Portuguese art

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Portuguese art includes many different styles from many different eras.

Portuguese sculptures can be best analysed by studying the many tombs of the 12th and 14th centuries that are found throughout Portugal. In the late 1700s, the colony of Brazil was the main influence in Portuguese sculpture. This can be seen by the increase in Baroque wooden sculpture during this time. Joaquim Machado de Castro, a famous Portuguese artist who lived around thjais responsible for a lot of these works.^[1]

The most ancient Portuguese paintings are in illuminated manuscripts. The Apocalypse of Lorvão, completed in 1189 in the scriptorium of the Lorvão monastery, near Coimbra, is the only manuscript of the Beatus of Liébana produced in Portugal during the Middle Ages. Some of the illustrations have a profane theme, as is also the case in the Livro das Aves [pt] by the same author, and in several "Livros de Linhagens". The Bible of Santa Cruz de Coimbra [pt] dates from the 12th century.

The Livro das Aves is a fine example of Romanesque art with Mudejar influences. It is a copy of Hugh of Fouilloy's De avibus, a moral treatise on birds. The livros de lindhagens are genealogies of Portuguese noble families illustrated with their coats of arms. They include Livro Velho de Linhagens (1270-1290), Livro de Linhagens do Deão (1343) and Livro de Linhagens do conde D. Pedro [pt] (1344). Cancioneiro da Ajuda is a collection of poems in Galician-Portuguese from the late 13th century with 17 miniatures of musicians.

The Crónica Geral de Espanha de 1344 [pt] is a beautifully illustrated historical chronicle also compiled by Pedro Afonso, Count of Barcelos and illegitimate son of King Denis of Portugal.

Among the few very early names of Portuguese artists that have survived are those of two architects: Domingos Domingues [fr], designer, between 1308 and 1311, of the cloister of Alcobaça Monastery, built at the request of King Denis of Portugal; and Afonso Domingues [fr], first architect of Batalha Monastery. The Church of São Francisco (Porto) (completed around 1425) was decorated during the reign of João I (1385-1433) with a fresco of Our Lady of the Rose,^[2] attributed to António Florentim [pt]. It is one of the oldest surviving murals in Portugal. Florentim, as his name suggests, was from Florence but died in Lisbon. There are other frescoes from the late 15th or early 16th century in the Chapel of Our Lady of Glory in Braga Cathedral (geometric panels showing the influence of Mudejar art^[3] or in Monsaraz (the Allegory of the Good and Bad Judge) and in the Ermida de Santo André in Beja,^[4] also attributed to the "Master of Monsaraz-Beja". The Sintra National Palace has a Coats-of-Arms Hall painted at the beginning of the 16th century, during the transition from Late Gothic to Renaissance. The palace is a mixture of Gothic, Manueline (or Portuguese Late Gothic), Moorish and Mudéjar styles.

In 1428 the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck travelled to Portugal to paint a portrait of Isabella of Portugal, daughter of King John I of Portugal in preparation for her marriage to the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good. There was already a Flemish influence on illuminations. The Livro de Horas de D. Duarte [pt] (1426 or 1428) is a very fine example of the art of Flemish illumination of the period to have reached Portugal.

The first known painter may be Álvaro Pires de Évora (fl. 1411-1434, presumably born in Evora). He left no traces until 4 November 1410, when together with Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, Lippo d'Andrea, Ambrogio di Baldese and Scolaio di Giovanni he painted frescoes, now lost, on the façade of the Palazzo del Ceppo in Prato (Tuscany). He seems to have grown in Portugal and spent his entire career in Italy. The Madonna triptych in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig, bears the date 1434. Álvaro Pires is mentioned in Giorgio Vasari's Le Vite de' più Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori e Architettori (1568) and by José da Cunha Taborda, in Regras da arte da pintura, 1815. Around thirty works have been found by this artist. The Annunciation [pt] (c.1430-1434, tempera and gold on panel) was bought by the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, and Saint Como recently went on sale. Álvaro Pires de Évora may be the Master of Lourinhã.

The Lisbon Bible (1483) is considered "the most accomplished codex of the Portuguese school of medieval Hebrew illumination" and is now in the British Library.^[5] Samuel ben Samuel Ibn Musa (Samuel the Scribe), probably a Jew living in Portugal before the expulsion and forced conversions of December 1496, copied the biblical text but we do not seem to know who decorated the pages with birds and other animals and, mostly, flowers. The Foral of Évora (1501), decorated with flowers, animals and cherubs, is also remarkable.

The first famous Portuguese painter is Nuno Gonçalves (active c. 1450 - died before 1492), whose work was influenced by Flemish art, as were many of his successors. Gonçalves is best known for his polyptych, Saint Vincent Panels (now in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA),^[6] six paintings showing a group of 58 figures representing the court and the various social classes of 15th-century Portuguese society in a monumental and solemn assembly around the figure of Saint Vincent, who is represented twice. The painting is characterized by figures with expressive faces and a detailed definition of the costumes, marking the beginning of the Renaissance in Portugal. The same museum owns a Martírio de São Vicente atado à coluna, around 1470. (Vincent of Saragossa is the patron saint of Lisbon).

Jorge Afonso (c. 1470–1540) is the painter of the altarpiece at the Madre de Deus Convent in Lisbon (now at the MNAA). The church of the Monastery of Jesus of Setúbal was decorated with a 14-panel, painted altarpiece by him. The MNAA houses Jorge Afonso's Adoração dos Pastores (Adoration of the Shepherds), which shows a tiled floor in perspective and realistic male faces, while the Virgin has a gothic touch. In the third shepherd's left hand are what may be a tin milk pail and spoons, while the second has a rebec on the floor in front of him, and there is a concert of angel musicians in the opposite corner of the canvas.

A whole generation of Portuguese painters was educated in Afonso's workshop, including Cristóvão de Figueiredo, Garcia Fernandes, Gregório Lopes and Jorge Leal [pt] (known for his Adoração dos Reis Magos in the MNAA), Gaspar Vaz [pt] (credited with the paintings in the Convent of São João [fr] de Tarouca) and possibly even the famous Vasco Fernandes (c. 1475 – c. 1542), better known as Grão Vasco.

The MNAA owns Cristóvão de Figueiredo's The Marriage of Saint Ursula with Prince Conan (1522-1525). His polyptych for the [pt] Monastery of the Holy Cross in Coimbra (1521-1530) still shows the influence of Dürer. Figueiredo may be the Master [pt] of the Altarpiece of Santa Auta [pt]. He collaborated with Garcia Fernandes on The Ressurection of Christ (1530-1535) which was bought by the Louvre in 2023 (RFML.PE.2023.26.1).

The MNAA houses a Martírio de S. Sebastião by Gregório Lopes, who also painted a Virgin and Child with the angels, and the Adoration of the Magi in a village in Auvergne. He collaborated with Jorge Leal on the Visitation. Lopes introduced the «Primeiro Maneirismo de Antuérpia» (First Antwerp Mannerism) to Portugal. Between 1533 and 1534, he collaborated with Garcia Fernandes and Cristóvão de Figueiredo, in Lamego, on the panels for the Monastery of Ferreirim [pt].

Grão Vasco moved from a markedly Nordic influence - clearly seen in the altarpiece of Viseu Cathedral, where he worked with painters of Flemish origin - to an Italianising influence. The arrival of Miguel da Silva from Rome to the Bishopric of Viseu (1525-1540), the patron who, among other things, commissioned him to paint the five great altarpieces for the cathedral, including that of St. Peter, was a decisive event in his aesthetic career. A clearer shift towards the Italian model only began to be noticed around 1540, when the rigorous classicism of the High Renaissance had already disappeared and the dominant trend in Italy was already Mannerism.

Francisco Henriques (active 1508–1518), born in Amsterdam and trained in Bruges perhaps under Gerard David, arrived in Portugal around 1500. He led the workshop for Viseu Cathedral's altarpiece, mentoring the young Vasco Fernandes. In 1518, he was commissioned for a prestigious project in Lisbon, collaborating with Garcia Fernandes, Cristóvão de Figueiredo, and Gregório Lopes. Unfortunately he died of the plague in 1518. The MNAA houses quite a few of his paintings, including Ultima ceia (Last Supper, c.1508) and Paixão dos Cinco Mártires de Marrocos [fr] (c1508).

Unlike the previous painters, Frei Carlos [fr] (active 1517-1540), a Hyeronimite monk, had no contact with Jorge Afonso or his pupils: he worked almost exclusively for his monastic order. Nevertheless, his style is similar to Afonso's in works such as Calvary Triptych [fr], Christ's Ascension [fr] and Bom pastor (The Good Shepherd), 1520-30.

It is now accepted that the Livro do Armeiro-Mor (1509), which contains the Portuguese Amorial, is the work of a Portuguese illuminator, João do Cró. Another such book was the Livro da Nobreza e Perfeiçam das Armas [pt] (1521- 1541) by António Godinho, clerk to King João III.

The Book of Fortresses (1509–1510 by Duarte de Armas [pt]) contains sketches or outlines of all the 56 Portuguese border castles, these sketches include elements of perspective and topographical awareness.

The Livro de Horas de D. Manuel [pt], attributed to António de Holanda [pt] (between c. 1517 and c. 1538). The first historical reference to him dates from 1518, when he was in Portugal. He probably died in Portugal, where his son Francisco de Holanda was born.

"In his treatise Da pintura antiga (1548), Francisco de Holanda placed illumination at the forefront of 'all genres and modes of painting' and by no means considered it a minor art. Unlike in other European countries, the first half of the 16th century was Portugal's golden age of illumination. Until the 16th century, Portuguese illumination was of foreign origin, firstly Cistercian, then imported from Flanders and France. But at the beginning of the 16th century, the Portuguese political and cultural reality, the major administrative, legislative and heraldic reforms promulgated by D. Manuel and also the nautical activity necessitated by the Great Discoveries created a climate favourable to the development of Portuguese illumination in new areas,"^[7]. One of King Manuel I's reforms was the "Leitura Nova" he ordered in 1527 : it involved the systematic copying, updating, and preservation of royal and municipal records aiming to centralize and standardize governance and thus strengthen royal authority. Deswarte goes on to examine the foreign influences on Portuguese illumination: Ghent-Bruges illumination and Florentine illumination known from the Belém Bible [fr] made by Attavanti for King Manuel I, the influence of numerous copies of Italian, Flemish and French engravings (Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau) and of Albrecht Dürer...

The Classical and Romantic styles of painting, brought to Portugal from Italy and France, had an influence on Portuguese artist Machado de Castro in the late 18th century and António Soares dos Reis in the 19th century. A school for amateur painters, led by Nuno Gonçalves, was popular in the 15th century. As a result, Flemish artists added to the native style by decorating palaces and convents using their own techniques. The result gave Portugal a rich heritage of religious art. The Romantic period in the 19th century sparked a rebirth of national art. This was followed by an era of naturalist realism, which in turn was followed by experimentation the 20th century.^[1]

Many Portuguese contemporary artists have made their mark on the world stage. Maria Helena Vieira de Silva was a famous Portuguese abstract painter and Carlos Botelho was known for his street scenes of Lisbon. Paula Rego is known for her "storytelling" in painting. She became famous for her works "Dog Woman" (1990's), and "Abortion", a reaction to the referendum in Portugal which made abortion a crime (late 1990s). Her art has been shown in museums such as Tate Modern in London and Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, in Cascais (dedicated solely to her art).^[1]

The Portuguese glazed tiles (azulejos) are one of Portugal's best decorative arts. Many 16th and 17th century buildings are lined with tiles, and the rooms and halls of palaces and mansions have tilted panels following a colour motif. Some prime examples of this style of art are the Pátio da Carranca (courtyard of Carranca) of the Paço de Sintra (Palace of Sintra), the São Roque church in Lisbon and the Quinta da Bacalhoa at Vila Fresca de Azeitão near Setúbal.^[1]

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