This small panel is undoubtedly a highly restored fragment of a larger work, probably depicting a scene from the life of the Virgin Mary. There are parallels in the general appearance and the arrangement of the figures with two of Berruguete's other pieces, The Virgin Mary's Suitors from the altarpiece of the church of Santa Eulalia in Paredes de Nava and Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple from the Church of Santa María in Becerril de Campos. Both works feature female figures that are very similar in type, model and pose to the ones in this panel. The lower part of the work is the result of a skilful modern restoration, intended to complete the figures. In general, the piece shows a number of fifteenth-century innovations that Berruguete imported from Italy, such as the perspective, the design of the space, the anatomical treatment of the figures and the delicate language of gestures employed. Nonetheless, we can be reasonably sure that the fragment was not directly painted by the master himself but by artists from a workshop from which he commissioned many works in his latter years.

This is probably the fragment from a Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple (Exhibit No. 51) shown at a 1957 exhibition in Ghent entitled 'Juste de Grand, Berruguete et la Cour d'Urbino' [‘Justus van Gent, Berruguete and the Court of Urbino’]. It belonged to the Gudiol Ricart Collection in Barcelona and is listed in the documentation as measuring 63 x 24 cm. This would seem to suggest that the restoration, which entailed extending the height and width of the work by several centimetres, was carried out for essentially aesthetic purposes.

Comment updated by Carlos Martín.

Alfonso Pérez Sánchez