(b ?Córdoba, ?c.1440; d ?Barcelona, c.1498). Spanish painter, evidently from Córdoba, but active in northern Spain—in Aragon and then from 1486 in Barcelona. His name was originally Bartolomé de Cárdenas; his nickname ‘Bermejo’ (Spanish for ‘red’) presumably indicates that he had red hair or a ruddy complexion. He was one of the first Spanish painters to work in oils and it has been suggested that he learned the technique in the Netherlands. His most celebrated work is the powerfully emotional Pietà in Barcelona Cathedral, signed and dated 1490. It is one of the acknowledged masterpieces of the period and Bermejo is ‘generally recognised as the greatest painter active in Spain in the Middle Ages’ (Eric Young, Bartolomé Bermejo, 1975).