Joaquim Machado de Castro

Portrait of Joaquim Machado de Castro

Joaquim Machado de Castro (born June 19, 1731 in Coimbra , † November 17, 1822 in Lisbon ) was a Portuguese sculptor . His best-known work is the equestrian statue of Josés I on the Praça do Comércio .

Career

His father, Manuel Machado Teixeira, organist and sculptor, encouraged his son Joaquim at an early age by sending him to the Jesuit court school to learn Latin grammar. Manuel Machado Teixeira also instructed him in sculpture. At the age of 15, Joaquim Machado de Castro decided to move to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, in order to receive extensive artistic training. There he learned the woodcarvers Nicolau Pinto , however, preferred because of its benefits soon to continue under the protection of King João V standing sculptor José de Almeida . His first sculpture to be presented to the public is in the church of the São Pedro de Alcântara convent, which was being extensively expanded at the time.

Thereupon he participated at the side of the sculptor Alexandre Giusti in the design of the national palace in Mafra ( Palácio Nacional de Mafra ), so that he spent 14 years in the place north of the capital. There he met his friend and admirer Cândido Vieira Lusitano , a writer, among others .

Equestrian statue of Josés I on the Praça do Comércio

In 1760 he was invited to the competition for a statue in honor of I. José participate. After initially making various small models, he was commissioned in 1771 to design the statue by 1772. After the foundations were first established in 1773/74, the equestrian statue of the Portuguese King José I was inaugurated on Lisbon's Praça do Comércio by 1775 . He also prepared his Descripção analytica da execução da estatua equestre , in German "Analytical description of the execution of the equestrian statue", published in Lisbon in 1810. His description goes into the different views of his work, describes the relationship between rider and horse, as well as cross-sections of individual sections of the sculpture.

Since he had designed a work that was very visible to the public with his equestrian statue, Machado de Castro received further commissions. These include the statue entitled Fé (Faith) at the Inquisition Palace ( Palácio da Inquisição ) in Évora, which no longer exists today.

Because of his numerous works, Machado de Castro became a member of the royal academy of science ( Academia Real das Ciências ) in 1814 . He also received the honor of knight of the Order of Christ ( Ordem de Cristo ). He died on November 17, 1822 at the age of 91 and was buried in the Basílica de Nossa Senhora dos Mártires in Lisbon. He was married to Maria Barbosa de Sousa until his death.

In honor of Machado de Castro, there is a large art museum in Coimbra, inaugurated in 1913, called Museu Nacional de Machado de Castro .

literature

• Machado de Castro (Joaquim). In: Portugal - Dicionário Histórico, Corográfico, Heráldico, Biográfico, Bibliográfico, Numismático e Artístico . tape 4 , 1908, pp. 659-662 ( arqnet.pt ).
• Renate Petriconi: Machado de Castro, Joaquim . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 86, de Gruyter, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-023252-3 , p. 157.