The Hispanic Society’s Resurrection relief, a Valencian work from the turn of the sixteenth century

• Published in: The sculpture journal 2020-07, Vol.29 (2), p.159-177
• Main Author: Gómez-Ferrer, Mercedes
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 15th century; 16th century; Art dealers; Art galleries & museums; Hispanic Americans; Hispanic people; Iconography; Provenance; Sculpture; Workshops
• ISSN: 1366-2724; 1366-2724; 1756-9923
• DOI: 10.3828/sj.2020.29.2.3

The Hispanic Society of America (New York) houses a gilded and polychromed wooden relief of the Resurrection, traditionally attributed to the Castilian school of Gil de Siloé (active c. 1470–1501). In this article, a recent suggestion that proposes a Valencian provenance for the relief is further explored and validated. Not only is the Valencian origin of the relief as well as its probable commissioning by a Valencian guild house, specifically that of the master masons, accepted, but this study also argues that the relief is the work of Carles Gonçalbez, a local sculptor who ran an active workshop in the city of Valencia at the turn of the sixteenth century. The relief’s stylistic characteristics are very similar to those of the sculptor’s oeuvre, and its distinctively Valencian iconography of the Resurrection of Christ, with a kneeling soldier in prayer before him, is just one of the aspects that this study takes into consideration to affirm the provenance of this significant and understudied work of art.