Spain's first great Renaissance painter, Pedro Berruguete,…

Spain's first great Renaissance painter, Pedro Berruguete, combines Gothic Hispano-Flemish elements with influences from Piero della Francesca.

Having painted portraits of the court members in Urbino, Italy, he later works in Spain, where he paints religious subjects for churches throughout Castile, including his well-known “Auto de Fe” from the church of Santo Tomás, Ávila.

He dies on January 6, 1504.

His teenaged son Alfonso, also a painter and an important sculptor, survives him.

Berruguete's last assignment was the high altar of the Ávila Cathedral, which he was unable to finish due to his death.

He painted for this work of late Gothic architecture several paintings of episodes from the life of Christ for the altarpiece, and figures of patriarchs for the predella.

These paintings, perhaps reflecting the prevailing style in Castile at the time, use gold backgrounds and somewhat rigid compositions.

The figures are of a more robust and monumental form than in previous works, perhaps in order to stand out in the distance of the main chapel.

After the master's death the altarpiece is completed by Juan de Borgoña.