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Nuno Gonçalves, Francisco Henriques, Frei Carlos, Gregorio Lopes, Jorge Afonso, Cristóvão de Figueiredo are the great Renaissance painters that the National Museum of Ancient Art exhibits at the Louvre, in Paris, from June 10 to September 10. Three months for France, Europe and the world to discover the best that was done in our country in terms of painting throughout the first half of the 16th century. But it is an anonymous painting, called “Hell”, which places in the largest French museum the great originality of the art made at the time of the Discoveries.
From Lisbon to Paris, 15 dazzling canvases were made during the reigns of D. Manuel (1495-1521) and D. João III (1521-1557), they are works made within the court, mostly royal orders, which portray a religious reality but also of abundance and artistic mastery to which the cultural influences of Italy and Flanders, also of Germany, play on an intense scale, with curious notes of a daily life where the riches that come from abroad show the growing dialogue between the capital Portuguese and the lands of India, Brazil and Africa.
A golden moment for the country and for the Continent, which finds globalization at a commercial level for the first time through the millionaire routes of the Portuguese, something that the king, especially D. Manuel, will want to exhibit as a standard of art. and a culture of its own to a world already thirsty for novelties.
It is no coincidence that the selection of works made by Joaquim Caetano, director of the MNAA, is based on the most extravagant of the kingdom and not only, but also and obviously on the quality of the paintings. That is why there is Cristóvão de Figueiredo with its Lisbon streets, detailed routes punctuated by Portuguese caravels, on the edge of the Madre de Deus Convent, celebrated by a group of black musicians who existed in the court of D. Manuel, at that time. It goes back and forth from the Relics of Santa Auta de Colónia and the Marriage of Santa Úrsula with Prince Conan, where the jewels that the sitter wears highlight the wealth of a new court.
There are yes. Vicente”, by Nuno Gonçalves, our “great primitive”, the patron saint of Lisbon honors the mastery of the author of the famous Panels, currently undergoing restoration at the MNAA, in one of the largest conservation operations that took place in Portugal . There are Frei Carlos and his “Good Shepherd”, and so many other religious scenes, from the “Last Supper”, by Francisco Henriques, to the “Virgem and the Child with Angels”, by Gregório Lopes, through the “Adoration of the shepherds.” ” by Jorge Afonso.
Inescapable, memorable and rare, however, the anonymous painter of “Inferno” appears, that trapdoor of sinners, where all the evils of the world converge, all the demons and their loves. Carnal pleasures, mortal sins, each character in this infernal cauldron atones for his conduct on earth and suffers the punishment he deserves, devils half animals, half humans, half women, half men, come from this and beyond the sea, once again , dictated by how many cultures the city of Lisbon is measured. Reminiscent of those small figures in the famous “Temptations of Santo Antão” by Heironymus Bosch, the painting was kept under lock and key until the mid-20th century because it was considered too brazen.
Now on display in the Sala das Actualidades of the Louvre’s Department of Painting, on the top floor of the Richelieu Wing of that museum, “Inferno”, c. 1510-1520, is the most complete proof of the mix of cultures that Portugal played in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, an amalgam made up of people from everywhere, with different creeds and the same sins. Yesterday like today.
Source: Observadora
