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- Convenor:
-
Pilar Diez del Corral
(Technische Universität Berlin)
Send message to Convenor
- Location:
- Sala 1.06, Edifício I&D, Piso 1
- Start time:
- 16 July, 2015 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
Joao V (1689-1750) is believed to be the Portuguese Sun King. He not only put Portugal into the European politics raising its prestige to unknown levels but he also developed an ambitious artistic policy supported by huge spending in art, music and luxury items.
Long Abstract:
Considering Joao V's transcendence, it is surprising the relatively lack of interest showed by non-Portuguese historians regarding his role in the European cultural context. This panel will deal with the King's artistic policy with especial attention to Rome. Rome was the dreamed city of the "gentiluomini" and artists who used to travel to Italy to improve their education and their training. Joao V wanted to spend some time enjoying his own Grand Tour but his political responsibilities didn't allowed him to take that journey. This "viaggio mancato" was without doubt some kind of frustration and part of his artistic policy can be better understood if we keep that in mind.
The king went through great cultural investments to display his wealth and power and to achieve a stronger position in Europe, but also because he obviously has a very particular taste. He supported lavish ambassadors entrées, made substantial donations to the Pope and became (in absentia) one of the most generous patrons in Rome. He commissioned hundreds of masterpieces, namely the magnificent sculptures for his Royal palace in Mafra or the sumptuous San Rocco's chapel (Lisbon), and he and his courtiers became some of the most influential collectors in the awakening of the Grand Tour. We encourage papers dealing with (but not only):
- Cultural milieu and artistic trade in the Embassies.
- The print collection and the Mariettes.
- Art market in Rome.
- Collectors and diplomats as trade agents for the king.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
Joao V asked C. Fontana to create the apparatus for the funeral of Pedro II, to be celebrated in Rome in 1707. The work will be published and it was re-elaborated by many architects, such as F. Juvarra, B. Vittone, J. B. F. von Erlach e N. Tessin.
Paper long abstract:
In 1707, Joao V of Portugal asked Carlo Fontana to create the decoration for the funeral of Pedro II, to be celebrated in the church of S. Antonio dei Portoghesi in Rome.
Besides the apparatus that upholster the entire hall, Fontana creates the catafalque: the ephemeral structure measures a diameter of about 10m, while the canopy is suspended above 12 m high and reaches about 18m inside the dome.
The catafalque had great resonance and became the object of a print publication that will help to spread it: Funerale celebrato nella chiesa di Santo Antonio della nazione portoghese in Roma per la morte del re di Portogallo Pietro II, anno 1707.
The structure will be adopted in many European courts and re-elaborated within the Lusitanian and Roman worlds; it constituted a reference in the peculiar case of the catafalque of Joao V, designed by Emmanuel Rodriguez dos Santos in 1751 for the Portuguese church in Rome.
Numerous drawings of the catafalque are preserved: these allow us to understand the genesis of the project, the changes and the final definition, as well as the methods chosen for the dissemination of the work in the published text.
The several drawings show different planimetric and constructive solutions, detailed descriptions of the final structure as well as relations among sculptural elements and decorative. The drawings are full of information: the size of the structural parts, the mutual proportions of these, the positioning inside the hall, the dimensional relationships with the church, the materials and the installation methods.
Influences and relationships emerge in the funeral apparatus designed by subsequent major figures of the architectural scene; among these, the elaborations of Filippo Juvarra, Bernardo Vittone, Luigi Vanvitelli or Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and Nicodemus Tessin.
Paper short abstract:
Researching in the history of architecture of João V’s rein highlight the strict connection with Rome.
Paper long abstract:
Perhaps inspired by the influence of the Ancien Régime, João V too put down to architecture the key role of symbolising power. By locating and assessing the architectural designing of Juvarra in Lisbon, it can somehow be unravelled a deep relationship, a more profound consideration of Juvarra's work may in fact link him to the majestic elegance of Roman Imperial Architecture, and would not just relate him to the more immediate association with the Rome of the Popes. The aim of João V was to be considered an emperor and Juvarra's architecture reveals it.
Paper short abstract:
In this paper, I examine two Portuguese-sponsored works by Alessandro Scarlatti. I argue that the juxtaposed imagery of light and dark in both works served to articulate an allegory of Portuguese-Roman political relationships based on Portugal's João V's self-fashioning as a "Sun King."
Paper long abstract:
Alessandro Scarlatti's pastorale La virtù negli'amori was premiered on November 16, 1721, in a sumptuous performance at the Teatro Capranica in Rome. Under the careful oversight of the work's sponsor, Portuguese Ambassador André de Melo e Castro, the performance drew together the music of the well-known Arcadian composer with a libretto by Gaetano Lemer and extravagant stage sets by Francesco Galli-Bibiena to depict the dual marriages of Lauso and Lisa, mythological ancestors of the people of Lusitania, and Agave and Toante, the supposed progenitors of the Portuguese Bragança dynasty. Framing this central drama, the characters "Notte" and "Sole" guided the work to a grand climax: an apotheosis of Portuguese King João V of Bragança, and newly-elected pope Innocent XIII in Apollo's chariot of the sun.
In this paper, I analyze the implied political objectives of La virtu negli'amori, as well as Scarlatti's serenata La ninfa del Tago, which was performed in both Lisbon and Rome in the 1720s. Drawing on the work art historian Susan M. Dixon, I focus especially on examining the symbols of light/dark utilized in the allegorical representation of the Portuguese king and court, who actively fashioned himself a "Sun King" in the manner of France's Louis XIV in this period. In so doing, I posit that such imagery in Portuguese-sponsored musical spectacle worked simultaneously with the visual arts to articulate a Portuguese "self-mythology"—a growing myth of Portugal's cultural relevance, wealth, and power in early eighteenth-century Portuguese-Roman politics
Paper short abstract:
The main objective of this paper is to give to public knowledge the allure for Rome through the analysis of King John V’s Library in Mafra’s Royal Convent and Palace, where the presence of books about the city, history, geography, art of Rome contributed to the circulation of Italian taste.
Paper long abstract:
The Royal Convent and Palace of Mafra was built in the eighteenth century by order of King John V (1689-1750). The building covers almost four hectares, and includes a Convent, Church, Palace, gardens and a Game Reserve. Mafra's complex was enriched with fine pieces of art commissioned to the most important Portuguese, French and Italian masters. In fact, the major artistic influence came from Italy, especially from Rome, due to the presence of Roman artists in Mafra.
The allure of Rome is also visible in Mafra's Library 36.000 book's collection. During John V kingdom, Royal Libraries were incremented with important foreign press books and manuscripts that King John V commissioned to its ambassadors in London, Paris and Roma. From this Italian city were sent to the Portuguese court, besides the artistic objects, a diversity of history, religious, civil, law, geography and artistic books. The Mafra's Royal Convent and Palace Library was one of that Royals Libraries that was enriched by King John V patronage. After analyzing the library's collection, we found books about Rome that were bought and pressed or not in that city, and that demonstrated the interest by the roman history, society, culture and art. The aim of this paper is to give to public knowledge the allure for Rome through the study of Mafra's books collection emphasing in particular the presence of art and architectural treatises that contributed to the circulation of artistic knowledge.
Paper short abstract:
This paper takes a closer look at the conserved preparing models for the marble sculptures in the real Basilica of Mafra, analyses the artists fingerprints, compares them and finds out what they can still tell us about the artists and the John V vision for one of the world’s biggest sculpture projects.
Paper long abstract:
The complex of the royal palace in Mafra, built by the Portuguese king Dom João V, and its basilica with the gigantic series of marble statues by the most famous Italian sculptors of his time is well known to art historians. As a real museum of seventeenth century Italian sculpture, the marbles were often analysed and mentioned in several studies on this subject.
Now it's time to take a closer look on the Terracotta-Bozzetti existing in the museum of the Palácio Nacional de Mafra to find new answers to old question. Nothing is closer to the hand of an artist than his preparing drawings and models, which were always the masters business. Of a total number of 58 statues, 27 Bozzetti are conserved - 17 of the shown saints are signed and often dated in the marble version, 10 are not.
While the marble is carved perfectly, the clay gives us a deeper understanding of the working praxis and shows us the fingerprints of the sculptor himself. The Bozzetti are telling more than just helping us with the attribution. The Bozzetti were produced and send to Mafra for being proved and given the kings blessing. Changings within the form or the iconography were ordered by Dom João V himself.
In this talk I would take a closer look at the conserved preparing models, analyse the artists fingerprints which they left in the clay, compare them and find out what they can still tell us about the artists and the kings vision for one of the world's biggest sculpture projects.
Paper short abstract:
Manuel Pereira de Sampaio (1691-1750) was the last ambassador of John V in Rome. The approach made in this paper to this very interesting figure will present him not only as a diplomat – and a particularly able agent in buying works of art for his King – but also as a collector himself.
Paper long abstract:
Manuel Pereira de Sampaio (1691-1750) was the last and also the most roman of the ambassadors of Portugal in Rome during the reign of John V. The approach made in this paper to this very interesting personality will present him not only as a diplomat - and a particularly able agent in commissioning and buying works of art for his King - but also as a collector himself.
During the decade Sampaio performed the role of ambassador (1740-1750), commissioned in Rome a large number of important works of art: paintings, sculptures, silver and even an entire chapel (the chapel of St. John the Baptist of the church of S. Roque in Lisbon). Among his commissions, made in the name of the king of Portugal, we shall focus in a very particular one: the replicas, in their real size, of 3 of the altars of the basilica of St. Peter in Vatican. In fact, John V emulation of Rome went to the point of copying the religious ceremonial in great detail, so in Lisbon the Patriarch should celebrate the mass exactly as the Pope himself did it. These altar replicas were the perfect scenario to rehearsal or even stage such performances.
But Sampaio was also an art collector and we can learn about his artistic interests as collector through his will and the legacies he established in that document, that I shall discuss
Paper short abstract:
This essay will focus on drawing techniques and style in early Settecento Rome. Departing from the study of three sketchbooks by João Glama Ströberle, it will allow space for discussion on draughmanship and on the role of drawing in the production of Marco Benefial, Agostino Masucci and Pompeo Batoni.
Paper long abstract:
This essay will focus on drawing techniques and drawing style in early Settecento Rome. Three sketchbooks by João Glama Ströberle (1708-1792) preserved in the Special Collections of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles (acq. num. 2009.M.41, 2009.M.42, 2009.M.43) demonstrate that Portuguese and Spanish painters trained in Rome in three major categories of painting, all based and tuned on appropiate drawing techniques: landscapes, portraiture, and mythological painting.
Analizing the way Stroberle alterned different medias for different themes, I will draw some conclusions on his Roman training in major workshops, in particular in the studios of his teachers Marco Benefial (1684-1764), with whom he trained for seven years, and Agostino Masucci (1691-1768) who ended up being the most coveted italian painter in Portugal at the time of King João V (1689-1750).
The essay overall aims to prove that apart from being a primary resource for the study and the measuring of classical antiquity, the residency in Rome was really considered by the Iberian masters as the occasion learn how to draw: and thus overcome the more traditional training based on the study and copying from foreign prints. The essay also aims to offer a space to discuss the importance of drawing and drawing style in the academic and social milieu of early Settecento Rome.