Llorenç Saragossa

Lorenzo Zaragoza (Llorenç Saragossà in Catalan) was a Gothic International Style painter who brought this style to the Crown of Aragon, where he enjoyed considerable prestige. Born in Cariñena, he is first documented in Valencia in 1363, and most of his activity took place between Barcelona and Valencia.

In 1366 he painted works for the Poor Clares convent in Teruel, commissioned by Queen Leonor of Sicily, and by 1367 he was working for King Peter IV, who regarded him as the best painter in Barcelona. His presence in that city is documented until 1374, after which he appears to have moved to Valencia, where records place him between 1377 and 1407. He is credited with the Jérica altarpiece, dated 1394-1395, which contains the first appearance of the 'angelic concert', a model of the Virgin accompanied by musician angels that other painters repeated later, although the work is now more often assigned to Jaume Mateu. The Virgin of the Milk attributed to him in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya belongs to the same iconographic type. Four small panels showing scenes from the life of Saint Luke, now in the Museum of Fine Arts of Valencia, are also attributed to him; they came from the altarpiece of the Valencian guild of painters and carpenters.