Name of Object:

Grande Panorama de Lisboa / Panoramic View of Lisbon

Location:

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Holding Museum:

National Tile Museum

 About National Tile Museum, Lisbon

Date of Object:

c. 1700

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

Attributed to Gabriel del Barco  (1649, Siguenza, Spain-1703 (?), Lisbon)

Museum Inventory Number:

1

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Blue and white glazed earthenware

Dimensions:

H: 115 cm; w: 2247 cm

Workshop / Movement:

Lisbon

Provenance:

Palace of the Counts of Tentúgal, Lisbon

Type of object:

Tile panel (azulejos)

Period of activity:

1669, arrival in Portugal, 1703

Place of production:

Lisbon

Description:

A tile panel (azulejos) painted blue on white that records Lisbon before the earthquake of 1755. A vast panoramic view of the capital and its outskirts, the panorama extends along the riverbanks from the Palace of the Counts of Miranda at the westernmost point to the Convent of St. Saint Francis in Xabregas, at the easternmost point.
The focus is on the centre of political and economic power which included the city developments around the Royal Palace of Ribeira. This is immediately followed by the Palha Sea, flanked on the left by the Church of St. Gens and on the right by the Convent of St. Vincent de Fora. On the riverfront are the Terreiro do Paço and the Ribeira Velha Market. Nearby are the shipyard of Ribeira das Naus, the Royal Palace and St. Paul's Church.
On the hills above are the convents of St. Francis of the City and Our Lady of Monte do Carmo; Loreto, Encarnação and St. Roch churches and the Convent of St. Peter of Alcântara.
Along the foreshore are the palaces belonging to the Dukes of Aveiro, the Marquises of Abrantes, the Counts of Murça and the neighbourhood called Mocambo. The western area is more spacious. The Alcântara, Junqueira, Pocinho and Algés bridges cross the river defended by the forts of Alcântara, St. John of Junqueira, Our Lady of Conception and the imposing Tower of Belém. On a second plan the Sacramento, Livramento, Flamengas, St. Jerome, Our Lady of Bom Sucesso and Catarina-a-Velha convents are prominent as are the chapels of St. Christ and St. Hieronymus.
Near the river are the royal palaces of Calvário, Santo Amaro à Junqueira Quinta, belonging to the Counts of Aveiro; Quinta da Calheta, the Palace of Quinta da Praia belonging to the Dukes of Cadaval, and the Palace of the Counts of Miranda.
The eastern zone depicts the Church of St. Engrácia, the convents of Santos-o-Novo and Madre de Deus and, in a separate panel, the Convent of Saint Francis in Xabregas.

Lisbon is recorded on this tile panel measuring almost 23 metres wide, and produced before the earthquake of 1755. Depicting approximately 14 km of the riverbank, it shows a vast panoramic view of the capital and its outskirts between the Palace of the Counts of Miranda, the westernmost point, and the Convent of Saint Francis in Xabregas, the easternmost point.

How date and origin were established:

This panel is currently attributed by stylistic analysis to Gabriel del Barco, a Spanish tile painter and decorator who arrived to Portugal in 1669 and died probably around 1703.

How Object was obtained:

Purchased by the Marquis de Sousa Holstein (1838–1878) for the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and incorporated into the Fine Arts and Archaeology collection at Alvor Palace in Lisbon, today known as Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga. Displayed there from 1903 until 1960, it was transferred to the Museu do Azulejo at that time the ceramics department of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga.

Selected bibliography:

Vieira, A. Da Silva, "Panorama de Lisboa em azulejos existente no Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga", Dispersos, Vol. 2, Lisbon, 1960.
Simões, J. M. Dos santos, Iconografia Olisiponense em Azulejos, Lisbon, 1961.
Meco, J., "Barco, Gabriel del Barco", Dicionário da Arte Barroca em Portugal, Lisbon, 1991, pp. 66–69.
"Azulejos", Europalia, Brussels, 1991.
The Age of the Baroque in Portugal (ed. J. Levenson), Washington, 1993.
Meco, J., "Azulejos com iconografia de Lisboa", Olisipo, II, No. 1, Lisbon, 1994, pp. 85–113.
Lisboa antes do Terramoto. Grande vista da cidade entre 1700 e 1725, (eds. Gótica and Chandeigne), 2004.

Additional Copyright Information:

Copyright images: Divisão de Documentação Fotográfica/ Instituto dos Museus e da Conservação, I.P.

Citation of this web page:

Ana Anjos Mântua, João Pedro Monteiro "Grande Panorama de Lisboa / Panoramic View of Lisbon" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;pt;Mus12;41;en

Prepared by: Ana Anjos Mântua, João Pedro MonteiroJoão Pedro Monteiro

SURNAME: Monteiro
NAME: João Pedro

AFFILIATION: National Tile Museum, Lisbon

TITLE: Curator, Research and Archive Department

CV:
João Pedro Monteiro is a History graduate with an MA in Art, Heritage and Restoration. He has been curator in the Research and Archive Department at the National Tile Museum since 1988. He has curated various exhibitions on Tiles and Ceramics and written several articles and essays on these themes, published in exhibition catalogues and magazines, both in Portugal and abroad.
Translation by: Lili Cavalheiro, Ana Anjos Mântua
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: PT 44