Dom João I invoking Our Lady of the Olive Tree at the Battle of Aljubarrota
Author: Friar Manuel dos Reis
Date: 1665
Material: Oil on canvas
Dimensions (cm): H 174 x W 152
Provenance: Guimarães, Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira
Inventory No.: MAS P 53
In this painting, Dom João I invokes Our Lady of the Olive Tree so that She helps him win the Battle of Aljubarrota. The king appears in the foreground, kneeled, with open hands and looking at the Virgin, whom he is asking for help. Dom João I is depicted with his defensive weapons and he is wearing his famous gambeson. In his shield, one can see the ends of the cross of Avis. In the background, there’s the king preparing to mount his horse, where there’s an inverted R, and in another scene, he is already mounted on his horse, identified with the same initial and positioned in front of the horse of the constable Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, which is also marked with his initials, DNAP.
In the background, we can also see a castle, probably alluding to the Leiria castle and, nearby, the famous baker of Aljubarrota, wearing a red skirt, a white blouse and a headscarf, wielding the peel she used to fight the Castilians.
Regarding this episode, one must bear in mind the Crónica de Dom João I, by Fernão Lopes, that tells us that the king was in Guimarães when he was informed that the Castilian king was about to invade Portugal. As he had great devotion for the Virgin Mary and he was so worried about such an important battle, King Dom João I asked Saint Mary of the Olive Tree to help him defeat the Castilians.
This canvas from the 17th century was commissioned, together with three others (MAS P 50, MAS P 51 and MAS P 52), to the friar-painter Manuel dos Reis by the prior of the Colegiada de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira, Dom Diogo Lobo da Silveira. The purpose of this commission was to make a big altarpiece for the high altar of the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Oliveira. After sixty years under the Spanish rule and right after the Restoration war, Dom Diogo Lobo da Silveira wanted to propagate the deeds of the Portuguese and to stimulate the patriotic spirit.
The four paintings that formed the altarpiece had two important kings in the History of Portugal represented: Dom Afonso Henriques, the first Portuguese king, and Dom João I, the first king of the second dynasty. These paintings acted as political ex-votos, that is, offerings to thank Our Lady of the Olive Tree for Her intercession in difficult moments undergone by the Portuguese.