Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Monday, 22 February 2021

The Chair of Peter


Today being the successor in the modern calendar to the two traditional feasts of the Chair of Peter at Rome on January 18th and the Chair of Peter at Antioch today it seems appropriate to share this impressive image of the Prince of the Apostles enthroned.

Saint Peter 
Painted by Vasco Fernandes “the Great” circa 1529 for the Cathedral of Viseu in Portugal and currently in the Museu Grão Vasco in Viseu.

Image: es.Wikipedia

File:Saint Peter by Grão Vasco.jpg

Detail of St Peter 
Image: Wikipedia Commons

There is an online article about the artist at Grão Vasco and one about the painting at St. Peter - Vasco Fernandes and Gaspar Vaz (collaboration on the predella)

I must admit that I was unaware of this painting and of the works of Vasco Fernandes until I started researching this post. My ignorance has been corrected, but I suspect that many people outside Portugal are unaware of his life and work. Iberian art before El Greco and Velasquez is little known or appreciated outside the peninsula - to the cultural impoverishment of the wider world. Like the great St Vincent panels in Lisbon from the mid-fifteenth century these are works that should be better known.

St Peter Pray for us


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