FERNANDES, Vasco - b. ~1480 ?, d. ~1542 Viseu - WGA

FERNANDES, Vasco

(b. ~1480 ?, d. ~1542 Viseu)

Vasco Fernandes, Portuguese Renaissance painter who worked in Viseu for at least 40 years, painted remarkable altarpieces. He became increasingly famous and revered with the passing of the centuries and came to be known by the name of Grão Vasco (the Great Vasco).

His works, gathered in the Vasco Museum in Viseu from the chapels of Viseu Cathedral, the Episcopal Palace in Fontelo park and from churches of the region, are crucial for understanding what was one of the most brilliant periods in the history of Portuguese painting. This collection provides material for a fundamental appraisal of the artist’s work and influence. This is, firstly, because the paintings in question are not simply the result of the individual work of the celebrated master. They are also the fruit of the periodic or relatively continual collaboration he engaged in with other painters and in particular with the Viseu artist, Gaspar Vaz, his principal partner who painted from 1514 to 1569. Secondly, the paintings have a further dimension: they illustrate the geographical, aesthetic and iconographic horizons of Portuguese painting during the reigns of King Manuel I and King João III.

Adoration of the Magi

The Adoration of the Magi, is one of the fourteen panels from the altarpiece of the Chancel in Viseu Cathedral, and the earliest dated work of the artist. It is a key work in the evaluation of the impact which the painting and the painters from southern parts of the Low Countries had on the taste of patrons and on the work of painters in Portugal. Despite the controversy surrounding its authorship, everything points to a team, led by the Flemish painter Francisco Henriques, joined locally by the young Vasco Fernandes, elaborating the altarpiece for the bishop of Viseu.

The Adoration of the Magi includes iconographic details which confirm that the altarpiece was made locally. The black Wise King, Balthasar, is replaced by an Indian from Brazil. The closeness in time of this artistic representation (the first in Western art) to the discovery of the lands of the True Cross (Brazil) gives it an extraordinary historical value.

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Assumption of the Virgin

This painting is a pivotal work in evaluating how the artist interpreted his decisive Flemish influences: the abundant and angular folds of the robes, the way he depicts the ringleted hair of the angels who minister to the Blessed Virgin or the manner in which he painstakingly paints with precise realism and poetic sentiment, the details and miniature forms of the upper background.

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St. Peter

This panel is the result of many accumulated experiences. It is in this painting that the artist best wields his creative and technical powers: in the rigour of its composition, in the volumetric expression of form, through a sensitive and well-calculated distribution of light and the projection of shadow over the monumental throne, in the extraordinary characterization of the face, and in the forms of the exuberant rains.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):

Guillaume Dufay: Aurea luce, hymn for the feast of Sts Peter and Paul

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