THE MASTER OF ASTORGA and his CIRCLE (Castile Leon circa 1530) Christ between St Peter and St Paul Suite of three pine panels, part of an altarpiece Height: 95 cm Width: 90 cm CT Old restorations CONDITION Panel made up of three boards, the middle of which has been cut horizontally into three parts measuring 6cm, 42.5cm and 31cm high. It is reinforced on the reverse by a modern wooden frame with 9cm wide verticals placed at the joint of the boards and hiding the assembly. two crosspieces The perimeter of the frame and the pilasters separating the panels are later. Painting surface and gold background: wear and restoration, the plant motifs on the gold background have been repainted. INSCRIPTION In the halo of Saint Paul, in punched Gothic letters on the gold background: SAN PAOLO.A... Beneath a poly-lobed archway surmounted by a complex gilded wooden motif, Christ and the two apostles, separated by pilasters, are depicted at half-body level, standing out against the panel's ornate gilded background. The frontal Christ, clad in a carmine mantle held in place by an imposing fermail, blesses with his right hand, while his left displays the flabellum, the distinctive sign of Christianity. The two saints flanking him each carry the sacred book and their respective attributes: the key and the sword. This original work belongs to the pictorial movement of the early Renaissance in Castile. It can be compared with the large Passion altarpiece, also known as the Saint Michael altarpiece, by the Master of Astorga, dated 1530 and housed in Astorga Cathedral (Leon), where a catalogue of stylistically related works by this still anonymous master has been compiled. These include several panels from the life of Christ (Madrid, Prado Museum), a Nativity with Saint Dominic and Saint Lawrence, and scenes from the life of Saint James (Madrid, Museo Lazaro Galdiano and Museo de León, from the Chapel of Saint James in Astorga Cathedral). Berruguete, Juan de Borgoña and Juan de Flandes, major painters at the origin of the Hispano-Flemish movement of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, were the main artists to whom the Master of Astorga was sensitive while working in the cities of Astorga, Zamora and Palencia. These Hispanic influences were joined by those of Umbria, in the person of Perugino, to whom the Master of Astorga bears particular witness in the Nativity with Saint Dominic and Saint Lawrence from the Lazaro Galdiano Museum, which is clearly related to Perugino's Albani altarpiece. In the scene of the Arrest of Christ in the Astorga altarpiece, we find an image of Christ that is almost identical to that in our panel, both in the similarity of the physical features of the figure with its meditative, inward gaze and in the dignity of its attitude. As for Saints Peter and Paul, their very different expressions and the disparity in the treatment of the halos suggest that the Master of Astorga may have had some helpers: the rougher workmanship of Saint Peter, with his broad face punctuated by a long nose with a flat bridge, recalls not only the figure of Judas in the scene of the Arrest of Christ in the Astorga altarpiece, but also that of the male figures in a panel by an anonymous follower of the Master of Astorga who depicted an episode from the Golden Legend recounting the burial of Saint James (Astorga, Museu de la Museum). Still in the Gothic form of the Hispanic altarpiece, the isolated piece presented here does not allow us to appreciate all the qualities of the style of the Master of Astorga, whose landscapes and architecture in his other works show him to be so sensitive to the influence of the Umbrian Renaissance. Perhaps we will be able to find them in the pieces still missing from the ensemble to which our panel belonged.