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Fr. António-José de Almeida, O.P.
Fig. 27 - Balsamão, Chacim (Macedo de Cavaleiros),
Visão geral da zona afrescada sobrevivente
(foto Joaquim I. Caetano)
ABsTRACT:
The attempt to identify a recumbent, half-naked female figure, which was
recently discovered in a wall painting in the Church of Our Lady of Balsamão,
in Chacim (Macedo de Cavaleiros, Trás-os-Montes), prompted the author of
this paper to investigate the lives and illustrations of penitent naked female
saints on Legendaries printed in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries,
with particular reference to the Iberian Peninsula, and specifically to the Flos
Sanctorum em lingoagem portugues, printed in Lisbon at 1513. In them there
are two kinds of naked female saints linked with penitential forms of life: those
that lived in desert or uninhabited places (such as Saint Mary of Egypt or
Saint Mary Magdalene), but also those that had went on pilgrimage (the three
women of the Iberian legend of the Four Crowned Saints).In connection with
his current subject of research, the author takes this opportunity of publishing
also the results of his recent research in the field of prints illustrating the trifacial
Holy Trinity holding the scutum fidei, and surrounded by the Evangelical
tetramorph.
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