One of the MNAA’s most ambitious projects, this exhibition illustrates the artistic splendour of the court of Lisbon during the 18th century and reflects the role of several exceptional artists: the architects João Frederico Ludovice and Mateus Vicente de Oliveira, the sculptor Joaquim Machado de Castro and the crown jewellers Adam and Ambrose Pollet.

Reunited for the first time, the five pieces of exception are the Bemposta Monstrance, a masterpiece from the MNAA collection; the Patriarchal Cathedral Monstrance (Lisbon); the Halo of Our Lord of the Stations of the Cross (Lisbon); the Halo of the Lord Holy Christ of Miracles (Ponta Delgada); and the Habit of the Three Military Orders (Ajuda National Palace, Lisbon).

The exhibition aims to consolidate the advances of the most recent historiography, as addressed within "The Prodigious Commission. From the Patriarchal Basilica to the Royal Chapel of St. John the Baptist" (Museu of São Roque nucleus), an exhibition which the MNAA and the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa-Museu de São Roque organised in 2013.

The exhibits in the Tecto Pintado Room (Painted Ceiling Room) – so named to flaunt part of the original quadratura produced by the Tuscan painter Vincenzo Bacherelli (1672-1745) – have the study, conservation and recovery of the pieces on display and the MNAA collection as a common foundation.

CURATORS
Anísio Franco, António Filipe Pimentel and Luisa Penalva



NOTE FROM THE DIRECTION

The MNAA informs that, according with the protocol signed with the Diocese of Angra, Azores, the Halo of the Lord Holy Christ of Miracles (Ponta Delgada) will be removed from the exhibition after next October 30. The MNAA will provide continuity of its presence in virtual registration in order to not disappoint the public expectation and the intelligibility of the exhibition, which will be open until January 4, 2015.