The Madeiran Art Commission (15th - 16th centuries) “is the initiative that began as a celebration of the 600th anniversary of the Discovery of Madeira and Porto Santo and whose exhibition brings together a total of 86 works never before gathered in the same museum space, in a rich display of the Region’s artistic heritage.”
The exhibition covers six centuries of history and places a particular emphasis on the period of the introduction and large-scale development of sugarcane cultivation in the Madeiran archipelago in the late fifteenth century and the early stages of its export to Lisbon and then to the rest of Europe through the ports of Flanders, Bruges and Antwerp, where merchants traded “white gold” for mostly religious art pieces, including sculptures, paintings and religious jewellery.
Highlights of the pieces on display include the “Virgin and Child” (15th century), the Altarpiece of the Magi (16th century) and the Triptych of Our Lady of Mercy flanked by Saints Christopher, Paul, Peter and Sebastian by Jan Provost of the Flemish school, dated 1529.
For more information: http://museudearteantiga.pt/exposicoes/as-ilhas-do-ouro-branco
