Altarpiece of the Virgin

Jaume Serra was a leading painter of the Catalan Gothic school, working alongside his brother Pere Serra in Barcelona during the second half of the fourteenth century. This Altarpiece of the Virgin, dating to around 1385 and now in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, represents the monumental retable format that was the defining achievement of Catalan Gothic painting. Such altarpieces filled the apses of Catalonia's parish churches, combining Marian devotion with narrative scenes in elaborate compartmented structures.

Executed in egg tempera on panel with gold ground and elaborate frame carpentry, the altarpiece displays the Serra workshop's characteristic linear elegance, jewel-toned palette, and Italianate spatial conventions adapted to the Catalan retable format.