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Palace of Queluz: in front of the chamber of HIH the Duke of Bragança
Manoel Luiz da Costa1844
National Palace of Queluz
Queluz, Portugal
Details
- Title: Palace of Queluz: in front of the chamber of HIH the Duke of Bragança
- Long Description: This lithograph by the printer Manuel Luís da Costa reproduces one of the most emblematic façades of the Palace of Queluz: the southern side of the Don Quixote Room. Located in the wing housing the private chambers, designed by the French architect Jean Baptiste Robillion, the construction and decoration is generally attributed to the period between 1758 and 1775. This room is located on the upper floor of the Robillion Pavillion, with its finishings featuring a semicircular pediment and balustrades displaying allegorical sculptures of the seasons of the year, panoplies and an infantile scene dedicated to Bacchus. The lower floor contains a Doric colonnade that extends as far as the Lions Staircase. The Don Quixote Room was inhabited successively by all of the monarchs who took up residence in the Palace. During the time of Pedro III, this was the place for the “mesa do decer” or the dessert tables (“Sala Redonda”, “Sala do Decer”), adorned with magnificent miniature architectural pieces including gardens, pavilions and porcelain and silver figures. Later, the chamber would bear witness to the birth of the majority of the children born to João VI and Carlota Joaquina de Bourbon, including Pedro who would go onto become the first emperor of Brazil and constitutional king of Portugal. In fact, he was both born and died in this same room with its Rococo aesthetic. The engraving in this exhibition was produced by the "Lithographia de Manoel Luiz da Costa", a workshop located on Rua Nova dos Mártires, nos. 12 and 14. This printer, active between around 1835 and 1850, attained considerable prestige due to the high quality of his workshop's output and supplying various of the publications coming out in this period. Artists such as Charles Legrand, António Manuel da Fonseca, António Correia Barreto, João Pedro Monteiro, Maurício José do Carmo Sendim, Alexandre de Michellis and Tomás da Anunciação, among others, worked with Manoel Luiz da Costa and reflect the quality of the designers, designers-inventors and/or lithographers. Off his printer came highly interesting engravings of façades and interiors of the Portuguese buildings deemed emblematic of that period and alongside landscapes (architecture and landscapes) based on photographs (daguerreotypes). The engraving of the National Palace of Queluz displays an attention to the minutest of details, achieved based on the finest of lines whether parallel, interwoven or wavy and able to convey the illusion of perspective and light-darkness. However, there is no information about the actual producer of this lithography published in 1844 in the weekly "Universo pittoresco: jornal de instrução e recreio" and against the backdrop of commemorations as to Pedro's death on the tenth anniversary of his passing away. "Universo Pittoresco", founded in 1839, and in 1856 relaunched as "O Archivo Pittoresco: semanário illustrado", was one of the illustrated publications that contributed to the development of artistic engraving in Portugal and spanning a broad number of images of architectural monuments, landscapes, portraits and fashions along with religious and battle themes, attaining a high quality of design and relevant iconographic value.
- Creator: Manoel Luiz da Costa
- Date: 1844
- Location: Lisbon, Portugal
- Rights Information: F.M.
- Image Rights: © PSML | Foto: Paulo Cintra & Laura Castro Caldas, 2014
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