Page 142 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

of the Silva family (a lion rampant) on one of the 21 crows' nests. The salver also recalls the great
tapestries of the Arzila series. Another suggestion silver-gilt pieces of the Manueline period in the
is that the tapestries were presented to the second SALVER DEPICTING A BATTLE Palacio Nacional de Ajuda, both in the mytho-
marquis of Santillana, later first duke of the FROM THE TROJAN WAR logical narrative and in the style of the figural
Infantado, by Dom Afonso v himself, at the time scenes.
he claimed the throne of Castile (1474-1479). end of i$th century The dowry that the Infanta Dona Beatriz of
According to this explanation, the tapestries later Portuguese Portugal (1504-1538) took to Nice in 1521 at the
passed by inheritance, to Dona Catarina de Men- silver-gilt, engraved and repousse time of her wedding to Charles in of Savoy (the
3
fn /4J
donga e Sandoval who gave them to her husband, diameter 30 Sousa 1739, 2:448; Braga 1870; Good) included many pieces of jewelry and gold
references:
the fourth duke of Pastrana, at the time of their Vasconcelos 1951; Couto and Gongalves 1960; Oman work, including "four large silver cups gilded
marriage in 1630. It is also sometimes thought 1968; Smith 1968; Santos and Quilho 1974 inside and outside and with relief work on the
that the Mendoza family, who supported the base and edges, that is, one of the Story of Troy,
troops of Ferdinand and Isabella during this strug- Victoria and Albert Museum, London which has a city, a horseman and a tent" (A. Cae-
gle over the Spanish succession, acquired the tap- tano de Sousa, Provas, 2:448). This description
estries as a result of the victory over Dom Afonso The scene in deep repousse work on this salver corresponds to various depictions of the Trojan
at Toro in 1476. Yet another proposal is that Dom depicts a battle from the Trojan war, set at the War from this period and to the scene on the
Joao ii gave the tapestries, as a reward for impor- entrance to the city of Troy. The two knights in salver, though the work's provenance cannot be
tant services rendered to the Portuguese crown, to combat above the upper part of the coat-of-arms traced that far back. The central medallion on the
Cardinal Pedro Gonzalez de Mendonga, brother of are identified in engraved inscriptions as the salver was engraved in the seventeenth century
the second marquis of Santillana, who accompa- Trojan commander Hector on the left and the leg- with the coat of arms of the Pintos da Cunha fam-
nied the Infanta Dona Isabel to Portugal for her endary Greek hero Achilles on the right. The ily. In 1871, it was sold by Dr. Henrique Nunes
betrothal to Prince Dom Afonso in 1490. story of the siege and attack of Troy, as narrated Teixeira of Porto, to Francis Cook, a London
Faria Y Sousa unmistakably described the tap- by Homer and Virgil, was a popular theme in businessman and investor with Portuguese con -
estries in his Epitome de la Historias Portuguesas classical antiquity as well as in medieval novels nections. In 1863-1865, Cook had commissioned
(1628) after seeing them in the palace of the dukes and Renaissance and Baroque decorative art. It the architect James Knowles, Jr. to design a neo-
of the Infantado in Guadalajara. Indeed, we know was a popular subject for tapestries, as well. The arabic revival palace in Sintra. The salver was
that in 1664 they were donated to the Colegiata at city and fortifications ^depicted on the salver subsequently acquired in 1955 by W. L. Hildburgh,
Pastrana by a nephew of Don Frei Pedro Gonzalez resemble those of Arzila, as depicted in the series an American resident of London, who left it to the
do Mendoza, archbishop of Granada, Zaragoza and of tapestries in Pastrana (see cat. 20). Other simi- Victoria and Albert Museum. J.T.
Sigiienza (1564-1639) and son of Don Diego da larities to scenes on tapestries are the ships' rig-
Silva y Mendoza (d. 1630). J.T. ging—note the ornament of the sails and the

22
Attributed to Joao Afonso
Portuguese, active 1402-1443
SAINT MICHAEL

limestone, with polychromy
1
79 til /*)
references: Humbert 1913; Santos 1948; Muller
1966; Bazin 1968; Quarre 1978; Almeida 1983;
Andrade 1983
private collection

If we follow the suggestions of Reinaldo dos
Santos, this sculpture of Saint Michael should be
attributed to the master Joao Afonso. Other works
related to this piece are the sculpture from the
collection of Ernesto Vilhena, now in the Museu
Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon; a very similar
statue in the church of Golega; and the sculptures
that make up the altarpiece of the Corpo de Deus
of 1443, now in the Museu Machado de Castro at
Coimbra. All of these works have features in
common, such as the stylized hairdos, encircled
by an interwoven wreath ornamented with
rosettes, and the garments with angular patterns
of folds, decorated with geometrically shaped
brooches (another recurrent element).
The ultimate iconographic prototype of this
image is the famous Ange au Sourire of the west

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 141