina et al. La Guitarra Española - The Spanish Guitar. Madrid: Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario, 1991.

Corona-Alcalde, Antonio. “La vihuela et la guitare”. Instruments de musique espagnols du XVIe au XIXe siecle. Europalia 85 España. Bruxelles: Societé Génerale, 1985. 73-91.

Post, Chandler Rathfon A History of Spanish Painting. 14 vols. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1930-1966; rpt New York: Kraus Reprint, 1970-1976.

Woodfield, Ian. The Early History of the Viol. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Alvarez Martínez, Rosario. “Los instrumentos musicales en la plástica española durante la Edad Media: los cordófonos.” 3 Vols. Diss. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1982.