The Knights panel
Painted altar panel from Saint Vincent de Fora

Portugal, 15th century


A larger image of The Knights panel, Saint Vincent de Fora, Portugal


Picture source: Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
Nuno Gonçalves (active 1450-1471)
Altarpiece of Saint Vincent, the panel of the Knights
1460s
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
School: Portuguese
Form: painting
There is strong circumstantial evidence that Gonçalves was responsible for the St Vincent polyptych, the outstanding Portuguese painting of the 15th century. The style is rather dry, but powerfully realistic, and the polyptych contains a superb gallery of highly individualized portraits of members of the court, including a presumed self-portrait.
Web Gallery of Art



Referenced on p.46, The Moors - The Islamic West - 7th-15th Centuries AD by David Nicolle & Angus McBride
Among the priests, monks, ladies and Christian warriors on a late 15th-century Portuguese painted altar panel from S. Vicente de Fora is this very different soldier (top centre). He looks in the opposite direction to the other donor figures, while his long hair and full beard probably identify him as a Moor. The Portuguese currently occupied part of northern Spain, and although something of a mystery this figure sheds a valuable light on a very little known period of Andalusian or Moroccan arms, armour and military costume. (National Museum of Ancient Art. Lisbon, Portugal)
The Archbishop panel, altar from Saint Vincent de Fora, Portugal, 15th century



See also Portugese & Moors in The Pastrana Tapestries of Alfonso V of Portugal, late 15th century
Other 15th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers






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