This book investigates Jan Van Eyck's patronage by the Crown of Portugal and his role as diplomat-painter for the Duchy of Burgundy following his first voyage to Lisbon in 1428-1429, when he painted two portraits of Infanta Isabella, who became the third wife of Philip the Good in 1430. New portrait identifications are provided for the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) and its iconographical prototype, the lost Fountain of Life. These altarpieces are analysed with regard to King Joao I's conquest of Ceuta, achieved by his sons, who were hailed as an "illustrious generation." Strong family ties between the dynastic houses of Avis and Lancaster explain Lusitania's sustained fascination with Arthurian lore and the Grail quest. Several chapters of this book are overlaid with a chivalric veneer. A second "secret mission" to Portugal in 1437 by Jan van Eyck is postulated and this diplomatic visit is related to Prince Henry the Navigator's expedition to Tangier and King Duarte's attempts to forge an alliance with Alfonso V of Aragon. Late Eyckian commissions are reviewed in the light of this ill-fated crusade and additional new portraits are identified. The most significant artist of Renaissance Flanders appears to have been patronized as much by the House of Avis as by the Duchy of Burgundy. Barbara von Barghahn is Professor of Art History at George Washington University and a specialist in the art history of Portugal, Spain, and their colonial dominions, as well as Flanders. In 1993, she was conferred O Grao Comendador in the Portuguese Order of Prince Henry the Navigator. She has spent nearly a decade completing research about Jan van Eyck's diplomatic visits to the Iberian Peninsula.

This book investigates Jan Van Eyck's patronage by the Crown of Portugal and his role as diplomat-painter for the Duchy of Burgundy following his first voyage to Lisbon in 1428-1429, when he painted two portraits of Infanta Isabella, who became the third wife of Philip the Good in 1430. New portrait identifications are provided for the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) and its iconographical prototype, the lost Fountain of Life. These altarpieces are analysed with regard to King Joao I's conquest of Ceuta, achieved by his sons, who were hailed as an "illustrious generation." Strong family ties between the dynastic houses of Avis and Lancaster explain Lusitania's sustained fascination with Arthurian lore and the Grail quest. Several chapters of this book are overlaid with a chivalric veneer. A second "secret mission" to Portugal in 1437 by Jan van Eyck is postulated and this diplomatic visit is related to Prince Henry the Navigator's expedition to Tangier and King Duarte's attempts to forge an alliance with Alfonso V of Aragon. Late Eyckian commissions are reviewed in the light of this ill-fated crusade and additional new portraits are identified. The most significant artist of Renaissance Flanders appears to have been patronized as much by the House of Avis as by the Duchy of Burgundy. Barbara von Barghahn is Professor of Art History at George Washington University and a specialist in the art history of Portugal, Spain, and their colonial dominions, as well as Flanders. In 1993, she was conferred O Grao Comendador in the Portuguese Order of Prince Henry the Navigator. She has spent nearly a decade completing research about Jan van Eyck's diplomatic visits to the Iberian Peninsula.

A team of 16 experts underline the binds and exchanges between different contexts and artistic techniques that copies established in the Renaissance, and how the history of taste is sophisticated and complex.

Portuguese Tangier (1471-1662) is a fundamental new contribution to the history of Tangier, a dynamically expanding Moroccan port on the south shore of the Strait of Gibraltar. The book offers a “virtual archaeology” of the Portuguese urban fabric heritage--both vanished and preserved--in Tangier's médina, the walled Old Town. Solidly grounded in archival sources and profoundly revisionist, Portuguese Tangier alters our image of the médina to an unexpected extent. Yet it makes no claim to being "definitive" in any sense -- on the contrary, it is no more than a starting point. The volume stands at a critical intersection of well-known documents, recently located sources, and those that have been heavily underused (military engineering plans -- Portuguese as well as English, Portuguese building estimates and construction proposals). It plays a critical searchlight over discrepancies that become evident once spatio-temporal GIS modelling is deployed to re-examine the sources and the existing literature. The book challenges a rainbow of standard interpretations and entrenched Tangerois urban legends. It ranges widely, from recent hypotheses to newly confirmed toponyms, contentious architectural details, and the design and construction of the fortifications. The scope extends to historic environmental factors affecting the Old Port (studied through a new 3D bathymetric model of the historic anchorage -- the only such model available for now). The well-known "Tangier" series of drawings and etchings by the Bohemian artist Wenceslas (Václav) Hollar (1607-1677) comes into its own here, in a fresh, analytical, modelling-oriented context that interlinks Portuguese and English data tightly. The Portuguese period (1471-1662) is set in a frame that encompasses both the pre-1471 Muslim port and various 1662-1684 English components of the urban fabric—genuine as well as spurious. The book targets mainly a specialist audience (historians, conservationists, heritage planners, urban archaeologists, itinerary and exhibit designers dealing with Tangier), but will also reward the patient casual reader genuinely interested in the fortified médina and its history. In stock. Purchase direct from Baywolf Press / Éditions Baywolf & Portuguese Studies Review. Portuguese Tangier (1471-1662) est une nouvelle contribution à l'histoire du port de Tanger, la cheville maritime du nord marocain saisie à présent dans un tourbillon de développement. Le livre offre une "virtual archaeology" du patrimoine portugais dans la vieille médina de Tanger - d'une part un patrimoine disparu (et par conséquent "virtuel") mais aussi, d'autre part, étrangement préservé, bien que souvent inconnu, méconnu, ou ignoré. Solidement ancré dans les fonds d'archives et profondément révisionniste sans aucune prétention d'être "definitif", Portuguese Tangier change notre compréhension de la médina. L'ouvrage se situe au carrefour critique des sources -- documents classiques ainsi que des pièces nouvellement découvertes ou redécouvertes (plans de génie militaire -- portugais aussi bien qu'anglais, des devis estimatifs portugais et des travaux d'étude). L'auteur met en évidence les disjonctions fondamentales qui surgissent du moment que les ouvrages de recherche disponibles à présent s'affrontent aux documents dans un cadre de modélisation SIG spatio-temporel. Le livre met en question une panoplie d'interprétations et de "légendes urbaines" Tangéroises bien établies. Portuguese Tangier fournit une fusion d'hypothèses récentes, de toponymes nouvellement confirmés, de détails architecturaux à débat, et d'une exploration en détail des fortifications. L'enquête s'étend aux facteurs environnementaux dans le Vieux Port (étudiés au moyen d'un nouveau modèle bathymétrique de l'ancrage -- le seul modèle du fond de l'ancrage historique, en trame 3D, disponible pour le moment). La série "Tanger" de Wenceslas (Václav) Hollar (1607-1677) (dessins et gravures) se situe ici dans un contexte d'analyse et de modélisation qui fusionne les sources portugaises et anglaises. La discussion de l'architecture portugaise (1471-1662) s'encadre entre des vignettes du port marocain d'avant-1471 et d'éléments anglais du tissu urbain -- éléments véridiques aussi bien qu'imaginaires. L'ouvrage s'adresse principalement aux spécialistes (historiens, professionnels du patrimoine, archéologues, et concepteurs d'itinéraires et d'expositions) mais offre néanmoins de quoi bien contenter tous les amateurs de la médina et de son histoire.

"The origins of Christmas lie in an Egyptian festival on 6 January, which spread to much of the Christian world as a celebration of the birth and/or baptism of Christ and known as the Epiphany or Theophany. The church at Rome did not adopt this festival but later instituted a celebration of the nativity of Christ on 25 December, which gradually supplanted its observance on 6 January in other churches, leaving this latter occasion as a commemoration of Christ's baptism alone, or of the visit of the Magi in those churches like Rome that had not observed that date previously. This essay traces that evolution and examines the merits of the two competing scholarly theories that have sought to explain the original choice of these particular dates"--