Grão Vasco

Vasco Fernandes (c. 1475 – c. 1542), better known as Grão Vasco ("The Great Vasco"), was one of the main Portuguese Renaissance painters.

Life According to local tradition, the painter Vasco Fernandes, known as Grão Vasco (the Great Vasco) from the 17th century onwards, was born somewhere in the area around Viseu, but there is no document recording his place or date of birth, nor the names of his parents. The oldest chronological reference to his name, dating back to the financial year of 1501–1502, refers to him as already married and working as a painter in Viseu, which allows us to infer that he was born around 1475. Between the end of 1542 and the beginning of the next year, as is indirectly confirmed by some documents, he died in this same city, leaving behind a widow and two daughters.