Juan Mates (Villafranca del Panadès c. 1370-1431 Barcelona)

For many years the artist Juan Mates was known by the anonymous sobriquet 'The Master of Peñafiel', whose oeuvre was built around a pair of retables formerly in the ermita at Peñafiel by C.R. Post (op. cit.). It was Juan Ainaud who identified the Master of Peñafiel as Juan Mates (loc. cit.), on the basis of a contract and receipts documenting the commission of his works. He also found the actual record of the installation of the retables and was therefore able to date their execution to 1411-1415. A native of Villafranca del Panadés, Mates was active in Barcelona by 1400.