Portuguese Painting at the End of the Ancien Regime c. 1799-1807: History, Monarchy and the Empire

2017 | Art, Photography & Fashion

Caught in the conflict between France and Great Britain, Portuguese statesmen and diplomats struggled to maintain the country's elusive neutrality during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Foreign as well as domestic policies were impacted by concerns about the fate of Portugal's empire and the future of its monarchy in an increasingly-threatening world. It was precisely during this period, and culminating with the departure of the Portuguese royal family for Brazil in 1807, that history painting featuring subjects from the monarchy's origins and the empire's foundational moments appeared in state-sponsored projects such as the decoration of the two royal palaces of Mafra and Ajuda, and in private aristocratic commissions. The works of Domingos Sequeira, Vieira Portuense and Cyrillo Volkmar Machado were prime vehicles of state ideology and visualized the past as a concrete reality, with an unprecedented degree of interest in its material remains and written sources. Setting aside conventional stylistic categories and periodization, Foteini Vlachou examines for the first time this brief but intense period of artistic production as a coherent ensemble with distinctive traits.

In breaking away from traditional visual culture with its predominantly religious and allegorical character, Portuguese history painting aligned itself with the rationalism of those responsible both for the reorganization of the empire and its official representation.

Foteini Vlachou (Author)