The whole is of granite and the figures and mouldings are distinctly
rude, and yet it is eminently picturesque and original, and shows that
Lopez was a skilled designer if but a poor sculptor.
[Sidenote: Beja, São Thiago.]
Coming now to the basilican churches. That of São Thiago at Beja was
begun in 1590 by Jorge Rodrigues for Archbishop Theotonio of Evora. It
has a nave and aisles of six bays covered with groined vaults resting on
Doric columns, a transept and three shallow rectangular chapels to the
east. The clerestory windows are round.
[Sidenote: Azeitão, São Simão.]
Much the same plan had been followed a little earlier by Affonso de
Albuquerque, son of the great viceroy of India, when about 1570 he built
the church of São Simão close to his country house of Bacalhôa, at
Azeitão not far from Setubal. São Simão is a small church with nave and
aisles of five bays, the latter only being vaulted, with arcades resting
on Doric columns; at first there was a tower at each corner, but they
fell in 1755, and only one has been rebuilt. Most noticeable in the
church are the very fine tiles put up in 1648, with saintly figures over
each arch. They are practically the same as those in the parish church
of Alvito.
[Sidenote: Evora, Cartuxa.]
Another basilican church of this date is that of the Cartuxa or Charter
House,[167] founded by the same Archbishop Theotonio in 1587, a few
miles out of Evora. Only the west front, built about 1594 of black and
white marble, deserves mention. Below there is a porch, spreading beyond
the church, and arranged exactly like the lower Claustro dos Filippes at
Thomar, with round arches separated by two Doric columns on pedestals,
but with a continuous entablature carried above the arches on large
corbelled keystones. Behind rises the front in two stories. The lower
has three windows, square-headed and separated by Ionic columns, two on
each side, with niches between. Single Ionic columns also stand at the
outer angles of the aisles. In the upper story the central part is
carried up to a pediment by Corinthian columns resting on the Ionic
below; between them is a large statued niche surrounded by panels.
Unfortunately the simplicity of the design is spoilt by the broken and
curly volutes which sprawl across the aisles, by ugly finials at the
corners, and by a rather clumsy balustrading to the porch.
[Sidenote: Beja, Misericordia.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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