Creator Osona , Rodrigo (Francisco)

Medium Artwork: Painting

City Ibiza | Region Baleares | Old kingdom Aragon

ARTWORK
The altarpiece or retablo in the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Jesús on the town of Santa Eulalia (Ibiza) is usually called simply the “Retablo de Jesús” but has been called different names in the literature n the vihuela such as ‘La Virgen de los Angeles’ (Alvarez) and “Madonna and Child” (Woodfield). It is a painting of the Valencian school, dated ca 1500, the work of Rodrigo de Osona fl 1502-13 possibly in collaboration with his son Rodrigo Osona el Joven.

INSTRUMENT
The vihuela has strongly sloping shoulders that make the body shape more oval than is usual. It has deeply cornered waists, and is decorated with diamond shape near join to neck. It has a small round soundhole 4/5 distance from bottom with rose, and a fixed bridge c. 1/6 from bottom. I has a long narrow neck of dark wood bordered with light wood and a sickle-shaped pegbox. 6 pegs visible on upper edge of pegbox, therefore it is probably an instrument of 6 double courses. It is discussed by Alvarez (alvarez1982, 871-72) and more recently by Gonz´ßalez (gonzalez2009-1), The black and white image of this instrument that has been in circulation among musicologists, probably reproduced from Post (postHSP) and that appears in woodfield1984 and gétreau2004 in comparison with the colour photograph here taken by the parish priest Guillermo Sánchez (c.2009) fist published as the cover and Iconographical Supplement of Hispanica Lyra 9 (May 2009) shows the paintiing to have been significantly restored.

Gétreau, Florence. “L’iconographie de la vihuela”. Aux origines de la guitare: la vihuela de mano. Ed. Joël Dugot. Paris: Musée de la Musique, 2004. 41-49.

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.

Gétreau, Florence. “L’iconographie de la vihuela”. Aux origines de la guitare: la vihuela de mano. Ed. Joël Dugot. Paris: Musée de la Musique, 2004. 41-49.

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.

González, Carlos. “Ángel Vihuelista. Rodrigo y Francisco de Osona, finales del siglo XV, Retablo de la iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Jesús. Santa Eulalia, Ibiza (España)”. Hispanica Lyra 9 (October 2009): Suplemento iconográfico.