Spanish school. Toledo, Aragon, León? 15th century. “Saint Sebastian and Saint Blaise”; and “Saint Dominic mortifying his body with brambles.” “Saint George slaying the dragon”; and “Saint Dominic instructing a group of brothers from his Order.” Pair of altarpiece fragments. Oil on panel.  Pair of panels, fragments of the streets or interstices of an altarpiece alluding to the Order of Preachers and their saints of devotion. 147 x 53 cm each.   As if they had been torn from a Codex Emilianense, or painted by Beato de Liébana himself, we find some very interesting “schematic and rigid” paintings, completely flat, executed on panels in the style of illustrations, as if they had been painted by an illuminator and intended more for a codex than for an altarpiece. Perhaps they are the bold work of a Dominican illuminator who was asked to “dare” to use larger and more exposed formats, which would be admired in the chapel of a newly founded monastery.   And, indeed, they elicit admiration and surprise from those of us who contemplate them.    With schematic and flat lines from the late Romanesque and already in full Gothic style, with very medieval brushstrokes, his themes are religious and made for a specific religious order: the Dominicans. Hence the continuous appearance of these monks.   Two panels separated by a dark street, like a comic strip frame, concentrate the heavenly in the upper part (specific saints who are asked for help and who are role models); and below, the order of preachers for whom they were painted, with their patron saint (earthly, still alive) as their immediate guide. Catechesis and devotion, a perfect two-in-one. In Sacra Conversatione, we find Saint Sebastian alongside Saint Blaise. Saint Sebastian shows us his instruments of martyrdom, the bow and arrows, and at the same time, he is presented to us as a medieval knight. It was common and frequent at this time to paint him clothed, thus avoiding the distraction of seeing his flesh exposed, which was more typical of the 16th century and Renaissance and Baroque Mannerism. This simple painting seems to show us a knight about to go hunting, but his halo tells us about his glorious status. Saint Blaise is dressed in his episcopal vestments (mitre, chasuble, and crozier, holding the Byblon or Book of the Word of God that he preached). Beneath them, Saint Dominic is naked, mortifying his body as he rests on brambles. He was a Dominican known for his great austerity and penance, including walking barefoot and bleeding on thorny paths where he lay down, very much in the Franciscan tradition, a contemporary saint whom he fervently followed.  In the second panel, a mounted Saint George pierces the dragon, symbol of evil, with his lance, before the gaze of a faithful devotee who walks by, and two others who watch him from the window of their fortified tower. In both panels, the presence of a schematic and repetitive landscape of trees stands out, adding color and joy to the background, and clearly foreshadowing the magnificent landscapes that the Flemish painters would brush to perfection, constructing with them another painting within the main painting.  The rich gold brocade backdrop behind the group of Dominicans stands out, like red velvet flock, emphasizing the figures it frames.  In this scene, Saint Dominic persuades his brothers in the order that a Dominican friar must be as wise as he is holy and possess the perfection required of his institute.  These paintings reflect part of the “Golden Legend,” a collection of hagiographic stories compiled by the Dominican Santiago de la Vorágine, Archbishop of Genoa, in the mid-13th century, one of the most copied and followed books of the Late Middle Ages.  These paintings have a clear doctrinal and exemplary intention