Xico Greenwald reviews the exhibition O Frei Carlos da América at Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon, on view through September 15, 2013.

Greenwald writes: "Born in Flanders, Frei Carlos joined a convent outside Évora, Portugal, where he ran a painting workshop making delicately colored scenes for the Hieronymites, a hermetic Christian order that took hold across the Iberian Peninsula. Working in oil paint on oak panels, the subtly elongated figures here, with robes falling in angular folds, point to Northern Renaissance artistic training… For many museum visitors, this show will be a welcome introduction to the Renaissance artist living a hermetic life in Portugal’s Alentejo region. Working in a convent, Frei Carlos combined Flemish painting techniques with soft, Iberian light."