Altar de São José

17-10-2020

No nicho central podemos encontrar a imagem de São José com o Menino Jesus, de madeira estofada, policromada e dourada, proveniente de uma importante oficina lisboeta de meados do séc. 18, com imponentes resplendores de prata de época, assim como o ramo de açucena. 

Nos nichos laterais duas esculturas dos Bispos doutores da Igreja, Santo Ambrósio, Bispo de Milão, com a sua mitra e báculo e o seu contemporâneo, Santo Agostinho (esquerda), Bispo de Hipona.

No nicho inferior uma Imagem de Nossa Senhora do Rosário do séc. 18.

No séc. 19 foi colocado o frontal de prata proveniente do altar de Nossa Senhora do Pópulo da igreja do Colégio, no Funchal ou do Convento de São Francisco, no atual Jardim Municipal. Trata-se de um exemplar único na Ilha da Madeira de prata batida, relevada e cinzelada, constituída por chapas justapostas pregadas. Motivos decorativos de cariz vegetalistas.

São José
São José
Santo Ambrósio
Santo Ambrósio
Santo Agostinho
Santo Agostinho
Nossa Senhora do Rosário
Nossa Senhora do Rosário

At the altar of São José (Saint Joseph), in the central niche a sculpture of Saint Joseph with the Child in upholstered, polychromed and gilded wood, from an important Lisbon workshop of the mind-18th century, with impressive silver halos from that period, as well as a bouquet of lilies.

In the lateral niches two sculptures of the churches' Bishops: Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, whit his mitre and crozier (fig. 96) and his contemporary, Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippona, revealing high quality carving, from the mid-18th century. Saint Augustine should originally hold a flaming heart in his right hand. At the altar, under the niche of Saint Joseph, an image of Our Lady of the Rosary (fig. 95), from a Portuguese workshop of the mid-18th century.

In the mind-19th century a silver altar front (fig. 97), datable from the early 18th century, around 1725, of the silversmith Faustino de Araújo Feio was placed by the Confraternity of Our Lady del Pópulo of St. John Evangelist Church or according to another hypothesis, commissioned by the Confraternity of Nossa Senhora da Conceição (Our Lady of the Conception), in Terceiros, the former Convent of São Francisco (Saint Francis) of Funchal.

It is an unique example in silver chiselled and in relief consisting of juxtaposed plates, creating a large plan imitating the motifs and forms of silk brocades, llama gold and silver embroideries, carried out in Portugal at the same time, copying Flemish and Italian models. It consists of a valance that recreates trimming effects with their tassels and two framing orphreys. The decorative floral motifs feature rolled shapes with acanthus leaves or in form of acanthus with intersected or opposite motifs, that sometimes feature delicate opened flowers. The recreation of fabric effects for altar frontals in other materials is known, such as in tiles, where the interpretation of the effect of valance and respective drapery orphreys of Indian origin is also executed, much in vogue in the mid-17th century in Portugal.

A same group of silver frontal altars is referred in Portugal such as in the Cathedral's Chapter of Angra do Heroísmo in the Azores, attributed to the silversmith Manuel Quental and Antonio de Brito, with figuration around the life of Christ, in addition to the one in the Chapel of the Santíssimo of Lamego Cathedral, and the one in the Church of the Monastery of the Encarnação, in Lisbon.