Altarpiece of St George

ALTARPIECE OF SAINT GEORGE – CENTENAR DE LA PLOMA

The altarpiece of the Centenar de la Ploma or Saint George was commissioned to Marçal de Sax around 1420, a painter of German origin living in precarious conditions in València where the City Council provided him with refuge. The altarpiece was commissioned by the militia known as the Centenar de la Ploma (one hundred horsemen, crossbowmen or troops) who protected the city and the landmark of the kingdom of Valencia under the protection of its patron Saint George. The crossbowmen wore a helmet with a heron feather as a distinctive, hence their name: They were a hundred and carried a pen to identify.

By measurements (6.6 meters by 5.5 meters) and content it is EXTRAORDINARY because in addition to all the religious iconography, typical of the Gothic of the time, it represents the battle of Puig in August 1237, a historical fact, which allowed the year following, on October 9, 1238, the entry of Jaume I into the city of Valencia and declaring the victory of the Christian kingdom against the so-called Moors. From that moment, on October 9 and Jaume I, the symbols of the history of Valencia appear.
The altarpiece adorned the altar of the chapel that had the Centenar de la Ploma militia at its headquarters, next to the church of San Jorge in Valencia. It was there from 1420 until the militia was abolished in 1711 as a result of the Nova Planta decrees. The abolition impoverished them and their heritage declined. There is evidence of the fact that in 1740 the altarpiece was still in their headquarters, which were demolished in 1807, and the nearby church of San Jorge was also demolished later, in the middle of the 19th century, and in its place the current Main Theater was built. in the street of the Barcas. There, from 1740 onwards, the altarpiece was lost and it appeared again in Paris in 1864.

John Charles Robinson, then (1864) of the Department of Art and Science of the South Kensington museum in London, bought it from Baur, a Parisian antiquarian, for 840 pounds from the originally offered 500 by the museum. The museum documentation shows a negotiation period that ended in a few months. Originally from a "destroyed church of València". The man, the buyer for the museum, was excited. In Paris the wooden altarpiece was dismantled into 17 pieces.

In 2008 the Consell celebrated the Jaume I Year because it was 800 years since the birth of the king. They asked for the altarpiece on loan and but the museum refused. The then president of the Generalitat, Francisco Camps, even made a secret trip to London and caused a diplomatic uproar for not informing the embassy.
As this attempt still failed, the Generalitat in 2008 made a reproduction facsimile ( exactly the same measures and image) ,but Jaume I changed the suit to remove the flag with four red stripes,as it was a symbol shared with Catalonia, and put the cross of St. George instead. The reproduction was exhibited in a chapel of the Cathedral of Valencia where Jaume I attended the first mass in València.

Nowadays, an agreement between the Victoria & Albert museum and the Generalitat chaired by Ximo Puig, signed in December 2018, has allowed a part of the altarpiece to be restored and exhibited in València on the condition that, once restored, it will return to London. For now, in the process of restoration, it can be visited at the Museum of Fine Arts of València.

IMAGE AND ICONOGRAPHY

The main part of the altarpiece is the image of Saint George fighting the dragon and a woman watching him , reproducing the legend of the saint (the good) who wins the devil (the evil). He wears the flat cross of gules (red in heraldry), the same one that identifies him in the image above, where he helps Jaume I in the battle of Puig by killing his enemies. Here he wears the uniform of the knights of the brotherhood and the heron feather in the helmet that characterizes them. The Battle of Puig was led by Bernat Guillem d'Entença , buried precisely in the monastery of Santa Maria del Puig. Jaume I was in Catalonia and Aragon recruiting men and means to continue the conquest. But even though he was not there, he hung the medal and became the myth crowning the entry into the city the following year.

Along with the two named images, the altarpiece shows 16 scenes from the life and martyrdom of Saint George and above the four evangelists (seated at a table writing) surrounded by angels. At the top, the Virgin of Àngels or Victoria breastfeeding the baby; above, Jesus Christ with the globe or ball of the world surrounded by Moses and Elies. The 24 prophets around the images under an arch and on the coat or frame the twelve apostles. Above all the Holy Spirit, to his right, the cross and to his left the crossbow of the crossbowmen.

The PREDELLA , the lower part missing the middle piece, presents ten scenes from the Passion of Christ, a very frequent sequence in Valencian altarpieces of the time. The p re of the to was in bad condition; It clearly shows the rhombuses of the city flag, the coat of arms and other symbols. The original predella is being restored by the IVCR, in Valencia and has been exhibited in the city since 2019 as a result of the agreement signed in December 2018 in London.

The altarpiece of Saint George del Centenar de la Ploma brings together a good part of the elements that were decisive for the history of the Kingdom of València. That is why they say it is "the birth certificate of the Valencian people". An iconographic birth certificate in which the religion, the legend, the social groups, the force and military and economic alliances live and, altogether with the politics of that moment, preceeds the current course of History.