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GPS 38.704540905713785, -9.162046583414451

The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga is the most important museum of art from the 12th to the 19th centuries in Portugal, hosting the most important public collection of ancient art in the country. Its collections — around 40,000 pieces — include European painting, sculpture, drawing and decorative arts, as well as collections of Asian (India, China, Japan, etc.) and African (Afro-Portuguese ivories) art, representative of the relationships that settled between Europe and the East following the voyages of discovery - which began in the 15th century and of which Portugal was a pioneering nation.

The museum is located in a palace from the end of the 17th century, built by order of D. Francisco de Távora, first count of Alvor. The Palace is known as Palácio de Alvor-Pombal because, in 1759, after the Távoras Process, the building was acquired at auction by Paulo de Carvalho e Mendonça, brother of the Marquis of Pombal who, on the death of the former, became the owner. from the palace. In 1879 the palace was rented, and later acquired, by the Portuguese State to install the National Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology, officially opened on May 11, 1884.

The palace bordered to the west with the Convent of Santo Alberto, the first monastery of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Lisbon, whose patron was Santo Alberto, which is why it was also known as Convent of Albertas. In 1890, upon the death of the last nun, the state took over the Convent of Santo Alberto, handing over its guardianship to the museum in 1891, as the need to increase its physical space was already recognized at the time. After the Convent was demolished, the west building was built in its place, also known as the "annex", inaugurated in 1940 with the exhibition "Portuguese Primitives".

In 2013, the National Museum of Ancient Art was the second most visited state museum (behind the National Coach Museum), receiving 124,697 visitors.

History of the museum and its collections

The origins of the museum go back to 1834 when, after the religious corporations were abolished, paintings and jewelery objects belonging to these extinct institutions were collected (sculptures and decorative art objects, including pieces of furniture and textiles, were not initially targeted by the State, which is why they were not collected by the commissions established in the meantime to carry out the inventory and collection of works of art from extinct convents). The goods thus chosen, whose ownership passed to the State, were handed over to the care of the Academia Nacional de Belas-Artes de Lisboa, installed in the Convent of São Francisco, and its counterpart located in the city of Porto, both founded in 1836. Institutions were responsible for creating and managing Fine Arts Museums and Galleries that should serve for the study and learning of fine arts students, with plans to also open them to the general public.

However, it was only in 1868, on the initiative of D. Francisco de Borja Pedro Maria António de Sousa Holstein, 1st Marquis De Sousa Holstein, vice-inspector of the academy since 1862, that the National Painting Gallery of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts was inaugurated. , on the premises of this same Academy, with 366 paintings (including works selected from among the paintings collected from convents that were extinct 35 years before, paintings acquired at the auction of the estate of Queen D. Carlota Joaquina, as well as paintings acquired on the national art market with funds from the Relatively little is known about this museum, namely that it was housed in 5 rooms - one of which was called Sala D. Fernando II -, which did not have the best conditions for the purposes for which they had been intended. , although there was a concern to record the temperatures of the 5 rooms over the years 1869 to 1872, as well as the humidity levels in the aforementioned room of Dom Fernando.

It took 10 years for the situation to change, and for this change it was essential that, in 1881, in London, at the South Kensington Museum (the current Victoria & Albert Museum), an international exhibition was held called "Retrospective exhibition of Portuguese and Spanish ornamental art", which was later replicated in Lisbon in 1882, at the Alvor-Pombal Palace, which in 1879 had been rented by the state with the aim of installing the gallery that was set up in precarious conditions in the Convent of São Francisco. The success of this temporary exhibition, inaugurated on January 12, 1882, spurred the inauguration, on May 11, 1884, of the National Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology.

It should be noted that an inscription located on the noble staircase of the Alvor-Pombal Palace, which reads "Museu Nacional de Bellas Artes e Archeologia, inaugurated by H. M. El-King Luís I of Portugal, on June 12, 1884, being Minister of the Kingdom, the Councilor of State Augusto César Barjona de Freitas and Inspector of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, the Count of Almedida", led to the erroneous assumption that the museum was inaugurated on June 12, 1884. The correct date is, in fact, May 11, 1884, as can be seen in articles published in the press at the time. Thus, among others, the Diário de Notícias, from Lisbon, in an article published on May 11, 1884, informs that the inauguration of the museum will take place on that day and the following day's edition confirms the event. The Diário Ilustrado, Lisbon, of May 12, 1884 also mentions the opening of the museum the day before (that is, May 11).

Depending directly on the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Lisbon, the direction of the museum was the responsibility of the director of that academy, who in 1884 fell to the painter and architect António Thomás da Fonseca (b. 1822 - d. 1894). He was succeeded, in 1894, by António José Nunes Jr. (d. 1905), also a painter and professor at the academy.

On November 14, 1901, through a decree signed by Hintze Ribeiro confirmed on December 18, 1902, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts was reorganized, giving rise to three interdependent institutions: the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Lisbon proper, the Lisbon School of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Fine Arts. According to the decree, the Museum would be divided into two sections, one for fine arts and the other for decorative arts, in which ancient works of art and "modern, national or foreign, works of recognized value" would be exhibited. . The museum would be open to the public on Sundays and Thursdays, between 11 am and 4 pm. Entry was provided by purchasing a ticket. On the remaining days of the week, visitors were allowed to enter the museum, provided they requested authorization from the director of the same, as the museum would be closed to the general public so that students of the school of fine arts could study and copy the works of art there. exposed.

In 1905, the direction of the School and the Museum of Fine Arts became vacant. For the election of the new director, the plenary of the Academy was chaired by the Inspector, the Viscount of Atouguia. In this election, Simões de Almeida Jr. (b.1844- m. 1926), professor of sculpture, won with 11 votes. In second place, with 2 votes, was the painter Carlos Reis (1863-1940). However, an official letter from the Minister of the Kingdom divided the management of the School and the Museum, leaving Simões de Almeida Jr. as director of the former and Carlos Reis as director of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Thus, at the time of the establishment of the Republic, in 1910, the painter Carlos Reis was director of the museum. It is precisely because of the intervention of the new republican power that the museum is reformed. For a long time, it was considered that the Alvor-Pombal Palace did not have the necessary space and conditions for the national museum of fine arts, and a request was made for a building built from scratch, with the necessary conditions to exhibit and conserve the museum's collections. However, and given the lack of funds and the priorities of the moment, the solution found by the republicans was a division of the institution's collection, with works of art after 1850 becoming the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which was thus created by law decree of 26 May 1911. The same decree established the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga which, remaining in the Alvor-Pombal Palace, had in its custody the remaining collection, covering a chronology from the 12th century to the first half of the 19th century. XIX century. José de Figueiredo was nominated for its director, who initiated a series of reforms in the Museum's permanent exhibition, in accordance with modern museological principles.

Currently, the museum is also known as Museu das Janelas Verdes, as it is located on the street with this name, a designation that José de Figueiredo tried to publicize, to the detriment of the official designation. In 1940, after a long process, the new museum building was inaugurated, connected to the Alvor-Pombal palace by a walkway. The new building was built in the place where the Convento das Albertas used to be located - decommissioned in 1892 and which remains, integrated in the museum's exhibition route, the 17th-century chapel covered in gilded carving, painting and tiles. This new building has been known as the "annex", although it has since housed the main entrance to the museum, as well as most of the exhibition rooms.

Between 1942 and 1947, the Palace building underwent extensive works, including the construction of the east wing, which restored the palace's symmetry and allowed for an increase in the number of permanent exhibition rooms of non-Portuguese European art, as well as the creation of the library the museum and a conference room.

In 1983, the museum was part of the XVII European Exhibition of Art, Science and Culture, after renovation works that included the construction of an intermediate floor in the aforementioned annex building. For the Lisbon 1994 event, European Capital of Culture, new works were carried out, including the rearrangement of the permanent and temporary exhibition rooms at the Alvor Palace.

The museum's collections

The Museum contains the largest collection of Portuguese painting, and from other European schools, with great emphasis on works dealing with religious subjects, which is due to the fact that the religious class was the main consumer of art in Portugal until the 19th century, whose monasteries and convents provided the museum's initial funds, during the de-amortization (suppression of religious orders) in 1834. This religious presence was further increased during the law of separation of the state and the church, in 1911, with a new wave of expropriations of works by art that were still in the possession of the church, either in the Episcopal Palace or in the temples themselves. It also has many pieces of sculpture, jewellery, including among other pieces the Custody of Belém and the Custody of Bemposta, ceramics and other applied arts, allowing to obtain a global vision of what were the manifestations of Portuguese art, and of other European schools, from the Middle Ages to the first half of the 19th century. The collection is also completed with a core of oriental and African pieces of European influence, mostly in response to western orders and destined for these foreign markets. In these pieces, the theme of the discoveries is always present, illustrating the links and established relationships between Portugal and Brazil, Africa, India, China and Japan.

The collection comprises around 2200 national and European paintings; 3200 pieces of Portuguese, French and other European jewelery and jewelery, from the 12th to the 19th century. As far as furniture is concerned, consisting of 1,700 pieces, it is possible to find Portuguese, European and Oriental pieces. The ceramics collection includes 7,500 earthenware and porcelain pieces made in Portugal, Europe and the East. Textiles are also numerous, with 4,500 pieces that, due to their material characteristics, are displayed in rotation.

European art

Paintings by European artists (excluding the Portuguese painting exhibited separately on the 3rd floor), from the 14th to the 19th centuries, are arranged chronologically on the first floor of the Alvor Palace. In addition to pieces from convents, monasteries and episcopal palaces, there are several others from the royal collections (in particular from Palácio da Ajuda and Palácio das Necessidades), others from acquisitions, as well as a large number of pieces bequeathed or donated by collectors. private. The first rooms, dedicated to the 14th and 15th centuries, mark the transition between medieval Gothic taste and Renaissance aesthetics. The best represented painters are the Germans and Flemings of the 16th century. The most notable works are Saint Jerome by Albrecht Dürer, Salomé by Lucas Cranach, the Elder, the Virgin and Child by Hans Memling, and The Temptations of Saint Anthony by the great Flemish master Hieronymus Bosch. Among the small number of works from Italy are Saint Augustine by the Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca, a graceful Miracle of Saint Eusebius, panel from the predella of the Mond Altarpiece by Raphael, as well as paintings by Jacopo da Pontormo, Jacopo Ligozzi, Bartolomé Carducho , Alessandro Allori, Jacopo Bassano, Antiveduto Gramática, Luca Giordano, Valerio Castelo, Francesco Solimena, Alessandro Magnasco, Donato Creti and three paintings by Gianbattista Tiepolo. In the European art galleries, some Portuguese painters were represented, such as Josefa de Óbidos and Gregório Lopes, between 1994 and 2009.

Portuguese Painting and Sculpture

Many of the oldest works of art are by Portuguese painters influenced by the realist minutiae of 16th-century Flemish painters. There were always strong commercial ties between Portugal and Flanders, and in the 16th century there were several painters of Flemish origin, such as Frei Carlos and Francisco Henriques, who settled in Portugal (another possible Flemish master was the so-called master of Lourinhã, however is a mere assumption that still lacks documentary confirmation). However, the place of honor belongs to the polyptych of São Vicente de Fora, the most important Portuguese painting of the 15th century, which became a symbol of national pride in the golden age of the Avis dynasty and the beginning of the discoveries. Generally believed to be by Nuno Gonçalves and painted around 1467 - 1470, the work depicts the Adoration of Saint Vincent, patron saint of Portugal, surrounded by dignitaries, knights, monks, fishermen and beggars. The accurate representation of contemporary figures makes it a valuable historical and social document.

Later works include a portrait of the young King Sebastião by Cristóvão de Morais and paintings by the neoclassical artist Domingos António de Sequeira.

The sculpture collection includes many images of Christ, the Virgin and Saints, in stone and wood, polychrome and also images from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Portuguese and Chinese ceramics

The extensive collection of ceramics allows you to follow the evolution of Chinese porcelain and Portuguese faience, as well as see the influence of oriental designs on Portuguese pieces and vice versa. From the 16th century onwards, Portuguese ceramics reveal a marked Ming influence, while Chinese pieces bear Portuguese motifs, such as coats of arms. In the 18th century, potters developed an increasingly personalized European style, with rustic and popular designs. The collection includes pieces from Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.

Oriental and african art

The collection of ivories and furniture with European motifs illustrates the reciprocal influences between Portugal and its colonies. In the 16th century, a predilection for the exotic gave rise to a great demand for items such as carved ivory horns from Africa. The fascinating Nanban screens show the Portuguese trading in Japan. The Japanese called them Nanban-jin (南蛮人), or Southern barbarians.

Gold, Silver and Jewelry

Among the fine collection of ecclesiastical treasures is the golden cross of King Sancho I and the monstrance of Santa Maria de Belém. crown of Christ. Of note in the collection of foreign pieces is a sumptuous 18th-century silver tableware commissioned by King José I. After the destruction, during the earthquake that struck Lisbon on 1 November 1755, of the royal household silverware that had been produced by the Parisian workshop of Thomas Germain, D. José I, he ordered, from the same workshop, at the time run by François-Thomas Germain, son and successor of Thomas Germain, a set of silver tableware, totaling over 1200 pieces, of which a representative selection can be found in the National Museum of Ancient Art. Included are 6 of the 8 terrines (4 oval and 4 round, the latter also called pebbles), saucers, salt shakers with representations of Indians, and covered plates (rare and highly original pieces) among many other pieces, all intricately decorated. The rich collection of jewels came from the convents to which they were offered when members of the nobility and the wealthy bourgeoisie joined religious orders.

Applied arts

Among the many objects on display are carpets, furniture, textiles, liturgical vestments and bishops' mitres. The furniture collection includes many examples, as well as baroque and neoclassical objects from the reigns of D. João V, D. José] and D. Maria I.

The textile section shows 17th-century bed coverings, tapestries, many of them Flemish, such as the 16th-century Baptism of Christ, embroidered and Arraiolos rugs

Some works

Full list of Geochaching below: