Rapaz com Cesto (Boy with basket) is a sculpture by Melicio.
This sculpture is part of a set of 5 sculptures that were placed as an hommage to the Surgeon Humberto Messias (a notable native of Monchique).
Humberto Messias didn´t want to have a statue on a pedestal so he asked that his statue would be represented as part of the daylife of Monchique people and that they could interact with it.
Melicio was invited to create this set and he decided to represent Humberto Messias seated like he was talking to the other statues around him. All sculptures are lifesize and made of Bronze.
This particular sculpture represents a boy, seated a stone bench with a basket in front of him. He has no shoes and his clothes seem to be large for it´s size. On his head he has a traditional wool cap. He´s probably a poor boy from the doctor´s childhood selling something like fruits.
Jorge Melicio was born in 1957 in Lobito, Angola.
Melicio went to the Antonio Arroio Decorative Arts High School and the Lisbon University Fine Arts School.
He lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal and works in bronze, stone, ceramics, drawing and resin.
Melicio has public works in various cities in Portugal, Italy, France, Mexico, Brazil, Romania, Russia, England, Iraq, USA, Palestine, Cuba, Libya and Spain.
He worked with the master sculptor Cardenas, now deceased, restorer at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
(Adapted from the artist website (
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