Gallego, Fernando

GALLEGO, FERNANDO. - Spanish painter, b. ca. 1440. Although his name indicates that he was a native of Galicia, tradition holds that he was born in Salamanca, where most of his activity seems to have taken place. Three signed works by him survive: the retablo of the chapel of St. Ildephonsus in the cathedral of Zamora, completed no later than 1457; the triptych of the new cathedral of Salamanca; and the Pietà with Two Donors, from the Webel collection in Madrid, which is one of his noblest creations.

All these paintings show him to be one of the leading representatives of that Hispano-Flemish school whose active center was in Salamanca, with influences above all from Petrus Christus and Rogier van der Weyden. Many other works are attributed to him, among them some grandiose ensembles (retablo of Ciudad Rodrigo, now in the Cook collection; retablo of St. Lawrence in Toro; the dismembered retablo of the village of Aremillas, etc.). The FRANCESCO G. who, according to documents, is indicated as the author of the triptych of St. Catherine in the old cathedral of Salamanca, completed in 1500, would according to some critics be the son of Fernando, from whom, however, he does not differ stylistically. The last notice of the artist is from 1507, when he was finishing the decoration of the Chapel of the University of Salamanca, of which nothing remains today.

Emma Zocca