Oil painting in the late Middle Ages in Spain: the relationship of style to technique in the Epiphany Altarpiece of Saint Paul's Convent in Toledo

Abstract

Taking advantage of a campaign of restoration, the Altarpiece of the Epiphany of Saint Paul's Convent in Toledo (c. 1430) was studied. Based on stylistic, material and technical considerations, it was concluded that at least three master painters worked on the six panels and predella. All three artists employed linseed oil as a medium in much of their work. This example of the early use of oil painting in an altarpiece, together with archival documents, seriously challenges the existing theories which state that oil painting in Spain started as an imported technique from Flanders in the second half of the fifteenth century.