Fernando Gallego and His Workshop: The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo 

The Creation of Eve by Maestro Bartolomé Following two years of groundbreaking research and technical analysis, UAMA's magnificent altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo is returning to Tucson.

The Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas instigated the most extensive study of the altarpiece undertaken to date, and since the fall of 2006, this exquisite group of Spanish medieval panel paintings has undergone ultraviolet light and x-ray examination as well as infrared reflectography at the Kimbell Art Museum's Conservation Studio in Fort Worth. The resulting scientific and art historical research has unlocked 500-year-old secrets about the altarpiece's creation and realization, all explored in a uniquely comprehensive exhibition, Fernando Gallego and His Workshop: The Altarpiece from Ciudad Rodrigo, which will be on view at UAMA from September 4, 2008 through March 22, 2009.

The 26 panels from the altarpiece of Ciudad Rodrigo comprise one of the most important groups of paintings produced in late 15th-century Spain by the artists Fernando Gallego and Master Bartolomé (the latter virtually unknown, until now) and their workshops. Such "master painters" often commanded large, dynamic workshops with many apprentice artists and frequently joined together on monumental commissions like this cathedral altarpiece.

Technical analysis of the paintings (under the direction of the Kimbell Art Museum's chief conservator, Claire Barry) revealed the artists' preparatory drawings, hidden beneath layers of paint. Based on this new access, scholars identified the distinctive "hands" of the two main artists, and found that often under-drawings did not match finished paintings. In addition, the research provided deeper knowledge of how these esteemed masters and their workshops functioned. Through a combination of art historical study and technical analysis, this exhibition offers a multifaceted view of the panel paintings -- allowing for a new understanding of the relationship between the artists and workshops involved in their creation, of the style and techniques of the individual artists themselves, and of the practice of late Gothic painting in Spain.