( fl 1391-?1431). Catalan painter. He completed a retable of SS Thomas and Anthony, which had been left unfinished at Pedro Serra's death, for Barcelona Cathedral in 1409. Mates undertook a number of distinguished commissions for altarpieces in Barcelona and as far afield as Huesca in Aragon (e.g. the retable of St Engracia, ordered on 18 Jan 1416; untraced). His documented surviving works are the retable of SS Martin and Ambrose in Barcelona Cathedral (1411), the retable of St Sebastian (1417; Barcelona, Mus. A. Catalunya) for the chapel of Pia Almoina, Barcelona, and the high altar retable of S Maria, Vila-rodena (1422). Other works attributed to him include the retables of SS Lucy and Michael (Barcelona, priv. col.), St Jaume de Vallespinosa (Tarragona Cathedral) and the Entombment (Barcelona, Mus. A. Catalunya). Mates was an expressive painter, who used contrasts of line for intensity of effect. His interests were focused on the human figure rather than the architectural setting, and he produced refined and elegant works that show the influence of Franco-Flemish manuscript illumination.