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Madonna and Child
Flemish School, Malines workshop
Late 15th century
Polychrome and gilded gessoed oak
From the St. John the Evangelist Church of the Colégio, Funchal
114 cm (H) x 35 cm (W)
MASF353 |
This sculpture of considerable size was recently (1993) found beneath the flooring of the St. John the Evangelist Church, or as it is called, the Jesuit College in Funchal. It appears to have been relatively common in Madeira Island to "bury" the images in the ground of the churches and chapels when they deteriorated, to avoid their being desecrated.
This sculpture, like many other known cases, was repainted several times, which suggests that it was used in worship for several centuries, until it was thought to be beyond recuperation and substituted by another, and therefore, it was naturally buried, to disappear with all dignity.
It was only in 1570, four years after the attack of the city of Funchal by corsairs, under Bertrand Montluc, in 1566, that the Jesuits arrived in Funchal. They had to spend forty years on the outskirts of the city, in houses ceded to them next to the Chapel of Our Lady of Help (Ajuda) by Fernão Favila or Favella.
According to a document dated 1540, found in the diocesan files, "a retable from Flanders"1, which has since disappeared, was ordered for this chapel.
The sculpture presented here could not have originated in the Jesuit Church, but in that of some other former patron saint in the city, related to the course of events of the order, or vicissitudes in the history of the church in Funchal. One hypothesis is that it was the first patron saint of the Chapel of Ajuda, the first house of the Jesuits in Madeira, and later carried to the College in Funchal.
Madonna and Child displays an oval face with a high and prominent forehead, with nose, mouth and chin that are comparatively small. The hair is straight, parted in the middle, with wavy locks over the shoulders and mantle. The Child is nude, and the features of sculptures from a Malines workshop can be recognised. This must be a sculpture from the late 15th century, marked by a certain iconism, but also by the angular form of the folds of the mantle and tunic of the Virgin. A St. Margaret with evident affinities to this sculpture is known to exist in a private collection in the Azores.
1 Arte Flamenga, Museu de Arte Sacra do Funchal, Luiza Clode e Fernando António Baptista Pereira, EDICARTE, 1997, p. 116. |
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