Portuguese art
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[5] or in Monsaraz (the Allegory of the Good and Bad Judge) and in the Ermida de Santo André in Beja,[6] also attributed to the "Master of Monsaraz-Beja".
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.
His works show a growing predilection for agitated groups of figures, vivid and acid colouring, formal distortions reminiscent of Mannerism, and a technique characterised by broad, free and almost expressionist brushstrokes.
Campos also painted Portugal's only known 16th-century profane mural at the Paço de São Miguel [fr] (Évora) in 1578, with allegorical frescoes celebrating mythology, nature, and historical events like the conquest of Tunis in 1535.
In times of economic hardship, sculpture and altarpiece painting declined while Portuguese art shifted from Spanish (and thus international) influences to national forms inspired by Romanesque and Manueline styles.
This era, known as the Joanine Baroque, was fueled by the influx of gold from the Brazilian colony, ushering in a phase of unprecedented splendor under the long reign of King João V. A passionate lover and discerning connoisseur of the arts, he was not only capable of offering critical insights but also served as a devout patron of the Church and an autocrat with ambitions to rival France's Louis XIV.
This striking and novel style was introduced in Lisbon by Italian Vicenzo Baccarelli and further developed by Nicolau Nasoni, a Florentine architect and painter, as well as Manuel Xavier Caetano Fortuna, António Lobo, and Lourenço da Cunha [pt] in other parts of Portugal.
King Joseph I, with the decisive leadership of the Marquis of Pombal, spearheaded an ambitious reconstruction effort which was entrusted to the architects and military engineers Manuel da Maia, Carlos Mardel, and Eugénio dos Santos.
It was a time of aristocratic literary salons where a society of gallant, hedonistic and sophisticated habits coexisted, formed by the nobility and an enriched bourgeoisie, where women took on a prominent role and religion lost its ideological power.
The end of the 18th century saw Rococo, finally triumphant, rapidly move towards greater simplification and the purging of its decorative excesses in the direction of Neoclassicism, due to the great interest in the art and culture of Antiquity that was rife throughout Europe at this time.
Portuguese artists were deeply influenced by the powerful ideas that were reshaping Europe and the Americas, but as the 19th century dawned, Portugal faced a period of profound instability marked by a series of tumultuous events.
It also fuelled nationalist movements across various nations, fostering a renewed appreciation for the Middle Ages, which had previously been dismissed with disdain, and reconstructing ancestral histories often obscured or forgotten in recorded narratives.
Together, they contributed to shaping a unified vision of art and culture, elevating the artist to a new role as both a prophet of a more socially just era and an educator of the public, guiding society toward a purer, truer, and more universally beneficial morality.
However, broadly speaking, Neoclassical works tend to be marked by clear organization and balance, a preference for line over colour, and a focus on themes from the Greco-Roman tradition, conveyed with an impersonal and restrained tone.
[23] Neoclassicism played a key role in shaping academic art inspired by classical antiquity and laid the groundwork for exploring the nude as a subject, previously marginalized due to Catholic moral opposition.
Appointed court painter in 1802 he worked at the Palace of Ajuda, and was exposed to the political upheavals of the time - he was, successively, a supporter of the French invading army (Junot Protecting the City of Lisbon, 1808), of the English alliance (Wellington's Apotheosis, 1811), of the Liberal revolution (Portraits of 33 deputies, 1821) and of the Constitutional Charter (D. Pedro IV and Maria II, 1825).
He went into exile in France after the Vilafrancada and exhibited a now lost A Morte de Camões at the Salon du Louvre, a work that earned him a gold medal and a place among the most representative Romantic painters, alongside Eugène Delacroix.
The Academy [pt] of Fine Arts was founded in 1836, and soon intellectuals interested in romanticism such as Almeida Garrett and Alexandre Herculano introduced a taste for ancient history and its material evidence, sparking a national debate.
Artists of this period sought to glorify national heroes, idealize the common populace through poetic and sentimental portrayals, and depict local landscapes imbued with nostalgic and bucolic qualities.
He was particularly inspired by Peter Paul Rubens, began experimenting with new techniques and he later travelled to London, married Caroline Wilson, and had a daughter, Clara de Resende [pt], born in Paris in 1855, who also became a painter.
Correia was also a teacher of several notable artists, including António Soares dos Reis, João Marques de Oliveira, Silva Porto, Henrique Pousão, and Artur Loureiro.
[36] Guerra Junqueiro vividly encapsulated this sentiment in his poetry reflecting on the faded grandeur of the past, now reduced to ruins cloaked in ivy, symbolizing loss, desolation, and the haunting remnants of suffering and destruction.
[39] At the time, the Portuguese public had conservative tastes because of their limited access to avant-garde ideas due to Portugal's peripheral position, insufficient institutional support for artistic renewal, and a turbulent political climate following the rise to power of the Republican movement after the success of the 5 October 1910 Revolution.
The presence of Robert Delaunay in Spain and Portugal (1914-1920), the influence of writers such as Fernando Pessoa and Mário de Sá-Carneiro, and the bolder approaches of caricaturists also helped pave the way for more daring artistic solutions.
Profoundly influenced by French artists like Robert and Sonia Delaunay, he explored a variety of modern styles, including Cubism and Purism; Orphism and Dada, with a recurring emphasis on Abstraction.
This quest for identity defined Portuguese Modernism, with figures like Almada Negreiros embracing the experience, highlighting the dynamic between national pride and international influence : "In Paris, I sought out the avant-garde artists.
The cultural policy of the Estado Novo, inaugurated in 1933 with the creation of the Secretariado de Propaganda Nacional [pt] and led by António Ferro, marked the end of the naturalist cycle and a definitive victory for Modernism, but now within a powerful nationalist affirmation, strongly influenced by Expressionism.
This nationalist and populist context provided the backdrop for taking advantage of some of the plastic achievements of early Modernism to develop a new, socially oriented figuration—the so-called Portuguese Neorealist movement—which sought to re-establish a direct dialogue with the public after the abstract and somewhat hermetic radicalizations of the Modernists.
Critiquing the Sixth General Exhibition [fr] of Plastic Arts in 1951, Lima de Freitas urged young artists to sustain their enthusiasm for social issues and avoid allowing sentimentality, formalism, or exaggerated lyricism to obscure the "brutal and impetuous reality of things and men."
His representation of mythology is unconventional, depicting Greek and Roman gods, Catholic saints, fauns, and other creatures in unexpected poses, often in private moments with clear contemporary influences.
