MUR, Ramon de

Techniques

Tempera and gilt with gold leaf on wood. Painting and gilt on gesso

Profile and historiographical debate

In spite of the fact that his provenance and the place where he was trained are unknown, it is being speculated that it could be Tarragona. He spent most of his career in Tàrrega, where he lived at least since 1412 and where he should have had his workshop. It seems that during his last years, possibly since 1432, he settled in Montblanc. His documented and attributed works draw an action framework that at least includes the counties of Urgell, Conca de Barbera, Garrigues and Segarra. His figurative culture, heiress of the Italian Treccento, highly personal, denotes the knowledge of some of the new formulas from the other side of the Pyrenees which strongly rooted in Catalonia in the early 1400.

Ch R. Post defined a "Manner of Guimerà" from the surviving panels coming from the high altar of Santa Maria of Guimerà’s church and brought together a group of works regarding style issues (some of them quite heterogenic). Pere Batlle identified the discreet Altarpiece of Saint Peter of Vinaixa which, according to the contract, was commissioned to Ramon de Mur by the stonemason Pere Ferrerons in 1420. Besides, the same author, starting from several documents that link Ramon de Mur with the Altarpiece of the Saints John from Vinaixa, attributed him erroneously a corpus of works related to the former Master of Saint George, who would be later correctly identified as Bernat Martorell. Up to Gudiol i Ricart’s publications (1938 i 1944) there had not been developed a well-defined hypothetical identity between the Master of Guimerà and Ramon de Mur, considered so far two distinct personalities. Ramon de Mur’s catalogue proposed by Gudiol i Ricart, without Martorell works yet, has remained largely stable until today.

Works

• Altarpiece of Saint Peter from Vinaixa (Museu Diocesà de Tarragona, inv. 392)

Starting from this work can be attributed to Ramon de Mur:

• The surviving Guimerà altarpiece panels (before 1412) (Museu Episcopal de Vic)
• The panel of the Virgin Suckling the Child from Santa Maria de Cervera (MNAC 15,818),
• The compartments of a predella with Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Lucy and Saint Barbara from Glorieta and a fragment of a Presentation of Jesus at the Temple (Museu Episcopal de Vic, inv. 1044 and 1055)
• The Virgin with Musician Angels and Donor and the Saint Margaret panels (private collection), and several fragments of an altarpiece, including four figurative filloles (narrow compartments between the vertical sections of the altarpiece) (Biblioteca Mata, Ripoll)

The documents disclose other non-preserved works by the craftsman as:

• The Altarpiece of Saint Lucy from the parish of Santa Coloma de Queralt, towards 1411-1412
• The altarpiece of the Virgin in plaster for the high altar of the church of Santa Maria in Granyena de Segarra, 1417
• An unknown altarpiece from Verdú and the Altarpiece of Saint Michael from the church of Santa Maria in Guàrdia Lada, 1421
• The Altarpiece of the Saints John from the high altar of Vinaixa's church, 1432-1435

Patrons

Councillors of the Guimerà village; Pere Cervera, priest and executor of the deceased priest Bernat Agualada; councilors of Granyena de Segarra (and the order of the Hospital?); The stonemason Pere de Ferrerons, Vinaixa neighbor; Arbonès, Verdú neighbor; Councillors of la Guàrdia Lada; executors of the deceased Guillem Singler and councilors of Vinaixa.

Documentary Sources

Documented between 1412 and 1435 AS “Ramon de Mur” (“Raymundus de Mur” in records written in Latin language). Documents collected by the historiography (vid. infra.). 

Text: Cèsar Favà