Master of Estamariu. Late 14th century. Two fragments of altarpiece inserts with saints depicted on them. Tempera on pine wood. Late fourteenth century. 33 x 14cm. Each. They come from the old main altarpiece of the Vilamur church (Soriguera, Lleida). During the Spanish Civil War, the Gothic altarpiece at the Vilamur church was disassembled and transferred to Lleida to protect it from destruction. Once the conflict ended, around 1940-1941, those responsible for the National Artistic Heritage Defense Service returned it to those responsible for the Diocese of Urgell, but the altarpiece did not return to its place of origin. Shortly after it was sold and its compartments appeared on the art and antiques market, which is why some are now kept in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, the Maricel Museum in Sitges and various private collections. The two paintings kept in Bilbao (Dormition and Coronation of Mary) come from the collection of the painter and collector Marián Espinal (1897-1974), former owner of these presented here. The altarpiece was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and included episodes such as the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Epiphany, the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the Dormition of Mary, or the Calvary. The sections were separated by inserts with full-length paintings of saints, four of which we know about through photographs from the Institut Amatller d'Art Hispànic in Barcelona, ​​and to which must be added the two that concern us and a fragment kept by the painter Oleguer Junyent in his studio (Barcelona), the last three being damaged in the lower area. The Master of Estamariu was a painter of a somewhat outdated style active in the Catalan Pyrenees at the end of the 14th century. His pictorial language is still indebted to both the Italianism of Ferrer i Arnau Bassa and the workshop of the Serra brothers, with no glimpses yet of what would be the novelties introduced by the international Gothic around 1400. Some specialists have proposed identifying him with Arnau Pintor, a widely documented master in the Seu d'Urgell area between 1357 and 1403, although there are no known paintings by him in existence. The painting that gives the master his name is the Altarpiece of Saint Vincent from Estamariu (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya), and the Altarpiece of Saint Lucia from Arcavell (Museo del Prado) has also been attributed to him; that of the Virgin of Vilamur, to which the fragments that concern us belonged, in addition to the burial box of Fray Bernat de Travesseres (Museu Diocesà d'Urgell). A report by Dr. Alberto Velasco Gonzàlez is attached. Provenance: Barcelona, ​​Marián Espinal collection; Barcelona, ​​private collection. Published in in: - Alberto Velasco, Painted Devotions. Retaules dels Valls d'Àneu (segles XV i XVI), Lleida, Pagès Editors, 2011, p. 49. Bibliography on the Vilamur altarpiece and the Master of Estamariu: Josep Gudiol Ricart; Santiago Alcolea Blanch, Pintura Gótica Catalana, Barcelona, Polígrafa, 1986, pp. 66-67. Pere Beseran, «El mestre d’Estamariu o el possible Arnau Pintor», en L’Art Gòtic a Catalunya. Pintura I. De l’inici a l’italianisme, Barcelona, Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2005, pp. 315-317.