ALTARPIECE BY DIOGO DE CONTREIRAS

The work attributed to Diogo Contreiras, little known outside the cycle of art historians, was probably executed around 1555 by order of the canon Francisco Dias, who is portrayed in it. It consists of a retable with a central niche where an image of the Virgin should be placed and two oil paintings on wood (107x60cm). On the right there are four martyred saints (Luzia, Eulalia, Barbara, and Apollonia) and on the left, besides the canon kneeling, there are St. Paul the Apostle, with his sword; St. Marçal, with a church on fire; St. Anthony wearing the Franciscan habit; and St. Vincent, with the palm of his martyrdom and the traditional boat. "In this work of art it is not only the paintings that make it special, we would say that, in fact, it is the whole (...) It is extraordinary that the paintings are still integrated in their original altarpiece which, despite the state of conservation and repaints, is one of the only ones dating from the middle of the 16th century that are still preserved in our country." Anísio Franco - Art Historian It was the art historian Joaquim Caetano who, in the 1990s, attributed the altarpiece to this painter active between 1521 and 1560 and author of other important works of Portuguese art of the 16th century, such as the altarpieces of the Colegiada de Ourém, the Church of Santa Catarina, in Caldas da Rainha, and the Monastery of S. Bento de Cástris in Évora.