SAINTE HÉLÈNE

SAINTE HÉLÈNE
seated in majesty on a throne, crowned and haloed, holding the nails of the Holy Cross in her right hand and a scepter with a cross on her left. On either side, an angel at prayer.
Spain, second half of the 15th century.
Tempera on wood.
Height : 98 cm - Width : 71 cm
(Damage, missing parts and restorations)
In a Gothic-style frame.
Formerly attributed to the Maestro de Vielha (Bartomeu Garcia?) and the Maestro de Arties.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Josep Gudiol and Santiago Alcolea i Blanch,
Pintura gòtica catalana, Barcelona, 1986, p. 191, no. 580 (as by the "Maestro de Viella" and identified as the Mother of God holding the Passion nails, not St. Helena| not ill.) |
- Alberto Velasco Gonzàlez, Pintura tardogòtica a l'Aragó i Catalunya: Pere Garcia de Benavarri, doctoral thesis, Universitat de Lleida, 2015, vol.
1, p. 310 and vol. 2, p. 75 (fig. 109, ill. in color)

Published in the reference work on Catalan Gothic painting, this panel was apparently part of a larger altarpiece, dispersed in the 19th century, which also included a representation of Saint Michael, the Birth of the Virgin, Saint Anne the Trinity and the Miracle of Mount Gargan (see Bibliography: Gudiol and Alcolea i Blanch, 1986).

An attribution to the Master of Arties has since been suggested. This anonymous master received his name by convention thanks to the altarpiece in the church of Santa María de Artiés (near Lleida), in which the central panel features a enthroned Virgin and Child flanked by two angels, similar to our hieratic representation of Saint Helena.