Museu Nacional Machado de Castro - Coimbra, Portugal
Posted by: razalas
N 40° 12.534 W 008° 25.508
29T E 548920 N 4451101
The National Museum Machado de Castro (Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro) is an art museum in Coimbra, Portugal.
Waymark Code: WMD1CQ
Location: Portugal
Date Posted: 11/05/2011
Views: 14
THE PLACE: The National Museum Machado de Castro (Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro) is an art museum in Coimbra, Portugal, named after the renowned Portuguese sculptor Joaquim Machado de Castro. It is one of the most important art museums in Portugal, and is housed in the former Palace of the Bishops. During the Middle Ages, the Palace of the Bishops was built over the Roman forum of Aeminium (Roman name of Coimbra) and nowadays its remains can be visited through the museum, under the palace turned into the Machado de Castro Museum.
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THE NAME:Joaquim Machado de Castro (June 19, 1731 – November 17, 1822) was one of Portugal's foremost sculptors. He wrote extensively on his works and the theory behind them, including a full-length discussion of the statue of D. José I entitled Descripção analytica da execucão da estatua equestre, Lisbon 1810.
Machado de Castro was born in Coimbra, and was a celebrated figure throughout
Europe in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Descripção is the artist's detailed comments on the style and execution of his finest work, the equestrian statue of D. José I, erected in 1775 as part of the rebuilding of central Lisbon after the disastrous earthquake of 1755. The stages of construction are illustrated with sections and cross-sections of the horse and rider, views of the statue from different angles, and details of armor and ornamentation. This bronze statue remains one of Lisbon's most important monuments, and dominates one of the major squares of Europe, the Praça do Comércio or Terreiro do Paço. In the introduction, Machado de Castro comments on similar works of art in the rest of Europe.
Machado de Castro had a famous school and was the Master of many sculptors. He died in Lisbon. In Coimbra there is a prestigious art museum named in his honour, the National Museum Machado de Castro.
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