The last piece of the 'Altarpiece of Saint George' puzzle

Barcelona"Imagine you have 4,000 puzzles of 1,000 pieces, you mix them all, you burn 90%, and then you try to reassemble them with the ones you have left." Santiago Alcolea, a Catalan art historian, describes with this image the work of medieval art historians. Knowing the author, the place of origin, or reconstructing an altarpiece from the surviving compartments can be a race full of obstacles.

The Altarpiece of Saint George that Bernat Martorell (Sant Celoni, c. 1390 - Barcelona, 1452) made for the chapel of the Palau de la Generalitat was not a victim of fire, but it has been of historical vicissitudes. It is currently dismembered between the Arts Institute of Chicago, which preserves the central panel, Saint George slaying the dragon , and the Louvre Museum, which houses the four side panels with scenes of the saint's martyrdom. After almost 80 years without being able to solve the enigma of the painting that crowned the altarpiece, it is now about to be confirmed that Martorell's painting Virgin surrounded by the cardinal virtues , owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, culminates this masterpiece of Catalan Gothic.

A revealing new restoration The state of conservation of the Philadelphia painting is very delicate and it could not travel to Barcelona to be part of the MNAC exhibition Catalonia 1400. The International Gothic , where, exceptionally, the four panels from the Louvre can be seen.

Currently, The Virgin surrounded by the cardinal virtues is undergoing an exhaustive restoration that will most likely confirm the hypothesis that Carl Strehlke, the museum's curator, and Santiago Alcolea put forward in parallel in 2007. The former contrasted the X-rays of the oak panels from Flanders of the Virgin with those of the panels from Chicago and Paris and observed that they are all constructed in the same way. This type of wood was the most prized at the time, as it had to be imported from the Baltic Sea forests. Alcolea based his reconstruction on the measurements of the two central panels, which would coincide if Saint George slaying the dragon were not missing a panel on the left side, where the part of the tail and the horse's leg that are missing would be. It would be very strange, the historian maintains, for Martorell to have painted them cut.

A disputed attribution This reading is not shared by all experts. Art historian and UB professor Rosa Alcoy attributed the Philadelphia panel to the painter Joan Antigó. In June, the painting will be free of overpainting and can be compared more accurately with the other parts of the work.

What has remained beyond any doubt at all times is that the Retaule de sant Jordi is Martorell's masterpiece. "It may seem paradoxical, because it is the earliest work by the painter that is preserved, but it was not surpassed. Later he incorporated a more realistic range when describing reality, but the richness of the colors and the profusion of the most important iridescent effects are in this work," states Rafael Cornudella, head of Gothic art at the MNAC and commissioner of Catalunya 1400.

The theme of the virtues was not very common in Catalan medieval art, but in the case of the altarpiece for the Palau de la Generalitat it would reinforce, as pointed out by the American researcher Mary Gizzard, that the Madonna belongs to the work commissioned by a public institution. Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice would represent the criteria for good governance for public authorities.

Saint George killing the dragon is one of the jewels of the Art Institute of Chicago and holds curious anecdotes, such as the one experienced by the Catalan Inés Tell de Pallejà, who was in contact with the museum during the twenty years she lived in the city. The technicians who were restoring the painting asked her if she could identify the language in which some small fragments of newspaper found under the dragon's wings were written, which was none other than Catalan.