Commented Sessions
September 13th (1:30pm) and September 14th (6:30pm)

Registrations
comunicacao@mnsr.dgpc.pt

Audience
Youth and adults

Sessões comentadas
30 agosto (13h30) e 31 agosto (18h30)

Registrations
comunicacao@mnsr.dgpc.pt

Observations
Minimum of 5 and maximum of 20 participants

Audience
Youth and adults

Commented Sessions
July 21st (1:30 pm) and July 22nd (11:00 am)
Registrations
comunicacao@mnsr.dgpc.pt
Observations
Minimum of 5 and maximum of 20 participants
Audience
Youth and adults

Commented session,
15 June (6:30 pm) and 16 June (1:30 pm)
Registration,
comunicacao@mnsr.dgpc.pt
Observations
Minimum of 5 and maximum of 20 participants
Audience
Youth and adults

The MNSR presents as its piece of the month of May the painting Avó Branca, by Armando Basto, a work donated to the Museum by his family and where the artist portrays his wife. The highlight is the month that marks the centenary of the painter’s death.

Decades after James McNeill Whistler painted the artist’s Portrait of Mother, a painting with influence on several artists and considered a hymn to motherhood and family values, Armando Basto presents Avó Branca.

In the case of Armando Basto, the theme of motherhood is emphasized by the rocking chair, thus making reference to his wife’s pregnancy. Unlike Whisther’s work, in which the mother has a resigned and austere look, Snow has a firm stance and her eyes set on the future.

The career of one of the most notable painters in the Portuguese artistic scene is explored in a series of conversations with reference to different themes such as self-representation, landscape, illustration or photography. Aurélia de Souza is presented in a transversal and faceted way in conversations with the participation of guests.

Designer Luís Mendonça and archaeologist Rita Gaspar talk about illustration in Aurélia’s work. Philippe Vergne, director of the Serralves Museum, and Ana Paula Machado, curator at MNSR, explore the concepts of identity and transfiguration in the production of Cindy Sherman and Aurélia de Souza. Maria João Ortigão Oliveira, curator of the exhibition VIDA E SGREDO, and Ana Anjos Mântua, editorial coordinator of the exhibition catalogue, talk about the importance of literature in the journey

The MNSR presents as its piece of the month for April the painting Casas de Malakoff – Paris painted by Dordio Gomes in 1923. Malakoff is a town on the outskirts of Paris, named after the victory of the French in one of the battles of the Crimean War. The place attracted numerous artists, as a place of residence and as a theme.

This section of Malakoff’s houses would also be represented by Dordio Gomes in an engraving and in a self-portrait made a year later, reinforcing the importance that he himself attributed to the work.

The piece of the month of January has been part of the MNSR’s collection since 1945, and was previously part of the royal treasure kept in the vault of the Palácio das Necessidades, the last official residence of the Portuguese monarchs, in Lisbon. It is a jewel and an adornment complement to women’s attire. It is presented as a remarkable 18th century jewelry creation.

The discovery of an engraving by Froes Machado (1759-1796) made it possible to associate this jewel with the cult of Nossa Senhora do Monte do Carmo in Lisbon, as it represents her sporting the trim on her bodice.

MNSR’s social media followers chose a pot dating back to 1608 as February’s item of the month. Of workshop production, it is the oldest known piece of dated Portuguese faience.

The quality of the pot is revealed in its careful painting, both in the treatment of the double-headed eagle and the camellia, a flower that frequently appears on faience pieces and tile panels from the first half of the 17th century.

The pots with lids and drains could possibly be used to make mulled wine flavored with herbs.

The item of the month for March chosen by MNSR’s social media followers is a 19th century women’s bag, which reflects the taste of the net bags used by Roman women and the 18th century Empire style women’s attire. This style was influenced by fresco paintings from the ruins of Pompeii, discovered at that time.

Made with needle mesh, forming vertical bars, alternately smooth and lacy, this women’s bag is embroidered on the smooth bars with bouquets of flowers, birds and insects. It has a rigid base, made of bamboo segments placed in a zigzag pattern, suggesting a basket. It ends at the top with a bobbin lace frill and fastens with laces, finished off with two tassels.

Paula Pote Azeredo, from the MNSR Education Service, presents the oil on canvas A CANSADA, in the context of the work carried out by Henrique Pousão as a State pensioner in Italy and during a stay on the island of Capri. The session has the special participation of the painter Alexandre Coxo, who presents the master copy work, recently made in the Museum’s galleries, based on this painting and as a result of his postgraduate work in Drawing and Painting at the Barcelona Academy of Art.

The piece from Fernando de Castro’s ceramic collection, and designed by Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro, depicts a typical figure alluding to an English man and reflects the artist’s anti-British position in the context of the English Ultimatum. John Bull embodies the position of the United Kingdom that demanded the military withdrawal of the Portuguese from Angola and Mozambique, under the threat of breaking relations between the 2 European nations. The session is commented by Ana Anjos Mântua, coordinator of the Casa-Museu Fernando de Castro.

The presentation of the play LOVE IN THE VILLAGE will provide greater knowledge about Silva Porto. Student at the Academia Portuense, scholarship holder in Paris, landscape professor in Lisbon, Silva Porto was one of the introducers of Naturalism in Portugal. The painter’s journey is presented by Hugo Barreira, in the context of coordinating the exhibition DEPOSITORIUM 3 – BLIND DATE, a temporary exhibition that includes the painting selected under the section The Piece of the Month – Public Choice.

The ratification of the Treaty of Tordesillas, a scroll that is part of the temporary exhibition FERNÃO DE MAGALHÃES. BY THE SEAS OF THE WHOLE WORLD, is the piece of the month for September.

Usually interpreted as a sharing of the world between Portugal and Castile, the Treaty of Tordesillas is presented in a session commented by exhibition commissioner Amândio Barros, who will answer different questions. The historian considers that Portugal and Castile did not divide the world, nor could they, and clarifies the Pope’s endorsement of the Treaty. It also addresses details of the negotiations between the Portuguese and Castilians as a guarantee of Portuguese influence in Brazilian lands.

O Desterrado (The Exile), a marble by António Soares dos Reis, is considered a Portuguese cultural icon and is classified as an Asset of National Interest.

In the month that marks Soares dos Reis’ birthday, Paula Leite Santos Triães, collection curator of the Soares dos Reis National Museum, presented the context in which the work was produced, its origins and meaning. There were also a number of revelations regarding quick sketching, in line with romantic creation.

The abolition of convents in Portugal in the 19th century marked the transformation of many religious buildings. In Porto, some disappeared completely, leaving only their names. November’s piece is an example of this and has its origins in the Monchique convent, built in the 16th century in Miragaia, between Rua da Restauração and Rua Nova da Alfândega. Little remains of the original building. The Manueline doorway that is displayed gave access to the convent’s chapel and is currently on display in the Soares dos Reis National Museum’s Rainha D. Amélia Velodrome Garden.

By an unknown author, the painting illustrates the Holy Family at Rest during the Flight to Egypt. It may have been painted in Europe, in the 16th or 17th centuries, but it has an Eastern frame, of the Namban type, made of black lacquered wood with mother-of-pearl inlays and gold dust decoration. It was part of the Alberto Villares collection and is part of his widow’s legacy made in favor of the MNSR in 1962.

The MNSR presents the sculpture TWO SISTERS, by Fernandes de Sá, as its piece of the month for September. The work was selected by MNSR’s social media followers.

Among the first pieces created by Fernandes de Sá in Portugal are the Two Sisters, which were integrated into the Museum in 1997. Noteworthy are the originality of the double portrait composition and the correct modeling of the figures, treated with correct volumes, individualized expression and period characterization. Also note that the piece is monolithic, seeming to reinforce the idea of unity between the sisters.

Find out more about the piece in a session commented by collection manager Ana Paula Machado. July 1st and 8th, at 1:30 pm.

Coming from the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Coimbra, this 18th century desk arrived in June 1834 at the Portuense Museum or Ateneu D. Pedro, which had been created the previous year.

This is a set of writing accessories (tray with inkwell, sandpit, craft box, bell and quill holder) made of hot-worked tortoiseshell, with inlays of “chinoiserie” motifs in gold and “rocaille” elements. , grotesques and allegorical figures in mother-of-pearl using a technique called “gold piqué”.

It was produced in Italy, in Naples. It is presumed to date from around 1730-1735 and to be written by Giuseppe Sarao, one of the most excellent “tartarugari” masters.

Find out more about the piece in a session commented by collection manager Ana Paula Machado. July 1st and 8th, at 1:30 pm.

From a selection of three works, MNSR’s social media followers chose a library table from João Allen’s collection as the piece of the month.

This example fulfilled a cultural and scientific program that originated in the mid-1800s and which testified, through the “rare and ancient stones”, to the enchantment of emblematic archaeological sites of Roman Antiquity. It also revealed, in the different 273 lithotypes, the fascination with Natural History and mineralogy, in a scientific and cultural spirit that defined the Grand Tour, a distant parallel to the phenomenon that we today call tourism.

Find out more about the piece in a session commented by collection manager Paula Oliveira. August 28th, at 1:30 pm.

The piece of the month for September chosen by MNSR’s social media followers is the painting MÁRTIR CRISTAN, by Joaquim Vitorino Ribeiro. Work executed in Paris, in 1879, is a painting considered without parallel in Portuguese art. Eloquent in its extreme simplicity, it fits like a glove with the virtue that art critic J. Ruskin valued: “In painting, as in eloquence, the greater its strength, the more serene its manner” (1860). Joaquim Vitorino Ribeiro calls on symbolism and realism to present us with the theme of death and Life in a Christian, liberating, and, surprisingly, contemporary vision. Find out more in one of the sessions commented by Paula Pote Azeredo, from the MNSR Education Service. On the 23rd, 29th and 30th of September, at 1:30 pm.

The Object of the Month chosen by the followers of Soares dos Reis National Museum’s social networks was the table cabinet produced in India between 1570 and 1580.

This tortoiseshell plated item was probably intended to serve as a jewellery box. The various scenes, painted on all available surfaces – on the outside and even on the inside of the nine drawers – has a rare theme, giving the observer a window into the daily life of the Portuguese in 16th century India.

Commentary sessions were given by the collection curator, Paula Oliveira on 7th and 28th October. On October 7th and 28th, at 1:30 pm.

The piece of the month of November chosen by MNSR’s social media followers is the Male Nude Model drawing signed by António Soares dos Reis, patron of the Museum, and dated 1884. The work stands out from an exhaustive survey of the sculptor’s drawings, existing in Portuguese public and private collections, and refers to a practice that the artist disseminated with the painter Marques de Oliveira at the Centro Artístico Portuense, in the middle of the 19th century. The drawing is presented by Paula Leite Santos, collection manager at MNSR.

Based on the DRAWINGS OF EUROPEAN MASTERS exhibition, the MNSR promotes commented sessions on an important set of drawings produced by recognized Italian and Portuguese masters. The sessions are guided by Alexandra Markl, curator of the Drawing and Engraving Collection at the National Museum of Ancient Art, and Mário Bismarck, professor of Drawing at the Faculty of Fine Art of the University of Porto.

On November 27th, at 6pm, Alexandra Markl talks about Domingos Sequeira, the Allen family and the Album de Cades, a publication that brings together more than 100 drawings by the painter Giuseppe Cades (1750-1799), acquired in Rome by Domingos Sequeira.

On December 9th, at 6pm, Mário Bismarck will address the semantic and distinctive meanings of the term Disegno, which are spread and reflected in the different times and different places that this exhibition covers. The term “drawing arts” thus identifies a time, a diversity of functions and a visual culture that has developed since the theoretical rise of this term, its heyday and the beginning of its decline.

MNSR’s social media followers chose the ceramic sculpture Baby Jesus on a Camilha as the piece of the month for December, a 17th century work acquired 70 years ago by the Museum. The baroque sculpture is presented by Paula Leite Santos, collection manager at MNSR.

Starting the year 2022, the piece of the month chosen by MNSR’s social media followers is the oil on canvas SELLER OF FIGURINES, by the painter João Cristino da Silva, a piece from Fernando de Castro’s collection and unique in the MNSR’s collections.

Born in Alfama, Lisbon, into a bourgeois family linked to commerce, João Cristino da Silva attended the Academia das Belas-Artes de Lisboa, from 1841 to 1845, where he revealed his aptitude for the arts, but also a nervous temperament and an irreverent personality. who refuses academic education.

Find out more about his journey and the canvas in a session commented by Ana Anjos Mântua, coordinator of the Casa-Museu Fernando de Castro. On January 20th and 25th, at 1:30 pm.

The plaster model of the bust of journalist and photographer Henrique Guedes de Oliveira, produced by Oliveira Ferreira, a disciple of Teixeira Lopes, is the piece of the month for February chosen by MNSR’s social media followers. Paula Leite Santos, manager of the MNSR Sculpture collection, presents the work and legacy of Guedes de Oliveira, a figure from the late 19th and early 20th centuries with strong democratic convictions and defender of the Republic.

In the 16th century, the presence of the Portuguese in Japan began the production of a new type of lacquer objects intended for export. The Momoyama period office, piece of the month for March, is an example of a portable piece of furniture, decorated with dense patterns of flowers, plants and trees, which responded to many Portuguese orders.

Find out more about this piece owned by the Porto City Council and on deposit at the MNSR, in a session commented by Paula Oliveira, manager of the MNSR Furniture collection. On March 10th and 23rd, at 1:30 pm.

Pedro Calapez and André Gomes, the artists and curators of the exhibition, Be it day or night, it matters not, established a conversation addressing other themes beyond the visual arts, such as literature and poetry, with the presence of Rosa Martelo, from the Faculty of Arts and Bernardo Pinto de Almeida, from the Faculty of Fine Arts, both of Porto University.

The conversation was part of the exhibition’s complementary programme, in which Pedro Calapez’s paintings and André Gomes’ images dialogued with Artur Loureiro, a 19th century painter featuring in the Soares dos Reis National Museum collection.