To be God’s slave is an honour ... you are free of human control and have committed yourself to God alone

There is something surprising about the painting on the cover of this week’s issue. Clearly it represents Pentecost, but instead of the traditional portrayal of Jesus’ mother surrounded by 12 men, there are four women in the picture. Who are they and why are they there?
We do not know the name of the artist, only that s/he lived in sixteenth-century Portugal. (We have been reminded that painters can be women as well as men by the current exhib­ition of Michaelina Wautier’s work in London’s Royal Academy, though their female identity was sometimes hidden.) The work has been dated to 1540–1550 and it comes from the chapel of the old Casa do Senado in the town of Guimarães. But the artist has done what other painters of Pentecost have failed to do: s/he has actually bothered to read the New Testament text.

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