After the premiere of the documentary Bartolomé Bermejo. The awakening of a genius In a Barcelona cinema, the author of the film addressed the nearly 200 people who had filled the room: “Today is a memorable and glorious day, one of those that rarely happens in my profession.” Until that moment, José Manuel Herraiz, director of the Aragonese production company Albella Audiovisual, had to put together an attractive project to obtain the necessary financing, produce the documentary and, finally, convince a distributor, A Contracorriente Films, that life by the best Spanish painter of the 15th century deserved a place on billboards, among the big movie previews. “These are initiatives that greatly promote culture; Otherwise, this work would only have been seen on regional television in Aragon,” recognizes Herraiz.
The bet, in itself, already presented a significant handicap: talking about a practically unknown artist – until the monographic exhibition at the Prado Museum made him known in 2019, Bermejo was barely recognizable to the general public – compared to to society’s taste for more familiar characters. , from the famous Velázquez to the very honored Sorolla. But didn’t the enigmatic life of a true genius, capable of assimilating the Gothic techniques of the Flemish masters Rogier van der Weyden or Jan van Eyck, deserve a chance? Convinced of this, Herraiz designed a screenplay around Bermejo’s two great mysteries: how he became a first-rate artist away from the major artistic spotlight and what about the alleged Jewish-convert condition that would justify the life wanderer of Cordoba among Valencia, Aragon and Barcelona. And that’s when the surprises started to appear.
“The spiritual depth of Bartolomé Bermejo’s altarpieces comes from his Jewish preparation, which gives great depth to his work, as if he were Saint John of the Cross or Saint Teresa.” Professor Miguel Ángel Motis, one of the specialists who testify in the film, observes in the extraordinary work of the Cordovan painter the reflection of the vicissitudes of his life: from the so-called Jewish faith, today taken for granted, to his condition as a traveling artist, precisely because of his status as a Judeoconvert. “Bermejo, whom I know through notarial protocols and inquisitorial procedures, carries in his heart the beat of the diaspora; “He is the typical Jewish convert who must renounce his faith, who is always afraid of being discovered and who, thanks to his artistic talent, is able to translate Jewish mysticism into Christian art,” adds the professor of the San Jorge University of Zaragoza.
Art as a way to survive
Bermejo’s life immerses the viewer in Spain at the end of the 15th century, the country of three cultures which will end with the triumph of the Catholic Monarchs over the Nasrid kingdom of Granada and the expulsion of the Jews (the last in Europe, with Portugal), the same year as the now revised and controversial conquest of the New World, 1492. An environment already depicted by El Prado in the recent exhibition The lost mirror, which dealt with the “artistic transfers” that occurred between different cultures, or how a Jew could paint a masterpiece for Christians. Motis, a specialist in Mosaic culture, states that “Jews and Jewish converts are wounded by God, they suffer the tribulation of not being able to assimilate their religion; Bermejo captures this feeling (that of persecution) in the painting, but subliminally.
The documentary Bartolomé Bermejo. The awakening of a genius The focus is on the Gothic painter’s passage through Aragon, more precisely through the medieval town of Daroca and the capital itself, Zaragoza. It is here that Motis found the documents which confer on Bermejo the status of a Jewish convert, through the figure of his second wife. “Gracia de Palaciano was tried for a minor offense of Judaization, she was taken to the Aljafería Palace (today the seat of the government of Aragon) and participated in an auto-da-fé in the cathedral of Zaragoza, where she confessed that she doesn’t know the creed,” the professor explains, revealing the reason she is ultimately condemned. “The great paradox for a convert, who always lives on the edge, is that he is generally hired by the Catholic Church; Even though suspicion weighs on him after his wife’s conviction, he ends up working in the future Seo de Zaragoza and this saves him financially and emotionally”, says Miguel Ángel Motis, who concludes: “Art is his way of surviving “.
When in 2019 the Prado Museum organized the first major monographic exhibition on the Cordovan painter (which will later be presented at the MNAC in Barcelona), curator Joan Molina commissioned Javier Ibáñez to empty the archives to follow in the creator’s footsteps. Somewhat skeptical about his situation as a Jewish convert, the professor of art history at the University of Zaragoza preferred to focus his intervention in the documentary on the “surprises” that the artist Bermejo offered throughout the investigation. “We discovered that Bartolomé is very good, the best painter of the Iberian Peninsula of the 15th century, but we do not know how he was trained,” emphasizes Ibáñez, who explains: “We do not know how he acquired painting in oil. technique, which at that time was completely new and existed only in Flanders; As a historian, I find it very interesting to pose the enigma of where he was trained to be the best and the fact that there is nothing before or after him: the drama is that he does not leave a school, others imitate him, but they do not dominate his technique.
A misanthropic genius
Already in the title, the documentary makes it clear that Bermejo was a genius. And he was so in and out of his artistic side, as Ibáñez corroborates. “He has a touch of genius and perhaps this genius explains his character.” The expert refers to specific details of his behavior, such as the fact that he requested a single room during his work at Zaragoza Cathedral. “There are problems of misanthropy in Bermejo: he has a small locked room to himself, he doesn’t associate with anyone… Perhaps this responds to the fact that, as a genius, he was a person a bit strange,” says the art history professor.
To tell these particularities, his itinerant life between Valencia, Aragon and Catalonia, or the rediscovery of his work – Bermejo’s fame died with him and he only woke up at the beginning of the 20th century – the producer resorted to to simple dramatizations and the testimony of relevant characters in the museum field. The director, José Manuel Herraiz, is grateful for the facilities offered by the National Gallery in London – where one of the masterpieces is located, The triumph of Saint Michael over the devil… to record an interview with its director, Gabriele Finaldi. The project encountered more resistance in Boston, where the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum – which houses the famous Santa Engracia panel by the Cordovan author – seems reluctant to receive foreigners, after the historic theft of 13 paintings by authors such as Rembrandt or Vermeer in 1990.
After the first screenings, those responsible for this adventure are satisfied with the public reaction, proof of the appeal of Bermejo’s life and work. “Our intention is to bring our little grain of sand to the knowledge of this Spanish author, after the impetus of the Prado and the MNAC with their exhibitions in 2019,” declares José Manuel Herraiz, director of Albella Audiovisual. For Miguel Ángel Motis, the film represents another step in the “extraordinary educational work” that remains to be done on the complex world of three cultures that Bermejo experienced, which he defines as “an example of life, of being able to grow.” in the face of adversity: he never gave up, and his art and his faith saved him.
Meanwhile, historian Javier Ibáñez adds fuel to his sardine and hopes that the documentary will encourage the general public to learn a little more about the Middle Ages and the Gothic. “Beyond the museums, I would like to emphasize the importance of visiting the places where the original painting is preserved and, in the case of Bermejo, it is essential to visit Daroca, a perfectly preserved medieval town.” For the church of Santo Domingo de Silos, the author painted the altarpiece, the main panel of which, a true masterpiece, is currently in the Prado. Ibáñez also affirms that the legacy of authors like Bermejo can contribute to the knowledge of cities and regions affected today by the phenomenon of depopulation, as is the case of the Aragonese region. One more contribution of this talent from 15th century Spain.
