FERNÃO GOMES - 1548-1612
Mass of Saint Gregory the Great

Mass of Saint Gregory the Great
oil on wood
restoration, minor faults on the pictorial layer, cracking on the support, traces of wood insects
Dim. - 124 x 98 cm
Notes: the present work originally included an altarpiece of the Church of Graça, in Lisbon, together with "Miracle of St. Gregory the Great in the Castle of Sant'Angelo" and "St. Gregory the Great praying for the souls of Purgatory", both currently in the National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon - vd. SERRÃO, Vítor - "Historia da Arte em Portugal - Volume III« O Renascimento e o maneirismo  (1500-1620) »". Lisbon: Editorial Presença, 2001, p. 248. Provenance: Quinta da Cardiga, Golegã, being identified and reproduced in BATISTA, Luís Miguel Preto - "Cardiga ou História de uma Quinta (1169-2019)", 2019. "Among Portuguese painters - or living in Portugal - from the second half of the 16th century, Fernão Gomes is undoubtedly one of the most characteristic. His style, his "way" are worth a signature. When, in 1973, we dedicated a monograph to this master, we were far from imagining how much his work would expand through the studies that, subsequently, Vítor Serrão and ourselves carried out, jointly or individually, and which, from this moment on, were even more magnifies. Born in Albuquerque, Castile, between 1548 and 1553, Hernán Gómez Roman - his birth name - probable disciple of Luis de Morales, in 1565, worked in Évora, as a mere assistant of «El Divino», in the great altarpiece of the Convent de S. Dominic, commissioned by Friar Dominic of Lisbon. His relations with the Counts of Vimioso, friends of Morales, date from this period, who commissioned, in 1570, to Fernão Gomes, already living in Portugal, the portrait of Luís de Camões, less than a year before returning to Portugal and who was to appear in a 1st edition - never published - of Os Lusíadas. Thus, the name of the painter would be forever associated with the Poet [...]. […] The strong Nordic influence of the master's compositions is due to his staying in Delft, between 1570 and 1572, when he studied with the Dutch painter Anthonie Blocklandt (or A. Van Montfoort) ". Cf. MARKL, Dagoberto -" Uma « Aparição de Cristo à Virgem» by Fernão Gomes", pp. 27-33.