Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
market in flamboyance. At its height during the 18th century (almost a century later than
in Italy), it was characterised by curvaceous forms, huge monuments, spatially complex
schemes and lots and lots and lots of gold.
Financed by the 17th-century gold and diamond discoveries in Brazil, and encouraged
by the extravagant Dom João V, local and foreign (particularly Italian) artists created
mind-bogglingly opulent masterpieces. Prodigious
talha dourada
(gilded woodwork) ad-
orn church interiors all over the place, but it reached its most extreme in Aveiro's
Mosteiro de Jesus, Lisbon's Igreja de São Roque and Porto's Igreja de São Francisco.
The baroque of central and southern Portugal was more restrained. Examples include
the chancel of Évora's cathedral and the massive Palácio Nacional de Mafra. Designed by
the German architect João Frederico Ludovice to rival the palace-monastery of San
Lorenzo de El Escorial (near Madrid), the Mafra version is relatively sober, apart from its
size - which is such that at one point it had a workforce of 45,000, looked after by a po-
lice force of 7000.
Meanwhile, the Tuscan painter and architect Nicolau Nasoni (who settled in Porto
around 1725) introduced a more ornamental baroque style to the north. Nasoni is respons-
ible for Porto's Torre dos Clérigos and Igreja da Misericórdia, and the whimsical Palácio
de Mateus near Vila Real (internationally famous as the image on Mateus rosé wine
bottles).
In the mid-18th century a school of architecture evolved in Braga. Local artists such as
André Soares built churches and palaces in a very decorative style, heavily influenced by
Augsburg engravings from southern Germany. Soares' Casa do Raio, in Braga, and much
of the monumental staircase of the nearby Bom Jesus do Monte, are typical examples of
this period's ornamentation.
Only when the gold ran out did the baroque fad fade. At the end of the 18th century, ar-
chitects flirted briefly with rococo (best exemplified by Mateus Vicente's Palácio de Que-
luz, begun in 1747, or the palace at Estói) before embracing neoclassicism.
