The Alverca Palace (Casa
do Alentejo) shelters a world of dreams within its structural and
decorative composition.
Numerous national artists
contributed to this; amongst them Jorge Colaço, 'The Master', as he was
known at the time. To him we owe the magnificent azulejo (tile) panels
of this palace, just as it is to him that the resurgence of the art of
'azulejo' at the beginning of the 20th Century is due.
Son of a diplomat, Jorge
Colaço was born in Tangier. From an early age he displayed an
exceptional talent for drawing and caricature. During
his
youth he studied painting in Paris and Madrid.
His activity as a painter
of azulejo was the result of
his
friendship with the Englishman, Gilman, then director of the Sacavém
tile-factory; for it was here that Colaço would learn the techniques
necessary to the art of azulejo.
From 1920 to 1940, 'The
Master' was associated with another important tile-factory, (The
Lusitania), where he became the director.
Colaço's work is renowned
throughout the world; apart from the panels at the Alverca Palace, other
remarkable works by this artist include:
●
Hotel de Bucaço; his immense panel depicting the battle of Bucaço and
the portuguese conquests in Africa and
India.
●
Sala dos Paços Perdidos;
in the old Faculty of Medicine in Lisbon.
●
The huge São Bento railway
station in Porto; as well as
railway stations in Évora,
Castelo de Vide, Marvão, to
name but a few.
(And abroad)
●
England; Windsor Castle.
●
Switzerland; the old Palace of the United Nations in Geneva.
●
The USA, Spain, Belgium, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and
Uruguay are amongst the
other countries where the works
of Colaço are to be found.
There are three decorative
panels by this artist in the Alverca Palace:
●
Fair of Santa Eulália, (in the Dining Hall). -
PHOTO
1
●
'The Lusíads', (Sala de Olivença). -
PHOTO
2
●
Hunting Scenes, 'A Bull-chase', (Sala dos Sócios). -
PHOTO
3
Dating from
1918 to 1919, a period when Colaço was probably
attached to the tile-factory at Sacavém, these panels well reflect the
state of azulejo in the first half of the 20th century. Actually, at
this time, there existed two opposing streams within the medium: on the
one hand there were the modern examples expressed in Art Nouveau and Art
Deco, and on the other hand, as is the case with the works that we are
now considering, were the 'traditionalists' with their romantic or
renaissance styles. Colaço's inspiration stemmed from the historic
grandeur of Portugal or just simply the celebration of daily life; a
style which became exemplified by his fight against industrialisation.
Nostalgia for the rural
life, the imagination of the medieval world, and historical inspiration
were the weapons employed by the artists
of this current. Whether
by coincidence or not, we find examples of all three in this palace. As
in:
●
Fair of Santa Eulália (rural life) ,
●
The Lusíads (historical) ,
●
Hunting Scenes, 'A Bull-chase' (medieval imagination).
The technique chosen by
'The Master' for the perfecting of these azulejos was the result of many
years of experimentation. With the
aid of Gilman, (the
director of the Sacavém tile-factory), Colaço had mastered a very difficult
technique. Drawing upon
his
skills in drawing, painting, and water-colouring, he employed them all
in
his
work.
He opted for tinting on
'fired' glass which could be
made
with two different sorts of paint:
●
high-temperature colours (about 1000
C)
●
low-temperature colours (600 to 7000
C).
The former provides a
palette reduced in tones (the technique used for 'The Lusíads') while
the latter enables a vast range of colours (the technique employed on
the other panels).
Jorge Colaço only
concerned himself with the figurative part of the panels; the painting
of the ornamentation being left to
his
'team'. These projects were first water-colours, which once cut into
little squares, were transferred
to the azulejos which he painted with successive layers of a mixture of
paint with varnish and turpentine to obtain the necessary tones. This
innovative technique was not only a discovery but became an established
method for portuguese azulejo.
Thus, we find in the
Alverca Palace one of the great names in portuguese azulejo, which
remains in the history of the national arts as the man who revitalised
this so typically lusitanian art.
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