ARTis ON

2025-06-04T09:16:12+00:00

"Uma espineta pintada de verde": Musical instruments, and the contribution of post mortem inventories to the study of lexicon and iconography in Portugal (18th and 19th centuries)

2025-09-21T03:24:35+00:00

Chapter IV of Volume I of my doctoral thesis in Art History (2024) entitled “Images of Music in Baroque Painting in Portugal (1600-1750)” is a glossary of musical terms in use in 17th and 18th century Portugal, based on primary archival sources (Duarte, 2024a: 573-711). And “[u]ma espineta pintada de verde com seis pés do mesmo, avaliada em 19$200 réis”1 [a] spinet painted green with six feet of the same color, valued at 19$200 réis” is part of that collection organized by types of musical instruments, using those sources — especially post-mortem inventories — and from which the present statement originates. With the exception of this chapter, all others continue the survey, study, and dissemination of musical iconography and iconology in Portugal, based on paintings and drawings collected in situ. This resulted in a customized and computerized database with more than six thousand musical motifs, focusing on paintings from Álvaro Pirez d’Évora to Domingos Sequeira, in the logical and natural continuation of the research carried out in recent years. Interpreting the silences of the research, this chapter seeks to dissect and disseminate unpublished sources for the study of musical lexicon, comparing them with contemporary iconography and cultural contexts.

"Ioanna Ignacia Pinxit" - A rare signature of Joana do Salitre in a small painting collection

2025-09-21T03:31:18+00:00

During a conservation and restoration intervention, the signature of Joana do Salitre (1711–c.1781) on an oil painting depicting Saint Augustine, based on an engraving by Michel Dossier, was discovered. It was, on the back of the painting, hidden by a re-lining canvas and this location posed a challenge for the intervention as the work required a new re-lining. As very little is known about the artist, this painting provides an opportunity to present a systematic review of the available knowledge about the painter. Despite having a considerable clientele, her known works are rare and, consequently, this painting is a significant contribution to the establishment of her corpus. The signature on Joana do Salitre’s works, as is the case with most of her known paintings, reveals a clear sense of female authorship at a time when women artists had very limited visibility.

Annotazioni sulla collezione di disegni del pittore genovese Giulio Benso

2025-07-09T08:53:54+00:00

This article explores the significant drawings collection of Giulio Benso (1592-1668), a Genoese painter whose training was influenced by prominent collectors like Giovanni Battista Paggi and Giovan Carlo Doria. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Benso left an exceptionally detailed testamentary inventory from 1660, offering a rare insight into his extensive graphic art collection. Analysis of the inventory, compiled by the artist himself, reveals the breadth and quality of the drawings, specifying medium, support, and subject. The collection included both Benso's own works and pieces by renowned Genoese artists such as Luca Cambiaso and Sinibaldo Scorza, alongside masterpieces by external masters like Perino del Vaga and Annibale Carracci. This unique documentation allows for a thorough reconstruction of the tastes and influences of a 17th-century Genoese artist-collector.

“Large collections of excellent paintings”: Private art galleries in 18th century Lisbon

2025-07-21T02:06:26+00:00

The Portuguese Settecento (18^thcentury) constitutes a unique moment in the history of Portuguese collecting, especially for art galleries art in Lisbon. The art galleries of the Portuguese Royal House, the nobility (lords), and the ennobled bourgeoisie (in the last quarter of the 18^th century) were endowed with paintings by excellent artists, some of whom represent the most emblematic periods in the history of national and European art. The works contained within these art galleries still fetch astronomical prices on the international art markets today. However, many of these collections have disappeared, due to various factors, ranging from natural disasters to the French invasions and the decline and fall of the families that owned them, and leading to the dispersion of a heritage representing a crucial legacy of Portuguese museum culture.

The paintings of the Portuguese embassy in Rome during the first half of the 18th century: Some considerations on a non-collection

2025-07-21T02:28:59+00:00

This contribution aims to provide an initial reflection on the paintings in the interiors of the spaces that the Portuguese embassy in Rome successively occupied during the first half of the 18th century, roughly corresponding to the reign of D. João V. In fact, associated with the palace occupied by the Marquis of Fontes, those inhabited by the Count of Galveias, passing through the residence of the ambassador Fr. José Maria da Fonseca Évora, in the Franciscan convent of S. Maria in Aracoeli, to the sumptuous Palazzo dell’Olmo, where Manuel Pereira de Sampaio lived, a significant number of paintings can be identified which have undergone additions and subtractions over this period of time. The aim of this text is to undertake, based on the analysis of primary sources (three inventories and a list of paintings), an approach to these painting, discussing subjects, technical characteristics and authorship, and also reflecting on the extent to which we are dealing with a collection or with a non-collection, a mere gathering of paintings, intended to liven up the walls of the various palaces.

Domingos da Rosa (1724-1797): "The honor of portraying the royal persons on many occasions"

2025-08-13T09:16:51+00:00

Long overlooked by art historiography, Domingos da Rosa (1724–1797) emerged as the leading portraitist of the royal family during the early years of Queen Maria I’s reign, playing a pivotal role in shaping the monarchy’s official image.

Building on prior scholarship and a critical examination of previously unpublished documentation, this essay seeks to reassess and elevate his artistic legacy. Drawing on a substantial and significant legacy, it explores the nature and purpose of his commissions, as well as the circumstances that led to the dispersal of his oeuvre. The study further examines how these works were later absorbed into public and private collections – most notably those of Museums and Monuments of Portugal and the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa (Fundação da Casa de Bragança). In doing so, it offers an integrated reading of Rosa’s contribution, while also supporting the institutional appreciation and strategic enhancement of these collections.

Documenting art: An 18th century collection through its catalogue descriptions

2025-09-21T03:22:44+00:00

This essay examines the Wilton House collection and its presentation throughout the eighteenth century, focusing on how catalogues functioned as tools for both interpretation and social signaling. The collection, housed at Wilton House—the stately home of the Earl of Pembroke—was documented in a series of catalogues published between 1731 and 1795. Over the course of the century, more than ten editions appeared, some of which were illustrated. These editions provided insight into the artworks, family background, and collecting practices, shaping how visitors experienced the collection and understood its cultural value. In eighteenth-century Britain, such collections were markers of prestige, turning private wealth into public status and influence. Through an analysis of select rooms at Wilton House—using the catalogues as a primary source—this essay addresses broader issues of display, gender, and identity, highlighting the cultural significance of collecting in the British aristocratic tradition.

Polish lone wolf in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: tracing the nineteenth-century transatlantic art trade

2025-11-23T07:41:07+00:00

In the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, there is a modestly sized (36.5 x 48.9 cm) canvas by Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski, a popular nineteenth-century Polish painter active in Munich. It is catalogued under the title In a Polish Village, with the date of its production unknown. The museum’s records state that by 1903 the painting had been a part of the collection of a Boston entrepreneur Eben Dyer Jordan Jr. (1857–1916), and two decades later was gifted to the city’s museum by the owner’s son. In a Polish Village depicts an innocent genre scene from the Polish countryside, framed in a winter setting and is strikingly faithful to the painter’s characteristic style. Alfred Wierusz-Kowalski was born in 1849 in Suwałki, a remote town located at the northernmost tip of the Congress Kingdom of Poland. He initially trained in Warsaw, before relocating to Munich in 1874, where his winter canvases—characteristically filled with Polish countrymen, snow sleighs, and grey wolves—granted him public acclaim and economic success. Wierusz-Kowalski remained a prominent figure in the Bavarian art market until his death in 1915, and today his extensive legacy is spread across public and private art collections in Europe and the USA. The case of In a Polish Village presents an intriguing question: why did a nineteenth-century North American entrepreneur and businessman purchase this inconspicuous painting of a snowy, Eastern European village in the first place? Using this inquiry as a point of departure, my paper examines and presents the intricate features of the nineteenth-century Munich art market, by then already largely globalised and influenced by rapidly developing means of transportation and communication, that guided Wierusz-Kowalski’s canvas across the Atlantic Ocean. As the world seemingly ‘shrank’ throughout the nineteenth century—on more than just a geographical level— I will explore how artistic tastes, and the economic realities of the global art trade interacted and fused with each other, leading up to the turn of the century.

O legado de Luís Fernandes e as artes decorativas no Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

2025-08-13T09:17:59+00:00

Este artigo aborda o legado de Luís Fernandes no Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, em Lisboa. Discute-se a forma como esta coleção de cerâmica foi incorporada no museu e exposta, bem como a sua gradual dispersão ao longo dos anos. Procuramos explorar como esta trajetória reflete as tensões entre a identidade e o valor emocional da coleção e as perspetivas museológicas de José de Figueiredo e seus sucessores. Argumentamos que, apesar da importância histórica e simbólica deste legado, a sua valorização institucional entrou em conflito com os esforços de modernização do museu. Propomos também uma releitura do percurso deste legado, considerando o papel e o lugar institucional das artes decorativas no MNAA.

Artificial and crafts in the João Maria Ferreira collection

2025-08-20T03:55:18+00:00

Private collecting has been a consolidated practice in Portugal since the 20th century and has continued into the 21st. This article examines the formation of the João Maria Ferreira collection, composed of 19th and 20th century ceramics from Caldas da Rainha. It also presents case studies of three other collectors — Alfredo Lucas Cabral, Artur Maldonado Freitas, and António Capucho — with the aim of understanding how these collections began, how they were assembled, what they shared in common, and their role within the Portuguese national context.

A coleção fotográfica de Velo Gomes como memória do passado do teatro de revista: Um caso de estudo

2025-07-09T08:55:50+00:00

Este artigo explora a prática de colecionar fotografias como uma estratégia para a preservação do património
imóvel, enfatizando o valor documental e histórico da imagem fotográfica. Através do estudo da coleção de
Manuel António Velo Gomes é permitido constatar que estas imagens funcionam como testemunhos visuais de realidades desaparecidas ou alteradas. A investigação inscreve-se no campo da museologia e da história da arte, considerando a fotografia como um objeto patrimonial e instrumento de conhecimento. O caso de estudo evidencia a importância de conservar e estudar coleções fotográficas privadas, muitas vezes negligenciadas, como forma de salvaguardar a memória coletiva e o património edificado. Por fim, o artigo defende a integração destas coleções em instituições públicas, promovendo a sua valorização e acessibilidade para investigação, educação e fruição cultural. Metodologicamente faz-se a revisão da bibliografia existente, catalogação e inventariação da coleção e propõe-se a sua integração no conjunto museológico.

Editorial: collecting art

2026-03-07T08:39:39+00:00

Issue 16 of ARTis On seeks to focus more specifically on the act of collecting art, explored through multiple perspectives, geographies, and chronologies. This remains a topic of considerable contemporary relevance. However, the scarcity and dispersal of archival and documentary sources pose significant challenges to its study.

From collectors and collections to their legacies, market agents, and the sources that enable the study of provenance and trajectories, the theme of art collecting emerges as both fertile and essential for understanding private and public holdings. Collections constitute invaluable repositories, allowing reflection not only on the tastes, motivations, and interests of those who assembled them, but also on the historical contexts in which they were formed and on the moments when their subsequent destinies were determined.