Jaume Ferrer II

Jaume Ferrer II (Lleida, 15th century), was an active Lleida painter during the second stage of the international gothic and possibly formed in the painting workshop that his father, Jaume Ferrer I, had to have in the city of Lleida. His most well-known work is the altarpiece of the Virgin of the Pairs (1451-1454), preserved “in situ” in the Paeria de Lleida, realized around the year 1450 in an advanced period of his artistic production.

In a document of 1430 acts as a solicitor for the sale of some houses in Plaça Nova de Barcelona, ​​on behalf of Maria Teià, his wife, the daughter of Guillem Teià, the Barcelona arms manufacturer. In this document, Ferrer already appears as pictor, cive, civitatis, Ilerde.

Jaume Ferrer actually worked at the Teixidor workshop, until he left to set up his own workshop located in Plaça de la Cadena, in the neighborhood of Sant Llorenç, below the neighborhood of Suda de Lleida. This workshop would become the successor to the workshop of the Teixidor, and would include Jaume Ferrer and his children, Baltasar and Mateu, so that the workshop was active from around 1430, approximately until 1506, when Mateu Ferrer disappears from the documentation.

A few years later, in 1434, he was in Verdú where he came up with some echo and recognition as a painter, and where he lived for two years. The altarpiece of Verdú was an important command. The promoters, Antoni and Caterina Arnau, contacted initially with Pere Joan, who finally made a stature. In the church of Santa Maria de Verdú there is still a stone base supported by the altarpiece. Its strong structure is due to the planned location of a stone altarpiece or alabaster work by Pere Joan. The heraldic signs of the Arnau and the abbot of Poblet are on the base of the basement. The altarpiece of Verdú (~ 1434), currently preserved in the Episcopal Museum of Vic, is a work of youth in which the characteristic features of the new period are observed, especially with regard to the detail of the outer landscapes of the collections Of the tables, and the meticulousness and richness of the interior scenes. Also in 1436, appears his brother Gaspar Ferrer, although it is not clear that the stay was to collaborate in the workshop.

Between 1437 and 1461 he resided in Lleida, where he had an important presence; At the professional level he was appointed painter of the Seu Vella de Lleida and worked as a painter of cloths and banners and flags.

There are news of his relationship with Pere Teixidor when both are authorized to locate his workshop in a quarter of the Paeria on November 23, 1439. In 1441 they worked at the Headquarters of Lleida where Ferrer was responsible for stripping the altarpiece Greater and prepare it to be painted again by Bernat Martorell.

He was a prominent person in the local community, where he was elected councilor (1437), mostassaf (1443-1444 and 1437) and from Paeria (1460), from where he was expelled in 1461. This is the last one It is documented from him, and until 1477 there is not the first reference to his son Mateu, which has been interpreted as a possible transfer of residence during this period. During this period he traveled several times in Barcelona, ​​the last documented was in 1454 when he participated as a witness in a lawsuit in which the painter Jaume Vergós I. was involved.

In 1450 he made the Altarpiece of Peralta de la Sal in collaboration with Pere Garcia de Benavarri, from which the compartments of the central street, the Dormition of the Virgin Mary and Calvary, are preserved at the MNAC.

In 1457, he painted the altarpiece of Alcover, according to a receipt of 100 florins, of which 400 he was paid, dated October 20. The piece, in a style similar to that of Pere Garcia de Benavarri, allowed him to attribute other works such as the altarpiece of Verdú, that of Sant Julià d’Aspa and Sant Jeroni, Sant Martí de Tours, San Sebastià and Calvari (1450 -1455) currently at the MNAC in Barcelona.

His son Mateu Ferrer (documented at Sixena in 1503) was the continuator of the workshop. From this rest a Jesus blessing, signed (chapel of San Salvador, in the headquarters of Tarragona).

Although his work emerged from the postulates of the first international gothic in Lleida, he evolved from his stay in Barcelona where he had the opportunity to know works from various European areas that came through the trade, such as the case of Florentine painter Dello Delli, present in Barcelona at that time.

The novelties of the second period of the international gothic, introduced in the same thirties in Barcelona by Bernat Martorell, with whom he relates in 1450, and also his points of contact with Valencian painting, such as Pere Nicolau, can be seen on the scene Of the Annunciation of the altarpiece of the Paeria where Jaume Ferrer paints the objects of the Virgin’s desk looking for the effect of the depth that gives birth when projecting its shadow on the back. It is an eagerness to describe reality almost as an inventory, with quite a number of objects in a context of a costumbrista scene. The desk objects already described, but also furniture, books, a vase with flowers, a pecking hen and a cat and a rat on the terrace. On the other hand, the exquisite way of painting the costumes of the Magi from the epiphany scene is very far from that sobriety of the three hundredth-century Italian-style Italian society and brings it closer to taste for the flamenco world, as well Like the luxurious fashion prevailing in Florence and in the European courts of the time.

Work:
Altarpiece of Verdú Epiphany table Episcopal Museum of Vic
It was realized with donations for the greater altarpiece of the church of Santa Maria de Verdú. In the episcopal museum of Vic twelve detached tables are preserved, since the original architectural composition is unknown.
It is a work of youth with characteristics that are characteristic of the new tendencies of the second period of the international gothic in terms of the detail with which the outer landscapes of the tables’ backgrounds are described, and the meticulousness and richness of the interior scenes. These new features can be seen in the Annunciation scene where Jaume Ferrer paints the objects of the Virgin’s desk looking for the effect of the depth that gives birth when projecting its shadow on the back. Emphasize the costumes of the Magi from the scene of Epiphany far from the sobriety of the three-hundred Sienese italy and approaching the flamenco world.

Altarpiece of Peralta de la Sal Art Museum of Cleveland
Table of Birth and Worship of the Shepherds

Altarpiece of the Virgin of Paers Paeria of Lleida

Altarpiece of Alcover Diocesan Museum of Tarragona