Mestre del Cavall (Catalonia, 15th century - early 16th century) 'Altarpiece of the Virgin' Oil painting on wood panel. Dated on the beam bearing an inscription in 1543. Originally from the chapel of Santa Maria de Toudell (Viladecavalls, Terrassa).   Important altarpiece complete with dust cover and predella. Altarpiece measurements: 262 x 216 cm. Beam with inscription measurements: 160 x 14.5 x 8 cm.   A certificate by Dr Alberto Velasco Gonzàlez is attached, to whom we are grateful for the cataloguing and identification of the present lot. Below, we quote the certificate almost in its entirety.   With regard to the provenance, he explains the following: 'This altarpiece dedicated to the Joys of Mary comes from the hermitage of Santa María de Toudell, a privately owned religious building adjoining the Can Trias farmhouse, in Viladecavalls. A photograph from 1920 still shows the altarpiece in its original location, with the Romanesque image of the Virgin and Child that presided over it. [...] The altarpiece survived the armed conflict of 1936 to 1939 by being placed in safe keeping. This allowed it to be exhibited in the exhibition organised by the Junta de Museos in Terrassa at the end of the Spanish Civil War, between 1 and 16 July 1939. Of the more than 400 works exhibited, the altarpiece was one of the ten illustrated in the catalogue of the exhibition. The structure presided over the chapel until the 1980s, when it was removed by the owning family for security reasons and transferred to a private residence in Terrassa. Shortly before 2008 it was acquired by Antiguitats Clavell Morgades, who presented it that year at the antiques fair held in Barcelona. It was at that time that we had access to the work for the first time, which allowed us to establish the attribution to the Master of the Cavall. Finally, the work remained for several years in the hands of those antique dealers until it was acquired by a private collector, who has kept it until today'.   As for the description of the painting, 'the altarpiece is composed of three vertical sections and a predella, in accordance with the type of altarpiece typical of the Gothic centuries. The main compartment shows the niche that housed the Romanesque carving, polygonal in shape and topped by a Gothic tracery canopy. On either side of the cavity stand Saints Barbara and Apollonia. The central section is crowned, as usual, by the Crucifixion. The left lateral section shows, from top to bottom, the Annunciation and the Nativity, while on the right we find the Epiphany and the Birth of the Virgin. [...] In the predella we find five compartments, with Christ of Sorrows in the centre, flanked in the adjacent ones by the Virgin of Sorrows and Saint John the Evangelist. In the end compartments of the bench we find, on the left, the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and, at the right end, Saint Roch with an angel'.   It is worth highlighting the state of conservation of the piece which, according to Dr Velasco, is 'excellent, as demonstrated by the presence of the dust cover with stars, the complete preservation of all the gilded carpentry that crowns the compartments, and the already mentioned cresting of the niche. The exceptional nature of the ensemble is certified by the fact that a beam has been preserved which was originally placed just beneath the predella and served as a supporting element for the altarpiece and as a separation from the altar. What makes this beam a rarity is not only its presence, but also that it bears a curious inscription which we transcribe: 'A onor e gloria de nostro senyor e de la verja maria font any MDXXXXIII'. The inclusion of the date makes it possible to date the work precisely to 1543'.   'With regard to the painter, the Master of the Cavall is an artistic personality created some years ago by Joaquim Garriga on the basis of an altarpiece dedicated to Saint Peter from Mas del Cavall Navès, Solsonès, currently kept at the Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona inv. 36, which also includes an inscription stating that it was funded by “Joan Caval, hereu del Caval” in 1541. In the same museum a predella of unknown provenance attributed by Garriga to the same painter is preserved. Personally, we attribute to this painter two altarpieces now kept at the Museu de Lleida, originating from two localities in the municipality of Artesa de Segre in Lleida province La Noguera. The first, dedicated to the Virgin, comes from the sanctuary of the Virgin of Vedrenya (inv. 56), while the second originates from Folquer and is dedicated to the Holy Cross (inv. 161)', from the church of Sant Gili de Folquer in the municipality of Artesa de Segre in Lleida province.   According to Velasco, the Master of the Cavall was 'a painter of harsh forms who worked from degenerate Gothic formulations and poorly interpreted Renaissance forms, whose activity coincides with the moment when Romanist proposals were flourishing throughout Catalan territory. He is, without doubt, a belated painter anchored in Gothic forms whose art demonstrates that labels in art history often fail, since his painting, eminently Gothic, developed at a time when the classical forms of the Renaissance had already completely colonised the Catalan artistic panorama, that is, during the 1540s'. He is therefore 'a master out of his time who remains interesting for this elongation and prolongation of the late Gothic language. This did not prevent him from superficially adopting some of the peculiarities of the Italianising language, as we see in the architectural settings that shelter the figures in the scenes of our altarpiece, which maintain links with classical formulas'.   Our altarpiece is, within the corpus of our master, the only one that has survived complete and intact and, therefore, is of outstanding interest.   Provenance: - Church of Santa María de Toudell - Private collection - Clavell & Morgades, antique dealers - Private collection. Barcelona.