. Her father
John II knew
Jan van Eyck who had died by the time the painting was commissioned. Instead, John enlisted van der Weyden. It is believed that Isabel was so impressed by the work that she, in turn, commissioned a copy (now in New York) from a member of van der Weyden's workshop or a follower. Two nearly identical but slightly smaller copies survive, in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and in the
Royal Chapel of Granada. This Berlin original comes from the collection of
Isabella I of Castile and was long thought to be the original of the two. As late as 1956, art historian Max Friedlænder wrote that "since the Granada version became known, the Berlin replica has been ignored as of no importance. The Berlin altarpiece is unusually well-preserved; it is in some respects inferior to the Granada work but can hardly be other than an extremely careful and highly successful workshop replica." More recent studies of the under-drawing and paint show that the Granada/New York version was executed after the Berlin panels, while
dendrochronological examination of the oak carried out in 1982 dates it after 1492; van der Weyden is known to have died in 1464. Study of the Berlin work reveals a heartwood ring from 1406 and approximates a felling date for the timber in the early 1420s. The Altarpiece was stolen by
General Darmagnac during the
Peninsular War, as a part of the
Napoleonic looting of art in Spain. The triptych was largely forgotten and ignored until the early 20th century. It was not identified as a van der Weyden until attributed in the early 1950s by
Max Friedlænder in his pioneering 14-volume
Masterpieces of Netherlandish painting of the 15th and 16th centuries. The attribution came from the verification of a 1445 document describing the triptych as of the hand of "the great and famous Fleming Rogel". The Granada and New York versions, until this point considered originals, were recognised as copies, now thought made around 1500 by a
Castile painter who most likely served his apprentiship in the Low Countries. It has been suggested that both come from
Juan de Flandes, but there is no conclusive proof. Panofsky, also writing in the 1950s, expanded on Friedlænder's work and detailed the complex iconography of the altarpiece. Further,
infrared reflectography shows that changes were made to the composition before its completion, proving that it is not the work of a copyist. The triptych was commissioned by Isabella's father
John II, who donated it to the
Miraflores Carthusian monastery near
Burgos, Spain, around 1445. Most likely, Isabella ordered a copy of the Berlin work as such altarpieces were then "prized for their spiritual powers or for the status of their authorship and/or ownership". ==References==