CÍRCULO DE FREI CARLOS - SÉC. XVI
Our Lady of the Milk

Our Lady of the Milk
CÍRCULO DE FREI CARLOS - SÉC. XVI
Our Lady of the Milk
oil on wood
Portuguese school
16th C.
restoration, traces of woodworms
Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - 91 x 30 cm
Notes: The first master of the so-called “Luso-Flemish” painters was Francisco Henriques (act. 1506-1518), whose work is recognizable in the altarpiece of the Cathedral of Viseu and documented in the altarpiece of Saint. Francis of Évora and in the large panels executed for the chapels sides of the same church. Henriques was one of King D. Manuel I favorite painters and took root in Portuguese society by marrying a sister of the royal painter Jorge Afonso. In 1512, at the behest of D. Manuel I, Francisco Henriques went to Flanders to recruit more painters who could satisfy the increasingly large royal commissions. Of the painters who came with him to Portugal, some died with Henriques during the construction of the Court of Appeal in Lisbon, in 1518, struck by the plague, and their activity is barely discernible from an individual point of view, but their influence on Portuguese painting is notorious. giving rise precisely to the cycle that we can designate as Luso-Flemish and which mainly marks the second decade of the 16th century. Only two of these Flemish masters have a discernible activity among their peers, the anonymous master who we know by the conventional name of Master of Lourinhã, who executed, among others, the altarpieces of Palmela, Vale Bem Feito and collaborated on the Funchal altarpiece, and Friar Carlos, who in 1517 professed at the Convent of Espinheiro and between that date and his death, around 1540, performed several works for the Jerônimos Monastery. It was to the latter that Luis Reis Santos attributed this painting, with whose circle he has notorious activities, although the large scale of the figure is more reminiscent of certain works by Henriques. What seems certain to me is that it is a painting that can be clearly integrated into the “Luso-Flemish” masters, with its characteristic technique, less attached to realistic details than the Lisbon school and with its own technique that we can rigorously observe in the most prolific of his masters, precisely Friar Carlos. Due to the shape of the panel and its composition, it may be the left flap of a triptych. Despite the restorations, in areas where it suffered from gaps, the painting is an important testimony to one of the most brilliant phases of our painting and the figure of the Virgin has evident elegance in its idealized beauty and in the vibrant colour of its draperies. Joaquim Oliveira Caetano (Curator and Art Historian) - 2016 Bibliography: COUTO, João - "A Pintura Flamenga em Évora no século XVI. Variedade de estilos e técnicas na obra atribuída a Frei Carlos". Évora: 1943. COUTO, João - "A oficina de Frei Carlos". Lisbon: Artis, 1955. AA.VV. - "Os Primitivos Portugueses 1450-1550. O Séculos de Nuno Gonçalves". Lisbon: National Museum of Ancient Art/ Athena, 2010. CARVALHO, José Alberto Seabra (dir.) - "O Frei Carlos da América. Investigação e Crítica". Lisbon: National Museum of Ancient Art, 2013.