MATES, Joan - b. ~1370 Vilafranca del Penedes, d. 1431 Barcelona

Catalan painter. He completed a retable of SS Thomas and Anthony, which had been left unfinished at Pere Serra’s death, for Barcelona Cathedral in 1409. Mates undertook a number of distinguished commissions for altarpieces in Barcelona and as far afield as Huesca in Aragon. His documented surviving works are the retable of SS Martin and Ambrose in Barcelona Cathedral (1411), the retable of St Sebastian (1417; Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona) for the chapel of Pia Almoina, Barcelona, and the high altar retable of S Maria, Vila-rodena (1422). Other works attributed to him include the retables of SS Lucy and Michael (Private collection), St Jaume de Vallespinosa (Tarragona Cathedral) and the Entombment (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona).

Mates was an expressive painter, who used contrasts of line for intensity of effect. His interests were focused on the human figure rather than the architectural setting, and he produced refined and elegant works that show the influence of Franco-Flemish manuscript illumination.

Sts John the Baptist and John the Evangelist with a Donor

This artist worked in the International Gothic style in Catalunya. He is documented between 1392 and 1431. This painting of around 1410 shows how the Italian Sienese style, which was closely connected with the International Gothic, spread throughout Europe. We can appreciate the stylisation of the figures and the highly decorative manner in which they are executed, evident in the snaking ringlets of hair, the folds of the draperies and the rock formations on which they stand. The imitation of nature is overshadowed by an excessive stylisation of the forms in a desire to achieve ever more decorative effects.