Colnaghi Foundation Journal 03 - Magazine - Page 195
192
Onofre Falcó, a Spanish Renaissance master
Fig. 15 / Onofre Falcó
(attributed here), Archangel
Saint Michael, oil on panel,
Valencia, Valencia Cathedral.
Fig. 16 / Onofre Falcó
(attributed here), Saint Abdón,
oil on panel, Photo Moreno,
Instituto del Patrimonio
Cultural de España, MCD.
Fig. E / Onofre Falcó, Saint
Senén, oil on panel, Photo
Moreno, Instituto del
Patrimonio Cultural de
España, MCD.
Fig. 17 / Onofre Falcó?
Frontispiece, ed. Vincente
Rocca, Historia en la qual se
trata de la origen y guerras que
han tenido los Turcos, 1556.
Onofre Falcó, a Spanish Renaissance master
193
In his catalogue of Vicent Macip, Fernando Benito
associated four panels of Saint Benedict, Saint Christopher,
Saint James the Apostle, and the Archangel Michael with the
artist.35 Formerly in Valencia Cathedral, only the panel
of the Archangel appears to survive (fig. 15). For the
present author, however, it should be attributed, along
with the other three, to Onofre Falcó. The tall, narrow
format of these panels suggest that they were the
folding doors of a portable oratory.
Two paired panels formerly in the Siravegne
collection depict Saint Abdon (fig. 16) and Saint Sennen
(fig. E). Attributed by José Albi to Joan de Joanes,36 for
the present author they should be returned to Onofre
Falcó on stylistic grounds. The two saints, who were
highly venerated in the Valencian region for their
protection against hailstones, were popularly known
as the “santos de la piedra” or “saints of stone”. As in a
panel of these saints by Joan de Joanes in a private
collection in Valencia,37 here they each have a crown,
sceptre and halo and are esteemed with cloths of
honour. Saint Abdon bears a portrait of the Emperor
Charles V, as noted by Angulo in 1944.38
It is very likely that Onofre Falcó had associations
with some of the Valencian printing houses, as Joan
de Joanes did with the printer Juan de Mey. It seems
possible to identify Falcó’s hand in the design for
the frontispiece of a book published in 1556 entitled
Historia en la qual se trata de la origen y guerras que han tenido
los Turcos […] Recopilado por Vicente Rocca (fig. 17).
