2016Treasures from the Portuguese Museums - Set

The Saint Vincent Panels are a polyptych attributed to the royal painter of King Afonso V (1432-1481), Nuno Gonçalves. Rediscovered in 1882 in the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, they are generally known by the names proposed in 1909 by José de Figueiredo — the panels of the Friars, the Fishermen, the Prince, the Archbishop, the Knights and the Relic —, and form an exceptional collection, both within the framework of Portuguese art throughout history and in the context of great European painting of the 15th century. The horizontal arrangement of the panels, linked from the perspective of the tiles defining the floor and unified by the row of heads along the top of the composition, corresponds to the sequence of their initial placing, which would originally have formed part of the retable of the Saint Vincent Altarpiece in the chancel of Lisbon Cathedral (c.1470).