Page 144 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

coat-of-arms of the kingdom of Portugal with a but he was also able to pursue his studies of the of contempt for the World), underscores the mis-
battering ram, an attribute of the infantes, above humanities, continuing the tradition of culture fortune that followed him. He was eventually
which appears the Biblical burning bush, on which pursued by his father and uncles. reinstated in the military Order of Avis and
are depicted the Virgin and Child on the crescent. After the battle of Alfarrobeira (1449), in which served in the campaigns in Africa under Dom
This reliquary was offered to the church of the Dom Pedro's father lost his life, the victors pres- Afonso v, even though he pronounced himself
Convent of Avis by Dom Pedro (1429-1466), sured Dom Afonso v, Dom Pedro's cousin and opposed to the undertakings in Morocco (1460).
generally called o Condestdvel ("Supreme Com- brother-in-law, to strip Dom Pedro of his title of Three years later, in Ceuta, in view of his great
mander of the Army") to distinguish him from Condestdvel and of his status as Master of the prestige as a knight and a man of culture, and the
his father, the Infante Dom Pedro, son of Dom Order of Avis, of which he was the second title- fact that through his mother he was a grandson of
Joao i, the founder of the house of Avis. The holder. All his possessions were confiscated, and Don Jaime, the last count of Urgel, he was offered
Infante Dom Pedro is known as o Regente, o das he was forced into exile. Until 1457 he lived as an the crown of Catalonia, which had been vacant
Sete Partidas or o de Alfarrobeira. It was Dom unhappy wanderer in Castile and Aragon. His since 1462. Dom Pedro was made King of Aragon
Pedro o Condestdvel who at the age of fifteen, fatalistic motto — PAINE POUR JOIE (sorrow for and Sicily, Valencia, the Mallorcas, Sardinia, and
according to his contemporary, the historian Rui joy) — appears in the ornamental border around Corsica, and Count of Barcelona. His reign lasted
de Pina, when he was the handsomest youth of the coat-of-arms on the front of the reliquary. It only two years, but his interest in intellectual and
the day, was knighted in Coimbra by his uncle faithfully expresses his existence —prodigal in artistic matters is reflected in his accomplish-
Prince Henry the Navigator. In his youth Dom sorrows and sparing in joys. The title of one of his ments : he extensively remodeled the royal palace
Pedro served as a soldier, principally in Castile, books, Coplas do menosprego do Mundo (Stanzas of Barcelona, as well as the church of Giranolers.
He also instituted the Archive of Catalonia and
donated to its chapel of Santa Agueda the magnif-
icent altarpiece by Jaime Huguet (today in the
Museo de Historia de la Ciudad) and endowed the
Cathedral of Huesca with a set of Flemish tapes-
tries, on which his motto is inscribed.
This reliquary is one of the oldest works of Por-
tuguese goldsmiths, if not the oldest, to be
stamped with the mark of an appraiser of the
goldsmiths' guild, the Brotherhood of Saint Eli-
gius. This privilege was granted by the royal
patents of Dom Afonso v of 1457 and 1460, the
latter confirming the guild's obligation to mark
the works produced in the Lisbon workshops. The
reliquary should be compared with that belonging
to the Museu Alberto Sampaio Guimaraes, which
came from the old collegiate church of Our Lady
of Oliveira of Guimaraes and is dated 1467. The
two works have a similar shape, though the
ornamentation of the Avis reliquary is more in the
vernacular. J.T.

2 4

DALMATIC

first quarter of the i6th century
Italian (?)
silver and gold brocaded beige silk embroidered in
silk, silver, and gold
133 x 117 (52% x 46)
references: Gois 1566; Belem 1750-1755; Correia
1953; Mayer-Thurman 1975; Gombrich 1984;
Wieck and Zafran 1989
Se Patriarchal de Lisboa

This dalmatic is complete and is part of a set of
vestments which, according to tradition, were
presented by Dom Manuel i to the Se (Cathedral)
of Lisbon immediately after he acquired them in

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 143