De tosco y rudo a suave y gentil. Starnina y la pintura del gótico internacional, por Matilde Miquel

Lecture "From Rough and Rude to Smooth and Gentle: Starnina and International Gothic Painting" given by Matilde Miquel (Complutense University of Madrid) on June 3, 2026, as part of the lecture series "In the Italian Style: Spain and Mediterranean Gothic, 1320-1420." Giorgio Vasari, in his *Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Architects, and Sculptors*, described Starnina as a rough and rude painter, and his transformation after returning from the Iberian Peninsula into a smooth and gentle master. The contact between the Florentine Gherardo di Jacopo, known as Starnina, along with the Pisan Nicolao d'Antonio and the Sienese Simone di Francesco, and Catalan, Aragonese, Majorcan, Cypriot, Dutch, and Saxon masters was a revolution in their style, but also the catalyst for the fusion of models, styles, and iconographies that marked the beginning of International Gothic in both the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Castile. His personality, like that of other masters of the late 14th century, is defined by an eminently Mediterranean character, which eliminates the sense of borders, adapting to the artistic reality of creative exploration, artistic exchange, and visual and conceptual innovation. Without Italy, it is difficult to understand the artistic landscape of the late Middle Ages in Spain. Thanks to the arrival of artists and the importation of works, the aesthetic, technical, and iconographic innovations of the Trecento left a profound mark on the visual culture of the Iberian kingdoms. Prominent local masters also contributed to this, developing original and creative interpretations of Italian models within the context of an eclectic and hybrid visual culture. Their technical and material sophistication, combined with their ability to generate new formal, typological, and thematic approaches, fascinated the most discerning viewers of the time, always attentive to the most innovative and exotic solutions. The two shores of the western Mediterranean were a territory of exchange, where the creations of the masters and the gaze of the viewers were marked by the artistic fusion between Italy and Spain. To illustrate this, we will examine many of the pieces in the exhibition: more than one hundred works in diverse techniques (painting, sculpture, goldsmithing, illuminated manuscripts, drawings, embroidery, silk textiles, etc.), many of them little known, and some never before exhibited. Works by renowned Italian masters, such as Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Gherardo Starnina, Lupo di Francesco, Barnaba da Modena, Andrea di Petruccio, and Geri Lapi, as well as prominent Spanish artists like Ferrer and Arnau Bassa, the Serra brothers, Pedro de Córdoba, and Miquel Alcañiz, will guide you through a fascinating artistic landscape that will captivate every curious viewer. More information: https://www.museodelprado.es/actualid...