St. Vincent at the Column

There are no great doubts about the fact that this painting (and the fragment of "St. Vincent on a Saltire Cross") originated from the altarpiece of St. Vincent at Lisbon Cathedral, which has been attributed to Nuno Gonçalves since the sixteenth century, thus making it the safest basis for defining the work of this royal painter from the reign of Dom Afonso V. The altar was finished shortly after 1470. Above all, what it exudes is a sense of dignity in its conception of the human figure and a great precision in the treatment of its anatomy, with this being the oldest known representation of a nude figure in the history of Portuguese painting. Particularly noteworthy are the similarities of the face of the saint and the design of the floor with "The Panels of St. Vincent", so that it is quite possible that the painting formed part of the same altarpiece.