Depicted in individual niches with architecture imitating sculpted wood on top, the two saints are standing against contrasting backgrounds yet uniting the composition with their gaze, directed toward one another. On the left side of the painting, Saint Jude Thaddaeus the Apostle (recognizable by his attribute, the halberd that he holds with his left hand) is shown against a dark brown background. He wears a vibrant, deep red cloak that drapes over his head and a dark forest-green tunic peeking out from beneath the red cloak, on his right sleeve. The Saint is looking at the right part of the composition, where Saint Bartholomew the Apostle is depicted against a vivid red background. Saint Bartholomew looks back at Saint Jude while holding his attribute, the knife. He wears a beautiful off-white cloak with very soft lilac-pink tone that falls over his left shoulder.

The painting shows very distinctive stylistic features – the treatment of the light and shadow is strong, the color palette is rich and the contrasts are heavy, bringing an overall dramatic impression to the panel. The faces of the two saints are highly expressive, with swollen skin marked by visible wrinkles, large eyes with prominent eyelids, dark hair with strands falling across the face. The expression of Saint Jude and Saint Bartholomew is strict, contributing to the remarkable intensity of this painting, while their position seems frozen, with stiff gestures and rigid hands, only bringing more severity to the composition.

The present painting is a fragment of a much larger altarpiece, probably a fragment from a predella. The wood is very thick and heavy, probably indicating that the original size of the painting was much larger. In all likelihood, the altarpiece was originally destined to adorn the wall of a religious building in Castile. Though the painter remains unknown, insightful comparisons can be made with paintings from the late 15th and the early 16th centuries in Castile, more precisely cities such as Burgos or its surroundings, including Oña, and Palencia. The “incisive and virile characterization of each saint”, to use the expression of Chandler Post, is reminiscent of works by the Burgos Master, an artist named by Chandler Post after six panels from a dismantled altarpiece originally in the chapel of San Juan de Sahagun in the Cathedral of Burgos (now in the Museo Diocesano). Chandler Post proposed to identify the anonymous master with Alonso de Sedano, but other art historians prefer to merge the Burgos Master with the Master of Balbases. The present panel painting shows stylistic features that are very close with the striking series of six Apostles from a predella (former collection of Jess I. Straus, New York - see reproduction of Saint Paul in: Ch. Post, A history of Spanish painting. The Hispano-Flemish style in Andalusia, vol. 5, Cambridge, 1935, appendix, p. 331) painted by a talented artist from Oña who shows proximity with the Burgos Master. Another interesting comparison can be made with the eight Saints from the Retablo de San Pedro de Tejada (Museo de Burgos), painted by fray Alonso de Zamora (also known as the Master of Oña), which shows similarities, especially in the treatment of the faces. Additionally, the Saint Jude and Saint Bartholomew at hand also evoke the art of Pedro Berruguete and can therefore be compared with paintings from Palencia, showing the influence of Pedro Berruguete, such as the four Prophets (Diocesan Museum of Palencia) painted by the Maestro de Támara (Andrés de Melgar). Of high quality, the present painting shows unusual stylistic features which indicate the hand of a master with his own style, most certainly active in Castile, between the province of Burgos and its neighboring towns.

Known fragment from the same altarpiece
Saint Andrew: Cologne, Lempertz, November 17, 2012, lot 1102, as “Spanish school, second half of the 15th century”.