Not very far from Evora in Portalegre, where a bishop's see was founded
by Dom João III. in 1549, there is a very fine monument of this kind to
a bishop of the Mello family in the seminary, and also a doorway, while
at Tavira in the Algarve the Misericordia has an interesting door, not
unlike that at Evora, but more richly ornamented by having a sculptured
frieze and a band of bold acanthus leaves joining the two capitals above
the arch. There is another somewhat similar, but less successful, in the
church of São Sebastião at Lagos.
[Sidenote: Goes.]
[Sidenote: Trofa.]
Nearer Coimbra there are some fine monuments to the Silveira family at
Goes not far from Louzã, and four less interesting to the Lemos in the
little parish church of Trofa near Agueda. At Trofa there is a pair of
tombs on each side of the chancel, round-arched, with pilasters and with
heads in the spandrils, and covered with arabesques. Each pair is
practically alike except that the tombs on the north side, being placed
closer together leave no room for a central pilaster and have small
shafts instead of panelled jambs, and that the pair on the south have
pediments. The best feature is a figure of the founder of the chancel
kneeling at prayer with his face turned towards the high altar.
[Sidenote: Caminha.]
Even in the far north the doors of the church at Caminha show how
important had been the coming of the Frenchmen to Coimbra. They seem
later than the church, but though very picturesque are clearly the work
of some one who was not yet quite familiar with renaissance forms. The
south door is the more interesting and picturesque. The arch and jambs
are splayed, but there are no capitals; heads look out of circles in the
spandrils; and the splay as well as the panels of the side pilasters are
enriched with carvings which, partly perhaps owing to the granite in
which they are cut, are much less delicate than elsewhere. The
Corinthian capitals of the pilasters are distinctly clumsy, as are the
mouldings, but the most interesting part of the whole design is the
frieze, which is so immensely extended as to leave room for four large
niches separated by rather clumsy shafts and containing figures of St.
Mark and St. Luke in the middle and of St. Peter and St. Paul at the
ends. Above in the pediment are a Virgin and Child with kneeling angels.
Besides the innovation of the enlarged frieze, which reminds one of a
door in the Certosa near Pavia, the clumsiness of the mouldings and the
comparative poorness of the sculpture, though the figures are much
better than any previously worked by native artists, suggest that the
designer and workmen were Portuguese.
The same applies to the west door, which is wider and where the capitals
are of a much better shape, though the pilasters are rather too tall.
The sculpture frieze is a little wider than usual, and instead of a
pediment there is a picturesque cresting, above which are cut four
extraordinary monsters. (Fig. 82.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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