Saint Francis Xavier - Life and Legend

Work dedicated to the life and legend of St. Francis Xavier, highlighting the pictorial cycle by the painter André Reinoso, a set of twenty canvases located in the Church of St. Roch of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa. The author reveals to the reader the life and work of the saint missionary of the Society of Jesus, developing aspects of the iconography of St. Francis Xavier, bringing to light some novelties resulting from the most recent conservation and restoration intervention of the pictorial series. The cycle by the Portuguese proto-baroque painter André Reinoso, executed for the Church of St. Roch and located above the chest of its sacristy since 1619, is the work that best documents the Xavier iconography in Portugal, a collection whose importance surpasses the national context, as it is the first complete pictorial account of the saint's life. Published in the context of the Commemorations of the 5th Centenary of the Birth of St. Francis Xavier, this work constitutes the first volume of the Collection Pictorial Cycles, a bilingual collection (Portuguese / English) dedicated to pictorial series that are part of the important collection of painting of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa.

Author: António Meira Marques Henriques

Year of publication: 2006
Publisher: SCML, Museum of St. Roch
ISBN: 97287611472