A painting by the artist Piero della Francesca (1415-1492) and drawings by Domingos Sequeira (1768-1837) dedicated to the theme of children will be on display from September 17 at the National Museum of Ancient Art (MNAA) in Lisbon.
The painting “São Nicolau de Tolentino” by Piero della Francesca, which belongs to the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, Italy, will be on display as a “Guest Work” from October 10 to December 15, the museum told the Lusa news agency today, in response to questions about the exhibitions planned for the ‘rentrée’.
The exhibition “The Child in the graphic work of Domingos Sequeira” and a painting with a biblical theme by Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749), from the Gaudium Magnum Foundation Collection, will also be on display from September 17, with the former on show until December 29 and the latter until January 26, 2025, according to the MNAA.
The arrival of Piero della Francesca’s painting “São Nicolau de Tolentino” is part of a partnership between the two institutions, since the work “Santo Agostinho” by the same artist, which belongs to the MNAA, was part of the exhibition “Piero della Francesca. Il polittico agostiniano riunito”, held by the Italian museum between March 20 and June 24 this year. This exhibition brought together, for the first time, works by the Italian artist from five museums in various countries, according to the Poldi Pezzoli Museum.
By the Portuguese artist Domingos Sequeira, the MNAA is exhibiting a selection of drawings on a theme that is “extensively represented in the graphic production” of the museum’s collection, ranging from “anatomical studies – children’s heads, trunks and limbs – studies for portraits, representations captured live, or compositions in a taste that already paves the way for romanticism”.
“The various drawing techniques he used to approach this theme also allow us to see how extensive his graphic resources were,” says the MNAA about this exhibition, which will open in the Mezzanine Room. The cycle “The Beautiful, Seduction and Sharing”, which shows works from the collection of the Gaudium Magnum Foundation – Maria and João Cortez de Lobão, features a painting of dramatic biblical composition, in which Joseph, in prison, interprets the dreams of the baker and the cupbearer of the Pharaoh of Egypt.
Exhibited in the museum’s European Painting Gallery, Alessandro Magnasco’s painting “revisits some of his favorite themes: in an oppressive space, composed like an opera set, inhabited by disembodied figures, Joseph successfully unravels the dreams of his cellmates, which will later lead him to be called upon to interpret the dream of the pharaoh himself.”
Until September 29, the MNAA will also be showing, in the Painted Ceiling Room, the exhibition “Epic and Tragic – Camões and the Romantics”, curated by art historians Alexandra Markl and Raquel Henriques da Silva, with works by various artists to evoke the context in which the poet was transformed into a mythical figure by Portuguese Romanticism.
The exhibition – which includes the preparatory drawings for the painting “The Death of Camões”, by Domingos Sequeira – is being presented as part of the celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Luís de Camões (1524-1580). On September 1, there will be a guided tour of this exhibition, at 11:30 am, with free admission.
