Official Tourist Guides in the Conference “Flemish Paintings in the Island of Madeira – 15th and 16th centuries.

Madeira official Tourst Guides returned enriched from the conference about “Flemish Paintings in the Island of Madeira – fifteenth and sixteenth centuries – resulting from the artistic commissions during the economic cycle of the “white gold””. Fernando António Baptista Pereira delighted everyone with his knowledge.

The introduction of sugar cane into the archipelago of Madeira on the fifteenth century and the subsequent large-scale development of its production, meant that sugar could be exported to the whole of Europe including Flandres. The spread of consumption of the “white gold” altered people’s eating habits. A parallel growth in the imports to Madeira of artistic goods intended both to satisfy the devotional needs and to define the social status of the new wealthy families.

These masterpieces are part of the collection of Flemish Art displayed in the Museum of Sacred Art, in Funchal and offers a sparkling idea of the great wealth resulting from the economic cycle of the “white gold”.

The conference included discussions on the various cities of Flanders from where the imports came, the various workshops that produced the works exported, the chronology of the imports, the most preferred themes, techniques used by the artists and the commissioners.