Title

Polyptych of the Bravo de Lagunas Family

Author

Van Hemessen, Jan [attributed to]

Hemiksem, ca 1500 - Antwerpen, 1556

Other attribution

Campaña, Pedro de [school of] (Brussels, 1503 - Brussels, 1580)

Typology

School

Century

Dimensions

Technique

Support

Observations

The polyptych of the Bravo de Lagunas family consisted of five panels and a sculpture. The left wing depicts Saints Roch and Sebastian, while the right wing shows Benedict and three members of the family: Don Sancho Bravo de Lagunas y Alfaro and his sons Diego and Luis. The reverse of the wings, painted in grisaille, depicts the Annunciation in a bourgeois bedroom. The coat of arms of the Bravo de Lagunas family appears in the upper left-hand section. The two panels in the central section depict scenes from the life of Saint Catherine. The altarpiece also had a carved section in the centre, which has now disappeared, and another panel depticting the Calvary at the top.

The painted work, attributed to Jan van Hemessen by Juan Miguel Serrera Contreras, is dated stylistically to the 1530s (Serrera Contreras 1987). Carl Justi believes that the work was painted in Seville in the entourage of Pedro de Campaña (Justi 1884).

The three knights depicted are Sevillian. They belong to the Alfaro family, who owned a chapel in the parish of San Vicente in Seville, where the panels are kept. The polyptych is first mentionned in an inventory of 1540: “Ytem otro retablo de madera de flandes con la historia de Santa Catalina y la ymagen de Santa Catalina de bulto y un crucifijo de pincel con dos puertas en una San Sebastian y San Roque y en la otra San Benito con ciertas figuras/ en la capilla de Santa Catalina” 

Restorations

• 1997, M.J. González López (Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico), Sevilla.

  Restoration report

• 1988, Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico, Sevilla.

  Between 1986 and 1988.

Bibliography

• L. Pérez del Campo (2001): "El Políptico de la Familia Bravo de Lagunas, obra de Jan Sanders van Hemessen. Nuevas investigaciones", PH Boletín, vol. 37, pp. 101-108.
• G. Ferreras Romero, R. Magdaleno Granja (1997): "San Benito con los caballeros de Alfaro y Bravo de Lagunas y Virgen anunciada. (Grisalla), Jan Van Hemessen. Investigación y tratamiento", PH Boletín, vol. 20, pp. 20-31.
• J.M. Serrera Contreras (1987): "Nuevas obras de Jan van Hemessen", BSAA : Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, vol. 53, pp. 363-368.
• C. Justi (1884): "Peeter de Kempeneer genant Maese Pedro Campaña", Jahrbuch der Königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, vol. 5, p. 170.

Locations

• Church of San Vicente, Seville (Spain)