Interior of the Church of San Francisco

In his beautiful series of paintings of beaches, Carneiro was essentially an outdoor artist, but he also undertook studies of the monumental "landscapes" to be found inside some churches, particularly in the Gothic-baroque church of São Francisco in Porto. In this way, he was able to satisfy not only his mystical and Catholic temperament, but also his artistic attraction to the phantasmatic fluorescence of carved and gilded woodwork. In this attitude, there is no intention of describing or narrating, but instead of capturing the sacred atmosphere of an interior in which the light is diffused into multiple sparkling effects.
In this case, the painter chooses a compact view that plays with the wealth of space within the church: the open gate in the foreground, the arches that organise the appearance of the nave, the arches in the background that open onto chapels. The light comes from the ground and from the bright white of the elevation that is hinted at, becoming extinguished in the gold colours of the pillars in the rhythmic yellow and brown tones, which are unexpectedly green at the base of some of the columns. A solitary and meditative exercise in painting, in which Carneiro summons up the presence of silence as an imponderable body of sacred feelings.
Raquel Henriques da Silva