Title: The Consecration of Saint Augustine
Description: The Saint Augustine Altarpiece is a Catalan Gothic painting in egg tempera by Jaume Huguet and Pau Vergós made between 1462 and 1475. The long duration of the work was caused by financial reasons, and it is assumed that work was begun by Huguet and finished by other members of his workshop, in particular Pau Vergós. The altarpiece was commissioned by the guild of tanners to be placed on the altar of the Augustinian friary of Sant Agustí Vell ("Old St Augustine") in Barcelona, Spain. The panel measures 250 x 193 x 9.5 cm and has been in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona since 1927. Comparisons with similar works that survive complete suggest that there were originally several more panels than the eight that now survive, seven in the MNAC and one in the Museum Marés, also in Barcelona. They would have been framed in an elaborate gilded wooden setting as a retable behind the main altar. The grandeur of the work makes it the most important painting of the fifteenth century in Catalonia.
Author(s): Huguet, Jaume