
Altarpiece of Mare de Déu de la Misericordia by Bartolomé Bermejo
Martín Bernat·1479
Historical Context
Martín Bernat, a Zaragoza painter, collaborated with the Spanish-Flemish master Bartolomé Bermejo on the Altarpiece of the Virgin of Mercy, produced for a church in Daroca around the 1470s–80s. Bermejo's revolutionary oil technique, imported from Flanders, transformed Aragonese painting, and Bernat's participation in the altarpiece allowed him sustained exposure to Bermejo's methods. The Virgin of Mercy iconography — the Madonna spreading her cloak to shelter the faithful — was a popular votive image in the Crown of Aragon, connecting the altarpiece to widespread lay devotional practice in the region.
Technical Analysis
The altarpiece combines Bermejo's characteristic deep oil glazes with Bernat's more conventionally Aragonese handling, creating detectable differences in surface quality between their respective contributions. The gold brocade backgrounds and tooled haloes show the Flemish-influenced technical ambition that made Bermejo remarkable in the Iberian context.

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