Borrassà was the leader of one of the most successful painting workshops in Catalonia. The two figures in this fragment were probably part of the banco (base) of a larger altarpiece dedicated to Saint Peter. The upper panels of the altarpiece would have depicted stories from Peter’s life and death, and his martyrdom was visually supported by the lower saints from our fragment, who had also died for their devotion. On the left, we see Saint John: his camel pelt marks him out as a prophet who lived in the wilderness, removed from society. He holds a scroll reading “Ecce agnus Dei qui tollit,” or “Look, this is the lamb of God who takes away [the sins of the world].” In the original banco, Saint John would have been pointing toward another panel depicting the crucified Christ (the “lamb of God”). Saint Barbara, dressed in splendid robes, holds a palm frond, a sign of her martyrdom, and also a tower with three windows, symbolizing the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a concept central to the Christian faith.
Below the Surface
The brightest features of this panel painting’s X-radiograph reveal elements of its construction. Denser materials block X-rays more effectively, leaving a brighter imprint on the radiograph. The three vertical white bands running the length of the painting are wooden battens that hold the two horizontal planks together. The large hand-forged iron nails seen at the edges affix the framing elements to the panel. Coarse fabric was glued over all these joins, and the weave pattern can be faintly detected.
Despite the battens, a large open crack runs across the entire panel at the join between the two planks of wood. This fracture bears a remarkable resemblance to a crack in a corresponding panel, "Saint Catherine and Christ," from an altarpiece now in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, in Barcelona, Spain. When the radiograph of the Harvard painting was compared to that of the panel in Barcelona, their respective cracks and grain direction aligned perfectly, confirming that the two works not only belonged to the same altarpiece, but were also constructed from related pieces of wood.
[image of x-radiograph]
