Valuing the Work of Jaume Huguet: A Painter and his Materials

Abstract

The Consecration of Saint Augustine in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona (Fig. 1) comes from the high altar retable of the church of Sant Agustí Vell in the city, whose paintings were commissioned from Jaume Huguet in 1463, but not completed until 1486.1 The panel shows the imposing figure of the saint in elaborate vestments presented full face, enthroned before a cloth of honour and flanked by a press of full-length figures, two of whom, symmetrically arranged, place a bishop’s mitre upon his head: this is Augustine consecrated as bishop of Hippo Regius. The viewer’s attention is caught by two prominent features: the dense array of individualised and characterful heads occupying a band in the top third of the painting, and the opulent decoration which involves a profusion of surface ornament. The jewels on the mitres and liturgical gloves of the principal figures, their...