Gregório Lopes
Encyclopedia
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
painters from Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
.
Gregório Lopes was educated in the workshop of Jorge Afonso
Jorge Afonso
Jorge Afonso was an important Portuguese Renaissance painter.Jorge Afonso was nominated royal painter in 1508 by King Manuel I and again in 1529 by John III. He was mainly based in Lisbon, with a workshop near the Church of São Domingos...
, the court painter
Court painter
A court painter was an artist who painted for the members of a royal or noble family, sometimes on a fixed salary and on an exclusive basis where the artist was not supposed to undertake other work. Especially in the late Middle Ages, they were often given the office of valet de chambre...
of King Manuel I
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
. Later he himself became court painter for both Manuel I and for his successor, John III
John III of Portugal
John III , nicknamed o Piedoso , was the fifteenth King of Portugal and the Algarves. He was the son of King Manuel I and Maria of Aragon, the third daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile...
. In 1514 he married the daughter of Jorge Afonso, and in 1520 was knighted by Prince Jorge de Lencastre and entered the Order of Santiago
Order of Santiago
The Order of Santiago was founded in the 12th century, and owes its name to the national patron of Galicia and Spain, Santiago , under whose banner the Christians of Galicia and Asturias began in the 9th century to combat and drive back the Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula.-History:Santiago de...
.
The work of Gregório Lopes mainly consists of painted religious altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
s for various churches and monasteries in central Portugal. Between 1520 and 1525 he worked (together with Jorge Leal) in painting altarpieces for the Saint Francis Convent of Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. Also in the 1520s he painted panels for the Church of Paraíso (Paradise), also in Lisbon. In his first fase, Gregório Lopes also worked in Sesimbra
Sesimbra
-References:Bibliography*The Rough Guide to Portugal; 11th edition, March 2005; ISBN 1-84353-438-X*Rentes de Carvalho, J. - Portugal, um guia para amigos ; De Arbeiderspers, 9th ed. August 1999; ISBN 90-295-3457-5Notes...
, Setúbal
Setúbal
Setúbal is the main city in Setúbal Municipality in Portugal with a total area of 172.0 km² and a total population of 118,696 inhabitants in the municipality. The city proper has 89,303 inhabitants....
and in the Monastery of Ferreirim, in this latter case together with Cristóvão de Figueiredo
Cristóvão de Figueiredo
Cristovão de Figueiredo was a Portuguese Renaissance painter.Like many other important painters of the time, Cristovão de Figueiredo was a pupil of Master Jorge Afonso, in Lisbon, in the early 16th century...
and Garcia Fernandes
Garcia Fernandes
Garcia Fernandes was a Portuguese Renaissance painter. Like many of painters of the time, Garcia Fernandes was a pupil in the Lisbon workshop of Jorge Afonso, who was the court painter of King Manuel I....
.
The painter moved in the 1530s to the city of Tomar
Tomar
Tomar Municipality has a total area of 351.0 km² and a total population of 43,007 inhabitants.The municipality is composed of 16 parishes, and is located in Santarém District...
, where he painted various panels for the Round Church of the Convent of Christ (1536–1539) and the main altarpiece of the Church of Saint John the Baptist (1538–1539). His last known works include altarpieces for the Convent of Santos-o-Novo in Lisbon (1540) and the Valverde Convent, near Évora
Évora
Évora is a municipality in Portugal. It has total area of with a population of 55,619 inhabitants. It is the seat of the Évora District and capital of the Alentejo region. The municipality is composed of 19 civil parishes, and is located in Évora District....
(1545).
Many of Gregório Lopes' works can be seen in the National Museum of Ancient Art
National Museum of Ancient Art
The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga , located in Lisbon, is an art museum in Portugal.The museum is known as MNAA , and is popularly known as the Museu das Janelas Verdes due to the color of its windows...
, in Lisbon. His son, Cristóvão Lopes
Cristóvão Lopes
Cristóvão Lopes was a Portuguese painter.Cristóvão Lopes was the son and disciple of royal painter Gregório Lopes, who died in 1550. Cristóvão succeeded his father as the royal painter of King John III in 1551...
(1516–1594), was also an artist and worked as a portrait painter for the Portuguese royal family.