A study of the artists, patrons, collectors and connoisseurs in eighteenth-century Portugal.

This important contribution to eighteenth-century European studies is the first to explore the relationship between artists, patrons, collectors and connoisseurs in Portugal in the period. The book also discusses artistic theory and the role of the academies. Angela Delaforce describes the splendour and magnificent ceremonial of the court of the Braganca monarch, Dom Joao V, adorned with works of art he commissioned from the leading masters in Italy and France and made possible by the fabulous wealth arriving from colonial Brazil. The royal palace, with its patriarchal church, collection and library, once famed throughout Europe, were lost in the earthquake of 1755, which destroyed the heart of Lisbon and led to the building of the new city in a coherent modern style. The author has gathered together a wealth of previously unpublished archival material discovered in Portugal and Italy to trace the development of these fascinating patterns of international patronage and to bring an entirely new perspective to our understanding of the period.

Abbreviations
List of illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Prologue: the Conquest of India and the Paco da Ribeira
2. The Adornment of the Paco da Ribeira and Dom Joao V's 'Precious Treasury'
3. The Great Library at the Paco da Ribeira
4. Art and Diplomacy: the Marques de Abrantes and the Splendour of his Embassy to Rome
5. The 'New Solomon': Dom Joao V and 'An Image of the Celestial Court on Earth'
6. 'Good Taste and Opulence': Collecting by the Clergy and Nobility
7. The Church as Patron: the 'Universal Artist' in Northern Portugal
8. The Court of Dom Jose I and the New Lisbon: Grandeur and Vanity
9. Collectors and Connoisseurs in Late Eighteenth-century Portugal
10. Academia: Art, Theory and Design
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index.