Saint Bernard and Saint Benedict
Author: Unknown
Date: 1530 – 1540
Material: Plaster and pigments
Dimensions (cm): H 228 x W 116
Inscription: SCVS.BERNARD and SCVS.BENEDIT
Provenance: Póvoa de Lanhoso, Igreja de São Salvador de Fontarcada
Inventory No.: MAS PD 6
Saint Benedict and Saint Bernard, respectively, the founder of the Benedictine Order (the black monks) and the mentor of the Cistercian reform of the same Order (the white monks), are represented in a gesture of blessing, holding a crosier in the left hand and wearing the identifying habits of the Orders they represent. Over the two figures, the legends “SCVS.BERNARD” and “SCVS.BENEDIT”.
This fresco reveals a safe hand, a strong expressive naturalism and an erudite canon. It is a precious work by one of the strongest personalities of 16th-century painting in the North, Master Arnao, a painter probably from Guimarães who was the author, among other works, of the signed frescoes of the parish church of Midões (1535). This work exemplifies well his sensitivity in modelling, expressed in the subtly subdued fabrics worn by the two saints, in the drawing of the hands, in the skilled outlining of the characters effectively highlighting them from the virtual context of the trompe-l’oeil niches in which they stand. His sensitivity in modelling is also expressed in the quality of the browns, whites and creams of the mantles, as well as in the specific characterization of the simulated niche, with intertwined foliage painted in gold to form the uppermost arch of the composition that harbours the pair of saints.
This fresco comes from the Romanesque apse of the main church of Fontarcada. Initially part of a monastic group, the church then became a parochial church and head of the archdeaconry, the Fontarcada archdeacon’s responsibility, who commissioned the mural painting in the 16th century. According to the historian Paula Bessa, it was part of a vast program of mural painting for the entire chancel of the church, of which there are still some vestiges in situ. It is possible that the choice of these saints aimed at alluding to the fact that Fontarcada had been a Benedictine monastery.
This fresco was detached in the middle of the 20th century by a technician of the Direção Geral dos Edifícios e dos Monumentos Nacionais and it was initially kept in the sacristy of the church and then it went to the Reserve collection of the Museu de Alberto Sampaio due to lack of conservation conditions at the place. In 2008, it was restored in the exhibition room where it is installed.