Anonymous, The Retable and Frontal of the Life of Christ and the Virgin Made for Pedro López de Ayala, tempera and gold on panel, Spain ca. 1396, The Art Institute, Chicago.
The Retable and Frontal of the Life of Christ and the Virgin Made for Pedro López de Ayala holds an abundance of emotion and workmanship. This medley of scenes consists of a retable, set behind the altar table, and a frontal, decorating the front itself. The piece is a testament to the devotion of Pedro López de Ayala, an important political figure in late medieval Spain. Ayala was many things, including a soldier and diplomat in the kindness of the kings of Castile, which resulted in his serving as a chancellor. While he was important politically, he was also influential artistically. He wrote a treatise on hunting, chronicles on the medieval era, and poetry. Ayala expected the altarpiece to be an everlasting plea for his perpetual salvation. For more than five hundred years, this altarpiece decorated the Ayala family’s funerary chapel in northern Spain. Ayala cared for this piece very much and was careful when donating it in honor of the Virgin Mary and Christ, demonstrated through the inscription across the bottom portion. The figures in the painting, Ayala and his wife Leonora de Guzman, can be seen kneeling in prayer with their two children, including a daughter-in-law and son toward the lower area. There are two cauldrons and wolves around the frames. The colossal altarpiece was most probably built and designed with paint inside the chapel. To achieve this work, Ayala asked local artists, who made a series of scenes that discuss the stories of the life of the Virgin and Christ. It also centers in on the images of the Crucifixion and an empty throne, once the frame of a statue of the Virgin and Child. The background of the images call earlier architectural detail and manuscript illumination. The piece intended to impress through its momentous scale. The narrative of the piece is very clear, and the costly materials used for the creation, including silver and gold leaf paired with glazes of expensive blue shade of ultramarine, are as well. The date of creation was around 1396 and includes many subscriptions. For example, AVE: MARIA: GRACIA can be seen on the banderole held by Gabriel in the Annunciation section, which translates to hail Mary. This piece is strikingly beautiful and holds an immense amount of emotion.
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