A Homeland divided in Squares: Joaquim de Vasconcelos (1849-1936) Identity Panels

Abstract

Considered the founder of Art History in Portugal with a rigorous method, Joaquim de Vasconcelos was also a Musicologist, Museologist, Teacher and Professor, Art Critic and a “champion” of visual transmission “systems” like Photography and Drawing. His capacity for critical analysis, his anarchic enthusiasm for various areas of knowledge, providing ways of thinking and acting when almost everything was still undone, impose him as an anti-mythical and unique character who created his own legend, a myth and a romantic hero, a master of himself far beyond from Gottfried Semper (1803-1879) or Giambattista Cavalcaselle (1819-1897) just to point out two of the masters that he admired. Homeland squares are not only a way of referring how tiles are a very important part of the Portuguese identity puzzle, but also a way of alluding to the geometry of parallels and meridians that Joaquim de Vasconcelos drew when trying to identify the Art in Portugal.