Paper short abstract:

This paper focus on the continuous interest over classical sculpture and the way it affected the landscape of public and royal collections in Portugal between the XV and the end of the XIX century.

Paper long abstract:

Without having a consistent tradition of acquiring classical sculpture and its reproductions, Portugal has known several case study's within the mainstream of international purchases. The cast collecting brought by D. Miguel da Silva in 1525 is unquestionably one of the earliest cases but other works purchased from Genoa throughout the XVII century witness that Portugal was keeping up with an international trend for adorning noble houses with busts of eminent Greek and Roman characters.

Following this example it comes with no surprise that one of the largest collections of lead casts made by John Cheere was settled in the Royal Palace of Queluz making clear that this taste for the antique would sooner or later come up in full size copies produced by local artists. The Italian sculptor Alessandro Giusti has the credit for introducing this new awareness by making a stone replica of the celebrated Flora Farnese and thus setting an example for Machado de Castro's later intervention on the summer houses of Caxias and Belem. Indeed recent evidences show that plans were made to getter in Belem not only this set of stone sculptures made by both artist but also other Italian sculptures that lay today in the garden of the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon.

This paper focus on the continuous interest over classical sculpture and the way it affected the landscape of public and royal collections in Portugal between the XV and the end of the XIX century.