A glorious patron
The best preserved stained glass windows in Batalha Monastery are to be seen in the church choir and chapter house. Both groups were commissioned by King Manuel I, portrayed in the church choir as a donor along with his sons. The corresponding programme was set around 1514 and the panels were started in this year, certainly under the direction of Francisco Henriques, an outstanding royal court painter. Work was interrupted in 1518 on account of the artist's unexpected death and taken up again by other painters in the subsequent two decades during the reign of King João III who is also represented in Batalha as the eldest son of Manuel I, next to his father.
Queen Maria of Castile and her daughter with St. Peter the Martyr - church choir (1514/1518) by Unidentified artistBatalha Monastery
The second wife of Manuel I, Maria of Castile, is also portrayed in the church choir with her daughters and St. Peter Martyr, enhancing close connection to the resident dominican community.
Angel of Portugal - church choir (1514) by Unidentified artistBatalha Monastery
Above D. Manuel I the Custodian Angel of Portugal dressing like an uncovered page holds a banner with one of the symbols of the King - the cross of the military Order of Christ.
Angel of Portugal - church choir (1514) by Unidentified artistBatalha Monastery
Glass pieces of different colours were painted with grisaille, a pigment that regulates the passage of light but imparts no colour. Yellow-golden details were added in silver stain. Paint was fired.
King of Arms - church choir (1514/1518) by Unidentified artistBatalha Monastery
Above the portrait of Queen Maria of Castile a king of arms, the highest ranking officer of arms, holds a banner with another King's symbol, the armillary sphere, a model of the universe.
Glass altarpieces
Compositions for the windows were designed to convey stories contained in the Bible and other Christian writings in the same way that they used to be in monumental wooden altarpieces. Scenes of Christ and the Virgin's life are normally depicted according to the Gospels' sequence, from left to right, coherently organized in each "glass altarpiece" row. Devotion images of the Virgin Mary and Saints are also recurrent. The triptych in the chapter house is focused on the central mystery of Christianity: the Passion of Christ. From left to right three succesive moments related to Christ's death on the cross are shown.
Annunciation - church choir (1514/1518) by Unidentified artistBatalha Monastery
The Angel said to her, "Don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and will call his name 'Jesus'."
Luke, 1:30-31
Visitation - church choir (1514/1518) by Unidentified artistBatalha Monastery
It happened, when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, that the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Luke, 1:41
Adoration of the Magi - church choir (1520/1530) by Unidentified artistBatalha Monastery
They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Matthew 2:11
Descent into Limbo - church choir (1514/1518) by Francisco Henriques (attrib.)Batalha Monastery
The descent of Christ in Limbo is not explicit in the New Testament but was early interpreted by theologists as the moment that necessarily occured after Jesus' death and before his Resurrection.
Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene - church choir (1514/1518) by Francisco Henriques (attrib.)Batalha Monastery
"They have taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him." When she [Mary Magdalen] had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, and didn't know that it was Jesus.
John 20:13-14
Christ appearing to the Virgin - church choir (1514/1518) by Francisco Henriques (attrib.)Batalha Monastery
The Gospels do not record Christ having appeared to His mother after Resurrection but soon Christian theologists found that the Virgin could not but have witnessed her son's triumph over death.
Whitsun - church choir (1514/1518) by Francisco Henriques (attrib.)Batalha Monastery
Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them [the Apostles], and one sat on each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages.
Acts 2:3-4
Ascension - church choir (1514/1518) by Francisco Henriques (attrib.)Batalha Monastery
As they [the Apostles and the Virgin] were looking, he [Christ] was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.
Acts 1:9
Our Lady of the Rosary - church choir (1514/1518) by Unidentified artistBatalha Monastery
Our Lady of the Rosary is most praised in Dominican communities. The Virgin Mary levitates above a fortress that stands for her virtues. The crescent symbolizes chastity and the white rose, purity.
Virgin and Child on a throne - church choir (1530/1535) by Pero Picardo (attrib.)Batalha Monastery
Differently depicted here, the Virgin and Child recall Raphael's Madonne, though the canopy and coronation are quite Flemish. The introducer of such a combination could have been the French Pero Picardo.
St. Anthony the Abbot - church choir (1514/1518) by Unidentified artistBatalha Monastery
St. Anthony the Abbot, a christian hermit from Egypt, was revered by all religious orders as the founder of monastic life. Surrounded by devils, he resists temptation.
Swan song
All around 16th century Europe stained glass tended to praise realism as achieved by easel painters and ignore its most precious resource: light in the body of glass. This is why many traditional altarpiece painters designed and carried out numerous stained glass commissions. Francisco Henriques was simultaneously an easel and glass painter, probably born in Flanders according to some documents. The countryside house that is to be seen in this panel seems to confirm his origin. Still and exclusively using all the established medieval stained glass technique his work stands on the edge of definitive changes in this art: colours that can be painted side by side on a glass sheet will progressively replace bulk-coloured glass. Meanwhile Henrique's sumptuous, elegant and sensual art is beautiful and melancholic as a swan song.
Photographs: José Manuel
Text: Pedro Redol
