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There’s a lot to be said for paintings where the gallery isn’t actually sure who is in the image, that ensures that there’s room for some debate. The gallery knows it’s from Funchal Cathedral, they think it’s from Portugal, they think it’s fifteenth century and they think it might be St. Benedict.

A close-up of the mitre and ChatGPT agrees, noting:

“This is almost certainly St Benedict of Nursia. The clues are the black monastic habit (Benedictines are traditionally shown in black), the open book (his Rule, or monastic learning more generally) and the abbot’s crozier (the staff, marking him out as an abbot or founder figure rather than just “generic monk”). The very calm, frontal pose in a grand architectural setting is also a common way Renaissance and late medieval painters present major founders and reformers: not mid miracle, more “here is the authority figure, in his element”.”

Incidentally, Benedict is known for his guidelines on how to be a decent monk, and I rather like the:

“Chapter 30 directs that a wayward brother who has left the monastery must be received again, if he promises to make amends; but if he leaves again, and again, after his third departure all return is finally barred”

Even Christians have their limit of tolerance it seems.

Going back to AI, which I know is now a running theme on this blog, but I asked it about the age of the painting and it noted:

“Visually, it’s very much in that early Renaissance habit of showing a saint as a solid, frontal presence in a carefully constructed architectural space. The big tell is the perspective: the receding arcade, the coffered or ribbed vaulting and the tiled floor are all doing that 15th-century “look, I can do depth properly” thing. The gilded decorative bits around the arches feel like a hangover from late medieval taste, which is also common in the earlier part of the Renaissance rather than the later, more fully naturalistic 16th century. I would put it plausibly at say 1480 to 1510.”

That’s entirely in keeping with what the gallery thinks and I rather like the way in which this logic on dating is being explained. Work on Funchal Cathedral was coming to an end in 1508, so my best guess (helped by AI) is that they acquired this for when it opened.

This is a painting of George and the Dragon and the museum doesn’t know the artist, although it suggests that it was painted between 1401 and 1425 in northern Europe. That gold background, likely using gold leaf, was used to indicate heaven, so this is a sacred story and not a bit of Norfolk everyday weather.

Despite it showing claws and teeth, I’m not entirely sure that the dragon was perhaps as scary looking as it could have been, nor, I think it’s fair to say, is the artist exactly George Stubbs with that horse painting. But, it’s got that rather positive imagery of the brave St. George saving the princess from the nasty serpent, I can imagine this quite sizeable artwork being displayed in a medieval church.

This is a limestone sculpture from the period 1490 to 1510, once in the church in Gaula, Santa Cruz which is on the island of Madeira. It depicts Saint Blaise who became famous because he saved a child who had a fish-bone stuck in their throat, apparently by praying enthusiastically. He was then known as someone quite good at dealing with toothache, throat issues and general health issues relating to the head. He’s the patron saint of Dubrovnik and the English town of St. Blazey is named after him.

Emperor Licinius, who was meant to be quite helpful towards Christians initially, didn’t entirely like Saint Blaise, so he had him beheaded. That feels slightly unreasonable, but I suppose they were different times.

But, back to the limestone sculpture that I liked. There are some polychrome traces, so this was once painted rather than being bare limestone. The church in Santa Cruz opened in 1530, although it was later replaced with a more substantial affair. I assume that this was once located in a niche in the church, but I’m not sure how it made its way to the museum.

And I’ve gone to AI to show me what this sculpture might once have looked like when painted. This seems like a remarkably decent attempt at recolouring the sculpture, it genuinely feels like it has been brought back to life.

The next series of posts will be from the Sacred Art Museum in Funchal, which holds extensive collections relating to religious art. It’s housed in the former Bishop’s Palace, which is a suitably grand affair, and which has this rather impressive tiled installation on the upstairs balcony.

There are three panels which are titled ‘Faith, Hope and Charity’.

It’s decoratively beautiful.

It also offered views over Funchal and there is one of the cruise liners that flock to the city in the background. The weather was terrible and this was about the best visibility I had seen during the morning.

The city and Funchal Cathedral.

I’m sure that the sea would look beautiful if it was visible.

And another photo of over foggy Funchal.