Saint Hippolyte cures the Leg of the Oxherd Peter

Lluis Borrassa's Saint Hippolyte Curing the Leg of the Oxherd Peter, painted around 1419 for the Museo del Prado, depicts a miracle from the saint's legend. Borrassa was the leading painter in Barcelona during the first quarter of the fifteenth century, bringing the International Gothic to its fullest expression in Catalan art. This work belongs to the Early Renaissance, the transformative period in European art when painters first applied mathematical perspective, naturalistic figure modeling, and archaeological interest in antiquity to the inherited traditions of medieval devotional painting. The tension between Gothic grace and Renaissance structure gives art of this period a distinctive energy.

The miracle scene is rendered with Borrassa's characteristic narrative vivacity and rich color, the figures arranged in a detailed setting that demonstrates his command of the International Gothic decorative vocabulary.