Fresco commissioned for the main staircase of Porto’s City Hall. Part of a set of four panels depicting figures associated with the history of the city in connection with periods or episodes of relevance in the national(ist) historical imaginary. One of the four panels, severely damaged, was in the process of being restored at the time of digitisation and is not included in this corpus. This panel is dominated by prince Henry of Portugal (1394- 1360), born in the city of Porto and credited with having initiated, in an administrative capacity, the navigational developments that would open Portugal’s trade routes globally. Prince Henry is depicted against a background of caravels in tumultuous seas and his standing as a key figure in an imperial imaginary is attested by a quote from Fernando Pessoa’s 1935 Mensagem describing him as “the only emperor that truly has the globe of the world in his hand” (“O unico imperador que tem, deveras / o globo do mundo em sua mão”)