FROM ROME TO LISBON

Conceived around what is known as the Weale Album, a compilation of drawings which, for the most part, are being shown for the first time in Portugal and to the world, the exhibition From Rome to Lisbon: an Album for the Magnanimous King is constructed around the key concept of the journey between Rome and Lisbon during the reign of John V of Portugal. Made up of 160 leaves, the album consists of a meticulous written and drawn record of Italian works of art commissioned for Lisbon, (specifically for the Patriarchal Basilica and the Chapel of St. John the Baptist in the Church of São Roque) – the result of the initiative of Manuel Pereira Sampaio (1691-1750), the last ambassador of John V to Rome, compiled under the title Libro degli Abozzi de Disegni delle Commissioni che si fanno in Roma per Ordine della Corte. The 101 drawings in the album allow us not only to see works that were then being produced in the papal city but also, through careful observation, to gain insight into aspects of their commissioning and production, making these drawings essential elements in our understanding of Johannine commissions placed in Rome in the 1740s. In an attempt to reconstruct as clearly as possible the panorama created by the journey between Rome and Lisbon, the exhibition also includes works by the same artists responsible for the pieces depicted in he drawings in the volume compiled by Ambassador Pereira de Sampaio for John the Magnificent in the 1740s.