VALLS, Domingo

Techniques

• Painting on wood
• Wall painting
• Painting on parchment
• Painting on paper

Profile and historiographical debate

According to the documents, the painter Domingo Valls had to develop his career in Tortosa (Baix Ebre). The first news known are dated in 1366, when he is already active professionally, although it is known that in 1359 one citizen of Tortosa called Domingo Valls bought a house. The latest news about his professional activity are dated on 1402, but it is necessary to consider several documents that refer alms that were given to Valls, que passava gran fretura, and to his wife, eixida de seny, until 1409. It seems that Valls mostly dealt with minor pictorial works, many of them commissioned by the Council of the University of Tortosa, though, he never held the title of “pintor del Consell”, that was created in 1394. Instead, he acted, at least between 1377 and 1385, as custodian of the royal castle of Tortosa, which is the reason why in the actual documentation he appears as pintor de Tortosa i de casa nostra. Besides appearing employed in extra artistic activities, Domingo Valls is also documented as a painter of altarpieces. At least a couple of altarpieces that were painted for Tortosa, in addition to that altarpiece that he did for the town of Albocàsser (Alt Maestrat) and which spreads punctually its geographical framework in the area of ​​the diocese of Tortosa, which included (and still includes) territories of Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia.

The finding of documents related to the painter Domingo Valls was reflected in Maria Galindo (1913) and Federico Pastor’ (1915, 1919 and 1925) publications where  some documents from Tortosa were published, and those of Sanchis Sivera (1913), Rubio i Lluch (1921) and Sanpere i Miquel (1924), that published some documents from the Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, and among them the famous letter dated on 3th January 1373 where King Pere el Cerimoniós refers the painter Llorenç Saragossa as lo millor pintor que en aquesta ciutat [Barcelona] sia. This document also refers Domingo Valls as making an altarpiece for the parish of Albocàsser. This served as basis to Ch. R. Post (1930) in order to attribute hypothetically to him the Altarpiece of the Sants Joans of Albocàsser, which is preserved in the church of Sant Joan of that village, as the keystone around which, little by little, he composed a voluminous catalogue. In spite of Gudiol Ricart’s doubts (1955), this hypothesis was widely accepted by critics until 1980 when A. Jose i Pitarch (1980) rejected it due to the chronological inconsistency between the documents related to the painter and the style of the works that were assigned to him. Since then, Valls has ceased to have a defined artistic personality and has become, as before 1930, a painter known only through documents. Recently, R. Alcoy (2003) has considered him as a leading candidate to assume the making of the Holy Entombment table that is preserved in the Cathedral of Tortosa. In addition, the style of this painter is still unknown, meanwhile, it seems that just a few works made by him have survived and among them some of the shields of the city books of accounts, as it has been recently indicated by Antoni José i Pitarch (2003 and 2004) and James Vidal’ studies on the painter, who have also published some new documents.

Works

Documented works

The documents give Domingo Valls the authorship of these missing altarpieces:

• Altarpiece of Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Anthony of Padua for the altar of the Confraternity of peasants of the convent of Santa Clara of Tortosa (1366)
• Altarpiece for the parish of Albocàsser (1373-1375)
• Table of the Portal del Coll de Sant Joan, Tortosa (1398)

 The documents also make Domingo Valls responsible for the following activities:

• Painting of the capitals of the Arxiu de la Casa de la ciutat de Tortosa (1370)
• Painting of torches (between 1379 and 1402), mainly for the feast of Corpus Christi, and two small candlesticks (1380 and 1394)
• Samples and painting of shields for various media (torches, canopies, books, etc.) (Between 1381 and 1402)
• Painting of the candlesticks of the pallium for the royal appearance of Sibil·la de Fortià and Violant de Bar in Tortosa (1381 and 1382 respectively)
• Figures of the portal Romeu, Tortosa (1385)
• Painting of two Gospels (1386)
• Painting of the windows of the chapels of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the ambulatory of the Cathedral of Tortosa (1386-1387)
• Paint and repair of the image of the Virgin of the Portal de l'Olivar, Tortosa (1387)
• Glass lamp of Damascus (1387)
• Painting of the walls, sheets and capitals of the Portal del Coll de Sant Joan, Tortosa (1398)

Patrons

• Council of the University of Tortosa
• Juries of Albocàsser
• Chapter of the Cathedral of Tortosa

Documentary Sources

Certainly documented between 1366 and 1402, mainly as Domingo Valls in Catalan documents [sometimes Vals, Vayls o Vall] and as Dominicus Valls in Latin documents. Documents collected by the historiography.

Text: Cèsar Favà