Ascension of Christ (Tomar)

Painted around 1510 for the Convent of Christ in Tomar, this Ascension of Christ depicted the risen Christ departing to heaven forty days after Easter, witnessed by the apostles. The Tomar altarpiece cycle covered the full sweep of Christ's life and post-Resurrection appearances, immersing the Order of Christ monks in continuous sacred narrative. Ascension panels conventionally showed apostles gazing upward at the departing Christ — sometimes showing only his feet disappearing into cloud — a convention Afonso's workshop adapted to Manueline visual culture. The Convent of Christ, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remains the principal repository of Afonso's surviving painted work.

Oil on panel with the dramatic upward movement Ascension compositions demand. Creating convincing celestial space above an earthly horizon — the ascending Christ's figure foreshortened or veiled by heavenly light — tested Renaissance painters' understanding of perspectival foreshortening and atmospheric luminosity.