Art and Culture

The prospective visitor to Portugal should be pleased to learn that he can, without feeling guilty, be a bit lax in his cultural preparation. This is for a very special reason. The best of Portuguese culture is visual, rather than literary, and can hardly be understood in any other way than by seeing the actual monuments on the spot.

To be even more specific, Portuguese culture has historically been so specialized as to have concentrated very much in the building trades, especially the interior and exterior working and decoration of cathedrals, castles and private homes.

Borrowing the skeletal plans of their great buildings from the important European trends, the Portuguese work with ceramic tile and sculptural embellishment transformed these buildings into a unique expression of the national spirit.

If you have read the section on history you will remember that the Roman and Visigothic remains were neither numerous nor influential for later art. That section enumerates those ruins that there are for those who will be interested.

It was during the Arab occupation‑that a real base for the Portuguese style was laid. This influence set the whole Iberian peninsula off on a more southerly artistic direction, and with it the Portuguese artistic personality began its centrifugal movement.

Of monuments the Arabs did not leave much. Their unique home‑building style can best be seen in the Algarve, where they had their longest residence. There the homes are whitewashed, with strict, straight lines, right angles, and the punctuation of a few arched doors and windows here and there. The most widely remarked stylistic remnant is incorporated into the Algarve chimneys, which are punctured in wild, Arabic abstract design.

But the most important thing the Arabs left was the art of tile making. These are the glazed ceramic tiles which you see absolutely everywhere in Portugal. Here a full discussion is necessary.

AZULEJOS

Patterned tiles have been used in numerous ways in Portugal, on the facades of the smallest and the largest buildings, sometimes plain and often with a staggering richness. The entire insides of many churches are covered with beautifully painted azulejos.

The Portuguese word for these tiles, approximately the same word the Spanish use, is "azulejo", which some contend is from the word for "blue", the dominant color of the tiles. Better scholarship, however, holds that the word is derived from the Arabic "azuleich", which means "smooth".

The art seems to have originated among the Assyrians in the times before Christ. From them it apparently was learned by the Persians, who taught it to the Arabs, who brought it to Europe through their invasion of Iberia.

The Arabs, of course, would have been astounded had they known of the changes the humanistic leaning Iberians would bring on their art. The depiction of humans, and even of animals, was most strictly forbidden by the Muslim religion, which took the prohibition from the Old Testament. But the acts, accomplishments, and even the love affairs of humans were to become the very reason of the Portuguese tile workers.

The Arabs established their first factory for the making of tiles in Sevilla, using their abstract designs, and the Portuguese, by then already more or less free of Arabic domination, made a few purchases from there, which can be seen decorating the walls of the Royal Palace in Sintra and also in the garden of the Ouinta da Bacalhoa in Azeitao, on the main road south from Lisbon.

The Italians were the first Europeans to enter this industry with a vengeance, and have remained among the dominant ceramic tile producers ever since. Their factory in Spain, opened during the Renaissance, did a booming trade. The works of this period can be seen in many Portuguese churches. The most frequently remarked work is the "Susannah and the Elders", also at the Azeitao Ouinta. Its lascivious nature and colors are undoubtedly high among the reasons for its popularity. Other notable works of this period can be seen in Évora.

By this time Portugal had found its own personality, which its artists wished to express in their own way. The divergence from the styles of the Spanish factories was also speeded by the winning of independence from Spain in a bitter war that ended in 1640. Resultantly, many tile factories were set up within Portugal, and during the seventeenth century Portugal became an important center, with Lisbon the most important city for azulejos.

Dutch azulejos also exerted some influence on the Portuguese styles and can be seen in many places. They are not Dutch design in the strict sense, however, since the Portuguese knew very well the style they wanted and made most of the designs for the Dutch craftsmen who produced

them. The reason for the large importation of azulejos from the north was more probably the insatiable appetite within Portugal coupled with the tremendous financial resources available to them at the time.

The ideal seems to have been a total azulejo interior for homes, churches, etc., and buildings fell short of this ideal with only relative to the wealth of the financiers. Grandiose design I was the rage: battle scenes, city scenes with crowds of people, lovers in gardens, great hunts, and so forth.

By the eighteenth century the Portuguese led Europe in the production of azulejos, which is as much as to say that they led the world in this artistic endeavor, and this was just the height they reached when the earthquake of 1755 destroyed the best factories and with it the Portuguese leadership in the field.

Of course, new factories were built, but momentum had been lost, and the heroic vision had been softened to a kind of hazy romanticism that produced primarily fully clothed, rather artificial flirtations that one imagines were probably a mirror of the times.

In the nineteenth century the royal tile factory was closed l down, though other factories continued to produce azulejos of I a continuous and depressing decadence. What was lost could never be recovered, but the magnificent results of the great age of azulejos provide the single most satisfying area of concentration for the culturally. interested tourist in Portugal.

ARCHITECTURE

The Romanesque period was really not remarkable in a history of Portuguese architecture, though there are some churches of great dignity and simplicity to be seen in the north. Bravaes has a very fine one, and so does Rates. Cathedrals worth seeing from this period are at Braga, Lambego and Coimbra, especially the latter, where a larger of the original remains than usual.

The Portuguese temperament took well to the Gothic style, which was later to form an ideal base for the intricate working of the Manueline surfaces. The Portuguese understood well the necessity for restraint in their handling of the Gothic I design, as can best be seen in the Cistercian Monastery of Alcobaca. The monastery at Batalha is another good example of the Gothic style cleverly applied.

But it was in the next style to hit Portugal, the Manueline, that the country was to finally express its distinct and exuberant personality.

Manueline is found nowhere else but in Portugal, nor would one expect that it would be, since it relates a national experience, the maritime discoveries through which no other country went in nearly so impressive a way.

Bringing back stories of distant beauties, and more than that, the actual gold and treasures that had been dreamed of, the explorers and sailors evoked a national fantasy that was echoed in stone with carved exuberances of tropical vegetation, ships' cables and chains, anchors, and many other shapes relating to the adventures of the seafaring Portuguese.

Massive, plain Gothic stones became the base over which was laid the patina of riotous stonework such as would satisfy the kings and queens who could not experience the marvelous sights they paid for except through art.

Tomar is the monster of the Manueline. It was a style with the ever present danger of outrageousness, and the Christ Convent at Tomar fell to that danger.

The most beautiful expressions of the form, on the other hand, are seen in the lovely cloister at Batalha, the "unfinished chapel" also at Batalha, and the cloisters of the Jeronimos Monastery in Belém.

The originator of the Manueline style was, surprisingly, not born in Portugal but in France. His name was Boytac, and he was responsible for the first Manueline building, the Church of Jesus at Setúbal, and for the cathedral at Guarda. He also contributed to the Manueline parts of the Monastery of Belém.

Mateus Fernandes was also responsible for some advances and fine examples in this style. His most noted achievement is the doorway to the unfinished chapel of Batalha, with lovely plant forms in the decoration.

Another name cropping up among Manueline stylists is Diogo de Arruda, who designed the Tomar window, upon which we have already given our opinion. This artist's brother, Francisco de Arruda, was the architect of the famous Belém tower, which is designed with a restraint that he did not share with his brother.

The Renaissance advances in architecture came to Portugal in 1533, brought by Migue Ide Arruda in his designs at Batalha.

The Convent of Christ at Tomar then was also completed in this style and another designer, Afonso Alvares, also worked with the Renaissance advances. It must be stated, however, that classic architecture just did not catch on in Portugal, and the next great style did not come until the Baroque Age.

When this came, it swept Portugal with a real passion. In the interiors of Santa Clara and São Francisco in Porto one sees the most extravagant in this curvaceous style. In other northern churches and civic buildings, in Lamego, Viana do Castelo, Braga and other towns of the north one sees the lovely style known as Joanine, the Portuguese variant of the Baroque. Granite is the main building and decorative material, and the lines are mostly curved. Brilliant whitewashing sets off the granite trim on the facades of the buildings in this elegant style.

The last noted style was that instigated in Lisbon by the Marquis de Pombal when he rebuilt after the great earthquake. This is civic architecture of a severe style, by Portuguese standards. A no‑nonsense sort of fellow, Pombal had several fine, geometric squares built and connected by straight roads. His "Praga do Comércio" is doubtlessly one of Europe's finest squares.

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE

There is surprisingly little to relate on this subject in comparison with the wealth in the fields of architecture and glazed ceramic tile work.

Probably the most famous Portuguese painting of all, pictured everywhere, is the Nuno Gonçalves Panals of St. Vincent, in the Museum of Antique Art in Lisbon. They are from the fifteenth century, heavily influenced by Flemish style, as was most Portuguese painting.

A school of painting called the "Northern School" sprung up around the height of the Manueline style in architecture. The best painter of this style, which employed naturalism and detailed background landscapes, was Vasco Fernandes, also known as "Grão Vasco".

Around the same time there was a less important group known as the Lisbon School, which produced the painters, Jorge Afonso, Cristovao de Figueiredo, Garcia Fernandes and . Gregorio Lopes.

During the Baroque period the names Viera Lusitano and Domingos António de Sequeira come to min.

One of the best painters in Portuguese history was Amadeo de Souza Cardoso (1887‑1918), some of whose works can be seen in the town museum of Amarante.

The latest in the line of Portuguese painters was Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, strongly influenced by the French.

As for sculpture, it is mostly in imitation of the styles of other countries, with the exception of the glorious decorative sculpture of the Manueline period.

Machado de Castro, who worked in the Baroque period, is generally considered the best of the Portuguese sculptors, and his works should be seen wherever you come across them.

The other well known sculptor in this country was Soares elos Reis (1847‑1889).

LITERATURE

Portuguese writing, one of the Romance literatures that have collectively provided the mainstream of western thought, began in the twelfth century when Henri de Bourgogne, father of Portugal's first king (see "History"), brought with his court several French scholars and literary gentlemen.

Poetry was then by far the most important literary art, and due to these French, the early court poets followed in the traditions, ideas, forms and structures of the Provencal poets, that amazing group of singer‑poets who gave to the western world the traditions of romantic love, chivalry, etc.

It could be fairly stated that Portuguese literature even more than most, lionized these ideas until they sunk deeply into the fabric of the country.

The first two figures in this literature were kings. Sanche I, (1185‑1211), the son of Afonso Henriques, was a poet, and Dom Dinis (1279‑1325) spent so much time in this occupation that he became known as the "poet‑king".

Both these kings composed songs of friendship and love, of chivalry and affairs at court. All their work was in the Provencal tradition mentioned above, no surprise as they were tutored by French troubadours.

At this time prose writing was not an art form as such, but was useful only for the keeping of court records, historical events, etc. However, in the court of Duarte I (1433‑38) a more artful prose form was developed by courtiers, who adopted many of the strict rules of the Greek and Latin prose writers with which they were familiar.

Other early prose writers, following in the traditions of' King Duerte's court, were Fernao Lopes, an historian, and Azurara, whom we have to thank for records of some of the travels of the Sagres gentlemen.

Throughout this period the literary arts were more or less monopolized by the court, to which the mere accomplishment of literacy was often enough to grant an ambitious young man entrance. Court literature, however, suffered from a lack of breadth and an over severe formal discipline.

Added to this was the fact that the nation as a whole was still in the building and growing process, and the accomplishments that inspire a significant literature were yet to come in the fifteenth century Portugal began to feel its strength, and literature bloomed with it. When Cabral sailed to Brazil, Pedro Vaz reported the event in virile and observant prose. Half a century later the great poet Camoens was writing what was to be Portugal's greatest literature describing Vasco de Gama's arrival in India.

There were many other writers during this period, as there were many accomplishments of which to sing. It was a romantic chapter of world history, with Portugal opening the eyes of the Europeans on a dim, still‑foggy new world that grew larger, more strange and richer in every way with each new accomplishment of the Sagres navigational school. Among the writers who aided Camoens in telling of this great age were Pedro Nunes, with his essays, Andre de Resende, Damiao de Goes and Sá de Miranda, a poet.

But it was Camoens who dominated the period, and stood as a beacon shining out over all Portuguese literature to come. In Portugal his name commands the same respect as does that of Dante in Italy, Cervantes in Spain and Shakespeare in England.

Luis de Camoens (1525‑1580), in his famous "Lusiads", created a blend of attractive myth and historically verifiable accounts, incorporating heroism, romance, allegory and prophecy into one of the great feats of world epic poetry.

Aside from the Lusiads, Camoens is also known for a series of sonnets telling of the sadness and pain of love, one of the bases on which was built the Portuguese emotion, suadade.

Following close on the heels of Camoens was another master, Gil Vicente, who invented a literary form with his "autos" or mysteries, serious and heroic themes also employing prophecy.

One of the remarkable events in Portuguese literature occurred in the seventeenth century with the discovery of a Portuguese nun who lived in the Beja convent. There is some doubt as to the true origin of these letters, but not in the minds of the Portuguese, who believe that they were penned by the pining novice, Mariana Alcoforrado after she ' had fallen in love with a French cavalry officer. Naturally, these were a great favorite in France, where the court of Louis XIV greatly enjoyed the image of the charming and dashing Frenchman.

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century the transitional figure was Bocage, a noted roue and dandy. His exquisite sonnets relate the bitter cynicism and disappointment we are accustomed to find in the writings of those who victimize only to Kind themselves the victims in the end.

The nineteenth century saw the continuance of the dandy tradition in the novels of Garrett, and Eca de Queiroz wrote ` novels of great wit and perceptiveness about the artificial society of his time.