THE INFLUENCE OF THE FOREIGNER
Very quickly the fame of these French workers spread across the country,
and they or their pupils were employed to design tombs, altar-pieces, or
chapels outside of Coimbra. Perhaps the da Silvas, lords of Vagos, were
among the very first to employ them, and in their chapel of Sao Marcos,
some eight or nine miles from Coimbra, more than one example of their
handiwork may still be seen.
[Sidenote: Tomb in Nossa Senhora dos Olivaes, Thomar.]
However, before visiting Sao Marcos mention must be made of two tombs,
one in Nossa Senhora dos Olivaes at Thomar, and one in the Graca church
at Santarem. Both are exceedingly French in design, and both were
erected not long after the coming of the foreigners.
The tomb in Thomar is the older. It is that of Diogo Pinheiro, the first
bishop of Funchal--which he never visited--who died in 1525. No doubt
the monument was put up soon after. It is placed rather high on the
north wall of the chancel; at the very bottom is a moulding enriched
with egg and tongue, separated by a plain frieze--crossed by a shield
with the bishop's arms--from the plinth and from the pedestals of the
side shafts and their supporting mouldings. On the plinth under a round
arched recess stands a sarcophagus with a tablet in front bearing the
date A.D. 1525, while behind in an elegant shell-topped niche is a
figure kneeling on a beautiful corbel. The front of this arch is adorned
with cherubs' heads, the jambs with arabesques, and heads look out of
circles in the spandrils. At the sides are Corinthian pilasters, and in
front of them beautiful candelabrum shafts. The cornice with a
well-carved frieze is simple, and in the pediment are again carved Dom
Diogo's arms, surmounted by his bishop's hat.
At the ends are vase-shaped finials, and another supported by dragons
rises from the pediment. (Fig. 77.)
This monument is indeed one of the most pleasing pieces of renaissance
work in existence, and one would be tempted to attribute it to Joao de
Castilho were it not that it is more French than any of his work, and
that in 1525 he can hardly have come back to Thomar, where the Claustro
da Micha, the first of the new additions, was only begun in 1528. It
will be safer then to attribute it to one of the Coimbra Frenchmen.
[Sidenote: Tomb in Graca, Santarem.]
The same must be said of the tomb in the Graca church at Santarem. It
was built in 1532 in honour of three men already long dead--Pero
Carreiro, Gonzalo Gil Barbosa his son-in-law, and Francisco Barbosa his
grandson. The design is like that of Bishop Pinheiro's monument,
omitting all beneath the plinth, except that the back is plain, the arch
elliptical, and the pediment small and round. The coffer has a long
inscription,[142] the jambs and arch are covered with arabesques, the
side shafts are taller and even more elegant than at Thomar, and in the
round pediment is a coat of arms, and on one side the head of a young
man wearing a helmet, and on the other the splendidly modelled head of
an old man; though much less pleasing as a whole, this head for
excellent realism is better than anything found on the bishop's tomb.
If we cannot tell which Frenchman designed these tombs, we know the name
of one who worked for the da Silvas at Sao Marcos, and we can also see
there the work of some of their pupils and successors.
[Sidenote: Sao Marcos.]
Sao Marcos, which lies about two miles to the north of the road leading
from Coimbra through Tentugal to Figueira de Foz at the mouth of the
Mondego, is now unfortunately much ruined. Nothing remains complete but
the church, for the monastic buildings were all burned not so long ago
by some peasantry to injure the landlord to whom they belonged, and with
them perished many a fine piece of carving.
The da Silvas had long had here a manor-house with a chapel, and in 1452
Dona Brites de Menezes, the wife of Ayres Gomes da Silva, the fourth
lord of Vagos, founded a small Jeronymite monastery. Of her chapel,
designed by
[Illustration: FIG. 77.
THOMAR. STA. MARIA DOS OLIVAES. TOMB OF BP. OF FUNCHAL.]
[Illustration: FIG. 78.
SAO MARCOS. TOMB IN CHANCEL. _From a photograph by E. Biel & Co.,
Oporto._]
Gil de Souza, little now remains, for the chancel was rebuilt in the
next century and the nave in the seventeenth. Only the tomb of Dona
Brites' second son, Fernao Telles de Menezes, still survives, for the
west door, with a cusped arch, beautifully undercut foliage, and knotted
shafts at the side, was added in 1570.
The tomb of Fernao Telles, which was erected about the year 1471, is
still quite Gothic. In the wall there opens a large pointed and cusped
arch, within which at the top there hangs a small tent which, passing
through a ring, turns into a great stone curtain upheld by hairy wild
men. Inside this curtain Dom Fernao lies in armour on a tomb whose front
is covered with beautifully carved foliage, and which has a cornice of
roses. On it are three coats of arms, Dom Fernao's, those of his wife,
Maria de Vilhena, and between them his and hers quartered.
Most of the tombs, five in all, are found in the chancel which was
rebuilt by Ayres da Silva, fifth lord of Vagos, the grandson of Dona
Brites, in 1522 and 1523. These are, on the north side, first, at the
east end, Dona Brites herself, then her son Joao da Silva in the middle,
and her grandson Ayres at the west, the tombs of Ayres and his father
being practically identical. Opposite Dona Brites lies the second count
of Aveiras, who died in 1672 and whose tomb is without interest, and
opposite Ayres, his son Joao da Silva, sixth lord of Vagos, who died in
1559. At the east end is a great reredos given by Ayres and containing
figures of himself and of his wife Dona Guiomar de Castro, while opening
from the north side of the nave is a beautiful domed chapel built by
Dona Antonia de Vilhena as a tomb-house for her husband, Diogo da Silva,
who died in 1556. In it also lies his elder brother Lourenco, seventh
lord of Vagos.
The chancel, which is of two bays, one wide, and one to the east
narrower, has a low vault with many well-moulded ribs springing from
large corbels, some of which are Manoelino, while others have on them
shields and figures of the renaissance. It still retains an original
window on each side, small, round-headed, with a band of beautiful
renaissance carving on the splay.
Dona Brites lies on a plain tomb in front of which there is a long
inscription. Above her rises a round arch set in a square frame. Large
flowers like Tudor roses are cut on the spandrils, the ogee hood-mould
is enriched with huge wonderfully undercut curly crockets, all Gothic,
but the band between the two mouldings of the arch is carved with
renaissance arabesques. The tomb of Ayres himself and that of his father
Joao are much more elaborate. Each, lying like Dona Brites on an
altar-tomb, is clad in full armour. In front are semi-classic mouldings
at the top and bottom, and between them a tablet held by cherubs, that
on Dom Joao's bearing a long inscription, while Dom Ayres' has been left
blank. The arches over the recumbent figures are slightly elliptical,
and like that of the foundress's tomb each is enriched by a band of
renaissance carving, but with classic mouldings outside, instead of a
simple round, and with a rich fringe of leafy cusps within. At the ends
and between the tombs are square buttresses or pilasters ornamented on
each face with renaissance corbels and canopies. The background of each
recess is covered with delicate flowing leaves in very slight relief,
and has in the centre a niche, with rustic shafts and elaborate Gothic
base and canopy under which stands a figure of Our Lord holding an orb
in His left hand and blessing with His right. The buttresses, on which
stand curious vase-shaped finials, are joined by a straight moulded
cornice, above which rises a rounded pediment floriated on the outer
side. From the pediment there stands out a helmet whose mantling
entirely covers the flat surface, and below it hangs a shield, charged
with the da Silva arms, a lion rampant. (Fig. 78.)
Here, as in the royal tombs at Coimbra, Manoelino and renaissance forms
have been used together, but here the renaissance largely predominates,
for even the cusping is not Gothic, although, as is but natural, the
general design still is after the older style. Though very elaborate,
these tombs cannot be called quite satisfactory. The figure sculpture is
poor, and it is only the arabesques which show skill in execution.
Probably then it was the work not of one of the well-known Frenchmen,
but of one of their pupils.[143]
Raczynski[144] thought that here in Sao Marcos he had found some works
of Sansovino: a battlepiece in relief, a statue of St. Mark, and the
reredos. The first two are gone, but if they were as unlike Italian work
as is the reredos, one may be sure that they were not by him. A
recently found document[145] confirms what its appearance suggests,
namely, that it is French. It was in fact the work of Mestre Nicolas,
the Nicolas Chantranez who worked first at Belem and then on the Portal
da Magestade at Santa Cruz, and who carved an altar-piece in the Pena
chapel at Cintra. Though much larger in general design, it is not
altogether unlike the altar-piece in the Se Velha. It is divided into
two stories. In the lower are four divisions, with a small tabernacle in
the middle, and in each division, which has either a curly broken
pediment, or a shell at its head, are sculptured scenes from the life of
St. Jerome.
The upper part contains only three divisions, one broad under an arch in
the centre, and one narrower and lower on each side. As in the
cathedral, slim candelabrum shafts stand between each division and at
the ends, but the entablatures are less refined, and the sharp pediments
at the two sides are unpleasing, as is the small round one and the vases
at the top. The large central arch is filled with a very spirited
carving of the 'Deposition.' In front of the three crosses which rise
behind with the thieves still hanging to the two at the sides, is a
group of people--officials on horseback on the left, and weeping women
on the right. In the division to the left kneels Ayres himself presented
by St. Jerome, and in the other on the right Dona Guiomar de Castro, his
wife, presented by St. Luke. Throughout all the figure sculpture is
excellent, as good as anything at Coimbra, but compared with the reredos
in the Se Velha, the architecture is poor in the extreme: the central
division is too large, and the different levels of the cornice, rendered
necessary of course by the shape of the vault, is most unpleasing. No
one, however, can now judge of the true effect, as it has all been
carefully and hideously painted with the brightest of colours. (Fig.
79.)
Being architecturally so inferior to the Se Velha reredos, it is
scarcely possible that they should be by the same hand, and therefore it
seems likely that both the work in St. Peter's chapel and the pulpit in
Santa Cruz may have been executed by the same man, namely by Joao de
Ruao.[146]
[Sidenote: Pena Chapel, Cintra.]
Leaving Sao Marcos for a minute to finish with the works of Nicolas
Chantranez, we turn to the small chapel of Nossa Senhora da Pena,
founded by Dom Manoel in 1503 as a cell of the Jeronymite monastery at
Belem. Here in 1532 his son Joao III. dedicated a reredos of alabaster
and black marble as a thankoffering for the birth of a son.[147]
Like Nicolas' work at Sao Marcos the altar piece is full of exquisite
carving, more beautiful than in his older work. In the large central
niche, with its fringe of cusps, is the 'Entombment,' where Our Lord is
being laid by angels in a beautiful sarcophagus. Above this niche sit
the Virgin and Child, on the left are the Annunciation above and the
Birth at Bethlehem below, and on the right the Visit of the Magi and the
Flight into Egypt. Nothing can exceed the delicacy of these alabaster
carvings or of the beautiful little reliefs that form the pradella. Many
of the little columns too are beautifully wrought, with good capitals
and exquisitely worked drums, and yet, though the separate details may
be and are fine, the whole is even more unsatisfactory than is his
altar-piece at Sao Marcos, and one has to look closely and carefully to
see its beauties. As the one at Sao Marcos is spoiled by paint, this one
is spoiled by the use of different-coloured marble; besides, the
different parts are even worse put together. There is no repose
anywhere, for the little columns are all different, and the bad effect
is increased by the way the different entablatures are broken out over
the many projections.
[Sidenote: Sao Marcos.]
Interesting and even beautiful as are the tombs on the north side of the
chancel of Sao Marcos, the chapel dos Reis Magos is even more important
historically. This chapel, as stated above, was built by Dona Antonia de
Vilhena in 1556 as a monument to her husband. Dona Antonia was in her
time noted for her devotion to her husband's memory, and for her
patriotism in that she sent her six sons to fight in Morocco, from
whence three never returned. Her brother-in-law, Lourenco da Silva,
also, who lies on the east side of the same chapel, fell in Africa in
the fatal battle of Alcacer-Quebir in 1578, where Portugal lost her king
and soon after her independence.
The chapel is entered from the nave by a large arch enriched in front
with beautiful cherubs' heads and wreaths of flowers, and on the under
side with coffered panels. This arch springs from a beautifully modelled
entablature borne on either side by a Corinthian pilaster, panelled and
carved, and by a column fluted above, and wreathed with hanging fruits
and flowers below, while similar arches form recesses on the three
remaining sides of the chapel, one--to the north--containing the altar,
and the other two the tombs of Diogo and of Lourenco da Silva.
On the nave side, outside the columns, there stands on either
side--placed like the columns on a high pedestal--a pilaster, panelled
and carved with exquisite arabesques. These pilasters have no capitals,
but instead well-moulded corbels, carved with griffin heads, uphold the
entablature, and, by a happy innovation, on the projection thus formed
are pedestals bearing short Corinthian columns. These support the main
entablature whose cornice and frieze are enriched, the one with egg and
tongue and with dentils, and the other with strapwork and with leaves.
In the spandrils above the arch are medallions surrounding the heads of
St. Peter and of St. Paul, St. Peter being especially expressive.
Inside, the background of each tomb recess is covered with strapwork,
surrounding in one case an open and in another a blank window, but
unfortunately the reredos representing the Visit of the Magi is gone,
and its place taken by a very poor picture of Our Lady of Lourdes.
The pendentives with their cherub heads are carried by corbels in the
corners, and the dome is divided by bold ribs, themselves enriched with
carving, into panels filled with strapwork. (Fig. 80.)
This chapel then is of great interest, not only because of the real
beauty of its details but also because it was the first built of a type
which was repeated more than once elsewhere, as, for instance, at
Marceana near Alemquer, on the Tagus, and in the church of Nossa Senhora
dos Anjos at Montemor-o-Velho, not far from Sao Marcos. Of the chapels
at Montemor one at least was built by the same family, and in another
where the reredos--a very fine piece of carving--represents a Pieta,
small angels are seen to weep as they look from openings high up at the
sides.
Perhaps the most successful feature of the design is the happy way in
which corbels take the place of capitals on the lower pilasters of the
front. By this expedient it was possible to keep the upper column short
without having to compare its proportions with those of the pilaster
below, and also by projecting these columns to give the upper part an
importance and an emphasis it would not otherwise have had.
There is no record of who designed this or the similar chapels, but by
1556 enough time had passed since the coming of the French for native
pupils to have learned much from them. There is in the design something
which seems to show that it is not from the hand of a Frenchman, but
from that of some one who had learned much from Master Nicolas or from
Joao de Ruao, but who had also learned something from elsewhere. While
the smaller details remain partly French, the dome with its bold ribs
suggests Italy, and it is known that Dom Manoel, and after him Dom Joao,
sent young men to Italy for study. In any case the result is something
neither Italian nor French.
Even more Italian is the tomb of Dona Antonia's father-in-law, Joao da
Silva, sixth lord of Vagos, erected in 1559 and probably by the same
sculptor. Joao da Silva lies in armour under a round arch carved with
flowers and cherubs. In front of his tomb is a long inscription on a
tablet held by beautifully modelled boys. On each side of the arch is a
Corinthian pilaster, panelled and carved below and having at the top a
shallow niche in which stand saints. On the entablature, enriched with
medallions and strapwork, is a frame supported by boys and containing
the da Silva arms. But the most interesting and beautiful part of the
monument is the back, above the effigy. Here, in the upper part, is a
shallow recess flanked by corbel-carried pilasters, and containing a
relief of the Assumption of the Virgin. Now, the execution of the Virgin
and of the small angels who bear her up may not be of the best, but the
character of the whole design is quite Italian, and could only have been
carved by some one who knew Italian work. On either side of this recess
are round-headed niches containing saints, while boys sit in the
spandrils above the arch.
Any one seeing this tomb will be at once struck with the Italian
character of the design, especially perhaps with the boys who hold the
tablet and with those who sit in the spandrils.[148]
[Illustration: FIG. 79.
SAO MARCOS. CHANCEL.]
[Illustration: FIG. 80.
SAO MARCOS. CHAPEL OF THE "REYES MAGOS." _From a photograph by E. Biel &
Co., Oporto._]
Even without leaving their country, Portuguese designers would already
have had no great difficulty in finding pieces of real Italian work. Not
to speak of the white marble door in the old palace of Cintra, possibly
the work of Sansovino himself, with its simple mouldings and the
beautiful detail of its architrave, there exist at Evora two doorways
originally belonging to the church of Sao Domingos, which must either be
the work of Italians or of some man who knew Italy. (Fig. 81.)
[Sidenote: Evora, Sao Domingos.]
Built of white marble from Estremoz and dating from about 1530, the
panelled jambs have moulded caps on which rests the arch. Like the
jambs, the arch has a splay which is divided into small panels. Above in
the spandrils are ribboned circles enclosing well-carved heads. On
either side are pilasters with Corinthian capitals of the earlier
Italian kind. The entablature is moulded only, and instead of a pediment
two curves lead up to a horizontal moulding supporting a shell, and
above it a cherub's head.
Such real Italian doors, which would look quite at home in Genoa, seem
almost unique, but there are many examples of work which, like the tomb
and the chapel at Sao Marcos, seem to have been influenced not only by
the French school at Coimbra, but also by Italian work.
[Sidenote: Portalegre.]
[Sidenote: Tavira.]
[Sidenote: Lagos.]
Not very far from Evora in Portalegre, where a bishop's see was founded
by Dom Joao III. in 1549, there is a very fine monument of this kind to
a bishop of the Mello family in the seminary, and also a doorway, while
at Tavira in the Algarve the Misericordia has an interesting door, not
unlike that at Evora, but more richly ornamented by having a sculptured
frieze and a band of bold acanthus leaves joining the two capitals above
the arch. There is another somewhat similar, but less successful, in the
church of Sao Sebastiao at Lagos.
[Sidenote: Goes.]
[Sidenote: Trofa.]
Nearer Coimbra there are some fine monuments to the Silveira family at
Goes not far from Louza, and four less interesting to the Lemos in the
little parish church of Trofa near Agueda. At Trofa there is a pair of
tombs on each side of the chancel, round-arched, with pilasters and with
heads in the spandrils, and covered with arabesques. Each pair is
practically alike except that the tombs on the north side, being placed
closer together leave no room for a central pilaster and have small
shafts instead of panelled jambs, and that the pair on the south have
pediments. The best feature is a figure of the founder of the chancel
kneeling at prayer with his face turned towards the high altar.
[Sidenote: Caminha.]
Even in the far north the doors of the church at Caminha show how
important had been the coming of the Frenchmen to Coimbra. They seem
later than the church, but though very picturesque are clearly the work
of some one who was not yet quite familiar with renaissance forms. The
south door is the more interesting and picturesque. The arch and jambs
are splayed, but there are no capitals; heads look out of circles in the
spandrils; and the splay as well as the panels of the side pilasters are
enriched with carvings which, partly perhaps owing to the granite in
which they are cut, are much less delicate than elsewhere. The
Corinthian capitals of the pilasters are distinctly clumsy, as are the
mouldings, but the most interesting part of the whole design is the
frieze, which is so immensely extended as to leave room for four large
niches separated by rather clumsy shafts and containing figures of St.
Mark and St. Luke in the middle and of St. Peter and St. Paul at the
ends. Above in the pediment are a Virgin and Child with kneeling angels.
Besides the innovation of the enlarged frieze, which reminds one of a
door in the Certosa near Pavia, the clumsiness of the mouldings and the
comparative poorness of the sculpture, though the figures are much
better than any previously worked by native artists, suggest that the
designer and workmen were Portuguese.
The same applies to the west door, which is wider and where the capitals
are of a much better shape, though the pilasters are rather too tall.
The sculpture frieze is a little wider than usual, and instead of a
pediment there is a picturesque cresting, above which are cut four
extraordinary monsters. (Fig. 82.)
[Sidenote: Moncorvo.]
A somewhat similar but much plainer door has been built against the
older and round-arched entrance of the Misericordia at Moncorvo in Traz
os Montes. The parish church of the same place begun in 1544 is both
outside and in a curious mixture of Gothic and Classic. The three aisles
are of the same height with round-arched Gothic vaults, but the columns
are large and round with bases and capitals evidently copied from Roman
doric, though the abacis have been made circular.
Outside the buttresses are still Gothic in form, but the west door is of
the fully developed renaissance. The opening is
[Illustration: FIG. 81.
PALACE, CINTRA.
DOOR BY SANSOVINO.]
[Illustration: FIG. 82.
W. DOOR, CAMINHA.]
flanked by coupled columns which support an entablature on which rest
four other shorter columns separating three white marble niches. Above
this is a window flanked by single columns which carry a pediment.
Though built of granite, the detail is good and the whole doorway not
unpleasing.[149]
But, that it was not only such details as doors and monuments that began
to show the result of the coming of the Frenchmen is seen in the work of
Joao de Castilho, after he first left Thomar for Belem. There he had
found Master Nicolas Chantranez already at work, and there he learned,
perhaps from him, so to change his style that by the time he returned to
Thomar to work for Dom Joao III. in 1528 he was able to design buildings
practically free from that Gothic spirit which is still found in his
latest work at Belem.