FREI CARLOS (?-1540) St. John the Evangelist oil on oak wood oak frame, possibly original, with traces of painting and gilding restoration Dimensões (altura x comprimento x largura) - (pintura) 50 x 32 cm; (total) 64 x 43 cm Notes: As far as we know, this St. John the Evangelist, is completely unknown to our art historiography. It is a panel of a small alterpiece or a part of a larger set, with the figure of the saint, isolated on a porch with a wall and a pair of fine classical columns opening to a landscape that serves as background to the figure.
Its material construction presents two oak boards as a support, horizontally overlapped, which is not very usual and the setting of the frame seems to be original. The chromatic layer is worn in many points, not only on the floor and wall, but also in small areas of the hand and face, but fortunately time let intact the beautiful robes of the Saint, of a very pure red, correct pleats and soft transitions from light to shadow. The peculiar quality of that red, the softness of the light-dark transitions and the drawing of the plaited refer to the work of Frei Carlos, a Flemish painter established in Portugal that entered the convent of Espinheiro in Évora in 1517 and died in 1540 in the Convent of St. Jerome of Mato, of the same Order of the Hieronymites near Alenquer, working almost exclusively for convents of the same Order. In addition to the value of the red robe, the gesture of the figure, the drawing of the tiles and the incorporation of the Saint in the pictorial space, in an architectural first plan opening to a simplified landscape, remember the works of the painter, as of St. Blaise's and St. Christoph's at the Museum of Evora or the Good Shepherd at the Ancient Art National Museum.
Joaquim Oliveira Caetano
Art Historian and Curator of Museums