Page 139 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

ganga. The first duke, Dom Afonso (1385-1461), basis for assuming that Dom Afonso v commis- Father; and as the Father gave me commandment,
illegitimate brother of the Infante Dom Henrique, sioned the altarpiece for the chapel of Saint Vin- even so I do/' In the context of the New Testa-
is the figure in the foreground, singled out for his cent. It is thought that its execution took some ment, Christ, anticipating his Ascension, is
role in defending the king's party in the crisis that time and that the historical events of the conquest encouraging the apostles in their coming struggle
led to the Battle of Alfarrobeira and for the part he of Arzila and Tangiers in 1471 determined its con- with the devil. The text is read in the mass for
played in the North African campaigns. In the ceptual and symbolic framework. Pentecost, where it refers to the propagation of
background, to the right, is the second duke, Dom We know that on 12 April 1471 Nuno Gon- the faith by the apostles after the Holy Spirit has
Fernando (1403-1483), who served as regent galves, to whom the altarpiece is attributed, was descended upon them. In the symbolic context of
during the absence of Dom Afonso v in the Afri- appointed official painter of the city, replacing the altarpiece this Biblical quotation must refer to
can campaign. To the left is the third duke of Bra- Joao Eanes. One of the most important references the Portuguese struggle with the Infidel, the
ganc,a, Dom Fernando (1430-1483), who served in to him, and a basis for the attribution, is a quota- forces arrayed against Christianity (Cortesao
the assault on Arzila, together with Dom Joao, his tion from Francisco de Hollanda's Da Pintura 1978).
brother, the marquis of Montemor. The bearded, Antiga of 1548: 'And this was Nuno Conceives, Isaac Abrabanel (1436-1508), a powerful Jewish
hirsute young man may be meant to represent the painter of King Dom Afonso, who painted the banker and the administrator of Dom Fernando's
Mohammed, son of the Sheikh of Arzila, who was altar of Saint Vincent in the Cathedral of Lisbon" household, became the financial adviser to Dom
kept in the custody of the court in Lisbon for two (Book i, ch. xi). Afonso v in 1472. In later years he helped finance
years following the battle. We know little about Nuno Conceives. There is the campaigns in Castile. He was also an impor-
The Portuguese cult of the martyr Saint Vin- no stylistic tradition to support the attribution of tant Biblical scholar. He holds his Hebrew Bible
cent is closely related to the drive for national the panels to him, nor do we know of any fol- open to a passage from Isaiah 66:18-19, a text
independence and the Reconquest of Portugal lowers. We know nothing of his training. The which medieval theologians had compared to pas-
from the Moors, symbolized by the victory of influence of Jan van Eyck (c. 1390-1441) is often sages in St. John's Gospel, seeing in it a prefigura-
Dom Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, proposed. While it is thought certain that van tion of the evangelical mission of the Apostles.
in Lisbon in 1147. Above the grave of those who Eyck visited Lisbon in 1428-1429 to paint a por- Abrabanel thus appears as the bearer of Isaiah's
perished in that bloody battle, the King erected a trait of the future wife of Philip the Good, this prophecy, attesting to the mission of the Apostles
Romanesque temple, dedicated to the Virgin as date is too early for him to have exerted any direct and, by extension, to the crusade of Portugal and
well as to Saint Vincent. Shortly before his death influence on Gongalves, who may not even have its soldiers, the new apostles, who have taken on
Dom Joao i arranged for the construction of the been born yet. The other Early Netherlandish the mission of combating the Infidel (Sterling
presbytery and the altar of Saint Vincent (1433). master who is often mentioned is Rogier van der 1971)- J.T.
We know that in 1434 Dom Duarte donated six Weyden (c. 1400-1464). Conceives must have
urns of oil for the lamps of the altar of Saint Vin- known of van der Weyden, as he was painter to 2O
cent at the Cathedral of Lisbon, where the saint's the court of Burgundy, the home of Dona Isabel,
remains were deposited soon after their arrival in who is represented in the Saint Vincent altarpiece. Attributed to the workshop of
the city in 1173. The Infante Dom Fernando, held Her portrait appeared in a triptych which until the Pasquier Grenier
prisoner in Fez, in 1437, left valuable religious early nineteenth century was preserved in the Tournai, active until 1493
works to the memory and honor of Saint Vincent, monastery at Batalha. TAKING OF TANGIERS
who became the patron of the royal house, of the Ultimately, one can speak only of the general
1471-1475
c.
city of Lisbon, and of the navigators. inspiration of Flemish art, which was of broad 365 x 1050 (i4} /8 x 4i} /s)
3
5
Documents dating from 1451 (ANTT, Chance- influence in Portugal at this time. The same can tapestry: wool and silk
laria do Rei D. Afonso v, Book 11, fl. 139, cited in be said about the influence of Catalan painting, references: Faria Y Sousa 1680; Raczynski 1846;
Sousa Viterbo, 1899) describe the campaign to whose principal exponent, Bartolome Bermejo Guiffray 1886; Viterbo 1920; Merchante 1923;
construct a chapel dedicated to Saint Vincent, (1430-1498), shares stylistic features with Flem- Lopes 1925; Santos 1925; Figueiredo 1926; Dornelas
under the direction of the master-architect Joao ish art. Francisco de Hollanda also spoke of Gon- 1926; Santos 1927; Mendonga 2949; Thompson
Afonso, who is described as "master of works of galves' innovative technique — "for in a very 1980
that chapel of the blessed/' In the slightly earlier primitive time he wanted in some way to imitate Museo Parroquial de Pastrana
Niccolini Chapel in the Vatican Pope Eugenius iv the care and description of the ancient and Italian
commissioned an ensemble of frescoes in honor of painters" — a statement which has caused scholars The splendid set of four Tournai tapestries of
the martyrs saints Lawrence and Stephen, the to look to the paintings of Gozzoli, Ghirlandaio, which this forms a part, preserved today in the
only deacons other than Vincent to be canonized, and Luca Signorelli (the latter above all in his ana- Collegiate Church of Pastrana in Spain, celebrates
may have encouraged Dom Afonso's project. A tomical modeling of figures — see, for example, his an important military triumph in the Portuguese
document of 1469 indicates that Dom Afonso v Christ at the Column [Museu Nacional de Arte conquest of Morocco.
offered "5650 reals to the cathedral chapter as Antiga, Lisbon]). In 1471 Dom Afonso v (1432-1481) added a
alms for the altarpiece of the martyr Saint Vincent There is an especially fascinating correlation new epithet to the title he had inherited, one that
being made there/' between the text of the book that Saint Vincent was intended to glorify his expansionist foreign
The Retrato dos Reis q Estaem Lisboa, a codex holds open to the observer in the Panel of the policy: Rei de Portugal e dos Algarves daquem e
of the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century Infante and the Hebrew Bible which Isaac Abra- dalem mar em Africa ("King of Portugal and of
in the Biblioteca Nacional of Rio de Janeiro, states banel holds in the Panel of the Relic. The inten- the Algarves and on this side of, and beyond the
that the figure of Saint Vincent has the features of tion is evidently to convey a message through seas in, Africa"). To underscore the ten years he
the son of Dom Joao n, Prince Dom Afonso, who both the New and Old Testaments. The passage in spent in conquering Morocco, the Portuguese
died tragically in 1491, suggesting that the face of Saint Vincent's Bible is chapter xiv, verses 30 and later dubbed him o Africano ("the African"),
the saint was repainted to commemorate the loss 31, of the Gospel according to Saint John: "Here- clearly indicating their approval of his own
of the heir to the throne. This change further after I will not talk much with you; for the prince characterization.
complicates the issues of dating and attributing of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. The historical context of the Moroccan cam-
the altarpiece. These historical sources were the But that the world may know that I love the paign was the conflict between Christianity and

138 CIRCA 1492 Detail, cat. 20