Saint Vincent Panels

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‘Saint Vincent Panels’ by Nuno Gonçalves, 1450s
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (National Museum of Ancient Art)
Rua das Janelas Verdes
Lisbon, April 2019

“The ‘Saint Vincent Panels’, or the ‘Adoration of Saint Vincent’ panels, are a polyptych consisting of six panels that were perhaps painted in the 1450s. They are attributed to the Portuguese painter Nuno Gonçalves, who was active from 1450 to 1471. Traditionally, the polyptych is dated to the 1450s due to the putative prominence of Prince Henry the Navigator among the persons represented in the panels (Henry died in 1460). Controversy concerning the true nature of Henry's presence in the panels - if any - along with the inclusion of figures that can be identified as his brothers, all of whom died before 1450, renders it difficult to assign any secure date for the creation of the panels other than sometime during the floruit of the painter Gonçalves. The original retable, during its stay in the Cathedral of Lisbon, contained ‘over twelve’ panels, as a source from 1767 states. They were displayed in the cathedral at least until 1690 and were set aside in the cathedral until 1742. They were then transferred to the palace of Mitra, where they escaped the devastating earthquake of Lisbon in 1755. The panels are now housed in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (National Museum of Antique Art), in Lisbon, Portugal.” (Saint Vincent Panels, Wikipedia)