Master Alejo (circa 1490-1530)

Master Alejo (circa 1490-1530)
   
"Birth of the Virgin Mary"
Palencia, circa 1515-1525 
Oil on panel. 65 x 48 cm. 
Recently Incorporated in the catalogue of paintings by the artist, this is the compartment of a reredos which, considering its dimensions, could have been part of a predella. The composition is outstanding, due to both the depth of the bed which Saint Anne rests on after having given birth to the Virgin Mary, and also the everyday feeling the scene conveys, as one of the midwives dries nappies in the heat of the stove, while the other offers a plate of food to the new mother. Just as interesting is the sweetness of the play in the looks between Anne, Joaquim and the new-born baby. With regard to the painter, “Maestro Alejo”, also known as “Maestro de la Calzada” was one of the most interesting painters of the first Renaissance in the Castile area in Spain.  
As Albert Velasco notes in his study of this painting: “There is no doubt about the attribution of this painting, as it corresponds to a painter with a very peculiar and definite style, Master Alejo, active between the late 15th century and the early 16th century in the Palencia region. In this panel we can find all the characteristics that define the painter’s style, defined in SILVA 1990, vol. III, pp. 913-918) as characters with marked expressivity and prominent gestures, with very defined and personal faces, almost individualised. Their eyes are globular and bulging. Their straight, large noses have a round tip. The lips are very fleshy and always a lively red colour. The rounded and rosy cheeks are another of the painter’s characteristic features, as well as the wide, clear foreheads. The hands are usually delicate, although on occasions they are too long or their position appears abnormal. The characters always wear bright coloured clothing, with abundant, uneven folds and, occasionally, with a shiny appearance, as we can see in Joaquim’s clothes. Without a doubt, we find ourselves before a master of the late gothic style, who retains a connection with the art of Fernando Gallego, especially in the expressive and angular faces and also the treatment of the folds in the clothing.”  
With regard to the artist, as Velasco notes:  
“The Master Alejo is an undocumented painter who we know through a signed panel painting of the Prophet Moses which was kept in the former Josep Gudiol collection. As that was a signed painting, it was used to define the painter’s character and assemble the catalogue of his work. The discovery of that panel painting led to the fusion of the artist’s character with that of the old Maestro de Sirga, painter of two altarpieces for the church of Santa María la Blanca de Villalcázar in Sirga (Palencia), one dedicated to the Virgin Mary which presides over the main altar, and another dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua. Considering this, there is no historiographical consensus around the Master Alejo, as while there are some who think he is a different painter from the Maestro de Calzada,  others consider that both are one person, which is the case with Isabel Mateo. Those who defend the first option consider that the Maestro de Calzada (circa 1500-1530) would have trained alongside Maestro Alejo (circa 1485-1515). Personally, we conform to the second of the two proposals and prefer to consider them as one single artist.” 
Sotheby’s, 5th April 1990, lot 348; Italy, private collection (2020). 
Bibliography:  Isidro Puig Sanchis, “El Maestro de Portillo y el Maestro de Calzada. Sobre el dibujo subyacente y nuevas atribuciones”,  Archivo de Arte Valenciano, 101, 2020, pp. 84-86, fig. 3 (reproduction) 
The painting comes with Dr. Alberto Velasco’s report.