Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA)

The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA, National Museum of Ancient Art) is in the Janelas Verdes Palace in the Lapa district of Lisbon, Portugal, overlooking the Tagus. The 17th-century palace belonged to the Counts of Alvor and later the Marquises of Pombal. The museum opened in 1884 and was built around collections from convents closed after 1834 and from royal and private holdings. It holds the national collection of painting, sculpture, goldsmithing, textiles, ceramics and furniture from the Middle Ages to the early 19th century, and its Portuguese, European, African, Asian and Brazilian material tells the story of global trade in the Age of Discoveries. The star work is the Panels of São Vicente by Nuno Gonçalves, painted around 1470 to 1480, a polyptych showing figures of 15th-century Portuguese society. The museum also holds Hieronymus Bosch's Temptation of Saint Anthony triptych, works by Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein, Raphael and Zurbarán, the Belém Monstrance said to use gold from Vasco da Gama's first voyage, and Japanese Namban screens showing Portuguese traders arriving in Japan in the late 16th century. The display is largely chronological and by region, with a chapel of Saint Albert from the original Carmelite convent preserved within the building. A modern wing and garden overlooking the river were added later, and the museum has been renovated and reorganised in recent decades. The collection is generally in good condition, with conservation work visible in the restoration workshops. It is the most important art museum in Portugal for early art and for objects recording contact with Asia, Africa and the Americas.