Master of Son. Lleida. 15th Century.

Master of Son. Lleida. 15th Century.
“Kiss of Judas”
Panel painting in tempera. Circa 1490 – 1500. 87 x 61 cm.
Originally from the Altarpiece at the Church of Santos Justo y Pastor in Son (Pallars Sobirà, Lleida)
Provenance: Barcelona, María Esclasans collection (1947); Barcelona, private collection.
Exhibitions: "Art in the Passion of Our Lord (13th to 18th centuries)", Barcelona, Palau de la Virreina, 1945 (label on the back).
Bibliography:
Chandler Rathfon Post, The Catalan School in the Late Middle Ages (A History of Spanish Painting, vol. VII), Cambridge [Massachusets], Harvard University Press, 1938, p. 243.
Josep Gudiol Ricart and Santiago Alcolea Blanch, Pintura Gótica Catalana, Barcelona, Published by: Editorial Polígrafa, 1986, p. 195, cat. 629.
Alberto Velasco Gonzàlez, “El retablo gótico de Santa Ana de Fonz: un ejemplo de promoción episcopal en relación al inmaculismo”, Boletín del Museo e Instituto “Camón Aznar”, num. XC, 2003, p. 290, note 59.
Ximo Company and Isidre Puig, “Els pintors de Lleida, les terres de Ponent i els Pirineus”, in L’art gòtic a Catalunya. Pintura III. Darreres manifestacions, Barcelona, Published by: Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2006, pp. 190-191.
Alberto Velasco Gonzàlez, “Culte, devoció i iconografia de Sant Martí a Catalunya en època medieval: el retaule de Sant Martí d’Escalarre (Lleida)”, en El camí de Sant Jaume i Catalunya. Actes del Congrés Internacional celebrat a Barcelona, Cervera i Lleida els dies 16, 17 i 18 d’octubre de 2003, Barcelona, Published by: Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 2007, p. 460.
Alberto Velasco Gonzàlez, Devocions pintades. Retaules de les Valls d’Àneu (segles XV i XVI), Lleida, Published by: Pagès Editors, 2011, pp. 148-149, fig. 62 (reproduced).
Meritxell Cano i Ció, Josep Bardolet, un intermediari del mercat de l’art a Catalunya, Final Master’s dissertation, Barcelona, published by: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2013, p. 89.
Alberto Velasco Gonzàlez, “L’antiquària Maria Esclasans (1875-1947) i el comerç d’art antic a Barcelona”, Bonaventura Bassegoda and Ignasi Domènech (ed.), Agents del mercat artístic i col·leccionistes: nous estudis sobre el patrimoni artístic de Catalunya als segles XIX i XX, Bellaterra [and others], Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona [and others], 2017, pp. 211-212.
Known through an old photograph at the Institut Amatller d’Art Hispànic in Barcelona (cliché Gudiol B-306), this is a section of a reredos which came from the reredos at the Parish church of Son, a village in the Pyrenees in the Alto Aneu area (Lleida). The main body of the reredos is still kept in situ, but the predella was separated from the rest during operations to safeguard works of art during the Spanish Civil War. Once the conflict was over, the upper body of the reredos returned to its place of origin, but that did not happen with the compartments of the predella, which were donated or sold off after they left the church of origin. Two of them, The Last Supper, and Agony in the Garden, are now kept at the Maricel Museum in Sitges (Spain). The Flagellation was donated to the Diocesan Museum of Urgell in the 1970s, while the Crucifixion was auctioned in Madrid in 2009 and is now kept at the Museum of Huesca, where it is erroneously listed as originating in Barbastro (Huesca).
The painting depicts the moment in which soldiers, accompanied by Judas, burst into the Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ is praying with some of his disciples (Matthew 26, 36-46; Mark 14, 32-42; Luke 22, 39-46). The action has stopped at a particular moment, just when the treacherous apostle kisses Jesus so that the soldiers know who to arrest. The negative character of Judas is reinforced by the presence of a dark halo, a symbol of the absence of virtue. The cloaks that both characters wear are outstanding, with very generous, tubular folds, and rectangular in shape, which is very typical of productions by the Master of Son and the late gothic period.
Around the central group are other characters, habitual in depictions of this subject. We see three soldiers who are carrying lances, standards and torches. Saint Peter also appears, at the left of the composition, brandishing a large sword in an attempt to defend Jesus. The gesture he makes relates to a detail that does not appear in the scene. It is a veiled allusion to him cutting off the ear of Malchus, the character carrying the torch who brought the soldiers to Gethsemane (Luke 22, 51). This violent action is not only suggested in the panel in Peter’s action with the sword, but also in the amputated ear that Jesus holds in his left hand.
The Son reredos is a set mainly created by the painter Pere Espallargues (doc. 1490-1495), although four of the five sections of the predella are attributed to another painter, the “Maestro de Son”, an artistic character who was given this title precisely after painting these panels. Other of his work in the Vall d’Àneu is known, such as the main altarpiece of the Church of Escalarre, which is now dispersed among museums and collections such as the Fogg Art Museum (Harvard University); and some panels by him are kept at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona and the Museu de Terrassa. He is a master we know very little about, but whose style points clearly towards the spread of the late gothic models in the north of Catalonia.