Art and Patronage in Eighteenth-Century Portugal, 2002, 532 p., 24 pl. coul., rel. -

This important contribution to eighteenth-century European studies is the first to explore the relationship between artists, patrons, collectors and connoisseurs in Portugal in the period. The book also discusses artistic theory and the role of the academies. Angela Delaforce describes the splendour and magnificent ceremonial of the court of the Bragança monarch, Dom João V, adorned with works of art he commissioned from the leading masters in Italy and France and made possible by the fabulous wealth arriving from colonial Brazil. The royal palace, with its patriarchal church, collection and library, once famed throughout Europe, were lost in the earthquake of 1755, which destroyed the heart of Lisbon and led to the building of the new city in a coherent modern style. The author has gathered together a wealth of previously unpublished archival material discovered in Portugal and Italy to trace the development of these fascinating patterns of international patronage and to bring an entirely new perspective to our understanding of the period.