Lisboa, bulding at Calçada dos Cavaleiros, 1698 | Leitão Archive [n.d.] 

    Provenance Studies

    Starting date: 2014
    Ending date: ongoing

    The public and private tile collections assembled since the second half of the 20th century result, to a great extent, from a decontextualization of the existing tile heritage, that is, from the transformation of decorative panels into loose "objects". This process, by promoting the circulation of these objects, has contributed to effacing the memory of the azulejos' original locations.



    The provenance of many items from the collection of the National Azulejo Museum and other smaller or private collections is listed as unknown. Moreover, even when an item's provenance is known, a lot is still left to explain.

    The aim of this project is to (re)trace the history of many of these items, starting from the objects themselves and attempting to go back to the places where they originally stood (re-enacting, albeit only virtually, the original decoration), as well as to reconstruct their often sinuous life paths.

    The project starts out with three case studies, exhibiting problems that are useful for testing different methodologies and ways of communicating results: 1) the National Azulejo Museum; 2) the Medeiros e Almeida House Museum; and 3) the Berardo Collection, along with other contributions derived from MA and PhD theses still in the making.

    In the first case, the selection includes panels by Gabriel Barco and decorations ascribed to Manuel dos Santos. The provenance of these decorations is already known, and the challenge is to create an Az Infinitum file that is able to describe the history of the items and articulate them with other items, either lost or found, documented through photographs from private archives. The discussion will also focus on photography’s ability to preserve memories, and Az Infinitum will soon offer a whole module on old photographs.

    In the Medeiros e Almeida House Museum, the inventory specifically mentions all tile decorations, although they amount to re-uses of decorations originally applied elsewhere. These decorative sets can also shed light both on items of known origin, but whose documentation is different from the one found in the previous example, and on items whose provenance is completely unknown.

    The Berardo collection, on the other hand, is strongly concerned with the provenance of its items. This information will be useful in trying to reconstruct the original panels, by comparing them with other decorative sets and by examining archival photographs.


    Coordination:
    Rosário Salema de Carvalho (PI)
    Alexandre Pais (co-PI)

    Directly involved fellows:
    Patrícia Nóbrega (until 2016)
    Inês Aguiar (until 2017)
     
    Institutions:
    This project is developed in collaboration with the National Azulejo Museum, the Medeiros e Almeida House Museum and the Berardo Collection.

    Acknowledgments:
    Maria Mayer (Medeiros e Almeida House Museum)
    Carina Bento (Berardo Collection)


     

    SCIENTIFIC OUTPUT [SELECTED]  

    PhD Theses
    MARINHO, Lúcia – Santa Teresa de Jesus na azulejaria e pintura do século XVIII. Lisboa: Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, 2018. PhD Thesis. Available at WWW: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/32651


    Journal articles
    CARVALHO, Rosário Salema de – A azulejaria barroca em colecções privadas. Contributos para uma história de proveniências. ARTIS. 2 (2014): 39-47.


    Conference proceedings
    MARINHO, Lúcia – Santa Teresa de Jesus: projeto de exposição multimédia para a divulgação da(re)descoberta azulejar de temática teresiana no espólio do Museu Nacional do Azulejo. In SOARES, Clara Moura – O Património Artístico das Ordens Religiosas: entre o Liberalismo e a Atualidade (edição especial da ARTisOn), edited by Clara Moura Soares. Lisboa: ARTIS - Instituto de História da Arte / Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, 2016. p. 262-269. Available at WWW: http://artison.letras.ulisboa.pt/index.php/ao/article/view/82/75.

    MARINHO, Lúcia; NÓBREGA, Patrícia, VENÂNCIO, Ana, AGUIAR, Inês – Azulejo em coleções museológicas. Estudo e proveniências = Azulejo in museum collections. Study of provenances. In SEMEDO, Alice; SENRA, Sandra; AZEVEDO, Teresa – Processos de Musealização. Um Seminário de Investigação Internacional. Atas do Seminário = Musealisation Processes. An International Research Seminar Conference Proceedings. Porto: Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Letras, Departamento de Ciências e Técnicas do Património, 2015. p. 107-124. Available at WWW: https://ler.letras.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/13479.Inês%20Aguiar.pdf.

    NÓBREGA, Patrícia – A 6a Exposição temporária - Azulejos, 1947, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisboa. In MIMOSO, João Manuel; RODRIGUES, José Delgado – Proceedings of International Conference Glazed Ceramics in Architectural Heritage GlazeArch2015. Lisboa: Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil, 2015.

    _____ – O azulejo em circulação. A coleção Nepomuceno. In Coleções de Arte em Portugal e Brasil nos séculos XIX e XX. Perfis e Trânsitos. Lisboa: Caleidoscópio, 2014. p. 167-182.


    Conference presentations
    MARINHO, Lúcia; NÓBREGA, Patrícia, VENÂNCIO, Ana, AGUIAR, Inês – Azulejo em coleções museológicas. Estudo e proveniências = Azulejo in museum collections. Study of provenances. Presentation [with referee] at Processos de Musealização. Um Seminário de Investigação Internacional, Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, 6 November 2014.

    MARINHO, Lúcia – Santa Teresa de Jesus: projeto de exposição multimédia para a divulgação da (re)descoberta azulejar de temática teresiana no espólio do Museu Nacional do Azulejo. Presentation [with referee] at O Património Artístico das Ordens Religiosas: entre o Liberalismo e a Atualidade, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, 20 February 2014.

    NÓBREGA, Patrícia – A 6a Exposição temporária - Azulejos, 1947, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisboa. Presentation [with referee] at  International Conference Glazed Ceramics in Architectural Heritage GlazeArch2015, Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (Lisboa), 2 July 2015.

    _____ – O azulejo em circulação. A coleção Nepomuceno. Presentation [with referee] at Coleções de Arte em Portugal e Brasil nos séculos XIX e XX. Perfis e Trânsitos, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 17 July 2014.

    VENÂNCIO, Ana – Edifícios nacionalizados destinados a qualquer fim de interesse social. A arquitectura religiosa adaptada ao serviço da população". Presentation [with referee] at II Congresso I República e Republicanismo, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, 27 March 2014.