Estimate

5.000 - 6.000

Session 3

20 October 2022

Hammer Price

Description

Oil on canvas

70x60 cm

Category

Paintings

Nota

Following the 1863 fire, the Lisbon Municipality commissioned the artist
Miguel Ângelo Lupi to paint a large historical allegory, to be displayed in
the city’s Town Hall, alluding to the Marquess of Pombal (1699-1782)
intervention in Lisbon’s reconstruction in the aftermath of the big earthquake
of 1755. The contract for the painting’s execution was signed on May 31st,
1881, but, almost two years later, on the artist’s death, on February 26th,
1883, the work remained unfinished.
This famous painting would in fact become the last work of one of the greatest
19th century Portuguese painters, and one that reveals his preference for
historical subjects, combined with a particular taste for portraiture, a genre in
which Lupi excelled.
To best complete this commission, the artist moved his studio to a room in the
Town Hall, where he intended to produce twenty-four preparatory studies, of
which five are known. Although never fully completed the painting was hung
in the building’s Great Hall, where it remained until 1997.

TIAGO FRANCO RODRIGUES