Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Fine Arts
As Gothic art gave way to more humanistic Renaissance works, Portugal's 15th-century
painters developed their own style. Led by the master Nuno Gonçalves, the
escola nacional
(national school) took religious subjects and grounded them against contemporary back-
grounds. In Gonçalves' most famous painting, the panels of Santo Antonio, he includes a
full milieu of Portuguese society - noblemen, Jews, fishermen, sailors, knights, priests,
monks and beggars.
Some of Portugal's finest early paintings emerged from the 16th- century Manueline
school. These artists, influenced by Flemish painters, developed a painting style known for
its incredible delicacy, realism and luminous colours. The most celebrated painter of his
time was Vasco Fernandes, known as Grão Vasco (1480-1543). His richly hued paintings
(still striking five centuries later) hang in a museum in Viseu dedicated to his work - as
well as that of his Manueline school colleague Gaspar Vaz. Meanwhile sculptors including
Diogo de Boitaca went wild with Portuguese seafaring fantasies and exuberant decoration
on some of Portugal's icons.
The 17th century saw a number of talented Portuguese artists emerge. One of the best
was Josefa de Óbidos, who enjoyed success as a female artist - an extreme rarity in those
days. Josefa's paintings were unique in their personal, sympathetic interpretations of reli-
gious subjects and for their sense of innocence. Although she studied at an Augustine con-
vent as a young girl, she left without taking the vows and settled in Óbidos (where she got
her nickname). Still she maintained close ties to the church, which provided many of her
commissions, and remained famously chaste until her death in 1684. Josefa left one of the
finest legacies of work of any Portuguese painter. She excelled in richly coloured still lifes
and detailed religious works, ignoring established iconography.
In the 19th century, naturalism was the dominant trend, with a handful of innovators
pushing Portuguese art in new directions. Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, who hailed from a
family of artists, was a seminal figure among the Portuguese artists of his time. He played a
prominent role in the Leã d'Ouro, a group of distinguished artists, writers and intellectuals
who gathered in the capital and were deeply involved in the aesthetic trends of the day. A
prolific artist, Pinheiro painted some of the luminaries of his day, including the novelist Eça
de Queirós and Teófilo Braga (a celebrated writer who later became president of the early
republic). One of his best-known works is a haunting portrait of the poet Antero de Quent-
al, who later committed suicide.
