Vicente Juan Masip

Who was Vicente Juan Masip?

Vicente Juan Masip was a Spanish painter of the Renaissance period. he was one of the main members, and considered the premier painter, of the Valencian school of painters. His son, Juan de Juanes, imitated his style. His two daughters, Dorotea and Margarita, were also painters. His most prominent pupil was Nicolas Borras.

Born in Andilla, he is said to have studied his art for some time in Rome, with which school his affinities are closest, but the greater part of his professional life was spent in the city of Valencia, where most of the extant examples of his work are now to be found. All relate to religious subjects, and are characterized by dignity of conception, accuracy of drawing, beauty of color, and minuteness of finish. He died at Bocairent while engaged upon an altarpiece in the church there.

Since his name Macip made him sound like a laborer, he adopted the name of Juanes or de Juan, and the heraldry of that family of nobility. He painted a Raphaelesqe Holy Family for the sacristy in the Cathedral of Valencia.

He never painted a profane subject, and emulated Luis de Vargas and Fra Angelico, in never painting unless he had undergone holy communion. Painting for him was a solemn exercise, an oratory process, full of prayers and fasts. He never lacked church patronage; the archbishop of Valencia, St. Thomas of Villanova, ordered a set of cartoon panels about the Life of the Virgin to model for some tapestries. He also painted for the churches of the Jesuits, Dominicans, Minims, Augustinians, Franciscans, and for the churches of San Nicolás, Santa Cruz, Carmen Calzado, St Esteban, Corona, Temple, San Andrés, San Bartolomé and San Miguel de los Reyes.