Portugal

24
PORTUGAL IN DEPTH
2
THE LAY OF THE LAND
Obviously, extensive rebuilding had to
follow the devastating earthquake that
destroyed much of Lisbon in 1755. As a
result of this earthquake, the Terreiro do
Paço was created, and it remains today one
of the great squares of the world, forming
the official entrance to the city of Lisbon.
A royal palace at Queluz (p. 180) was
constructed in 1787 and is similar to the
palace of Versailles outside Paris. Rococo
art, coming in the wake of the baroque,
found few adherents in Portugal.
A great sculptor rose out of the 18th
century, Joaquim Machado de Castro
(1732–1822). He cultivated terra-cotta
relief, and did so with great delicacy and
restraint.
LATE 18TH TO THE 19TH CENTURY
Political upheavals dominated this period.
Portuguese architects worked in a medley
of styles, their buildings having no national
identity. The conservative taste of both the
people and the government ruled the day,
although Ventura Terra, who died in
1889, was a forerunner of the 20th century
international style.
The artist of the day was António de
Sequeira (1768–1837), who was court
painter in Lisbon in 1802. He drifted into
Romanticism, and was mainly concerned
with man’s personality and purpose. He
was also an artist of great perception, and
evolved into a master of chiaroscuro, balancing
light and shade in a painting.
In sculpture, Teixeira Lopes (1866–1918)
became a dominant figure. Born in Porto,
he is known for his monument to the novelist
Eça de Queirós which stands in Lisbon.
Among painters, Columbano Bordalo
Pinheir (1856–1929), achieved renown
Portugal has a coastline stretching some
500 miles. It’s bounded on the south and
west by the Atlantic Ocean and on the
north and east by Spain. Continental
with his portraits and still lifes. A sense of
French Romanticism prevailed in his paintings.
He often posed his subject in a dramatic
light against a cloudy background.
20TH CENTURY In the first decades of
the 20th century, Art Nouveau and Art
Deco began to occupy the architects of
Portugal, especially in the cities of Coimbra,
Leiria, and Lisbon. The Museu
Gulbenkian (p. 130) in Lisbon definitely
moved Portugal into the foreground of
modern architecture.
From the Porto School of Architecture
emerged Álvaro Siza, who was commissioned
to restore the Chiado quarter in
Lisbon, which was devastated by a fire in
1988. In the 1980s Tomás Taviera distinguished
himself by constructing in Lisbon
a postmodern Torre das Amoreiras.
In sculpture, the towering figure of the
20th century was Francisco Franco
(1885–1955), who designed many commemorative
monuments to the dictator
Salazar.
No giant figure arose in painting,
although many Portuguese modern artists
have distinguished themselves, including
Almada Negreiros (1889–1970), who was
influenced by Cubism, as well as Maria
Helena Vieira da Silva (1908–1920),
who was influenced by the Portuguese
azulejos (tiles) in her works, especially the
color in her paintings. Amadeo de Souza
Cardoso (1887–1918) found his motif in
the development of Cubism and shows the
influence of his friend, Modigliani.
Lourdes de Castro, José de Guimarães,
and Júlio Pomar are among some of the
leading contemporary painters of the 20th
century.
4 THE LAY OF THE LAND
Portugal totals some 34,000 square miles;
its Atlantic islands, including Madeira and
the Azores, extend the size of the country
by another 1,200 square miles. The Azores