This important contribution to eighteenth-century European studies is the first to explore the relationships between artists, patrons and connoisseurs in Portugal in the period. Angela Delaforce describes the splendor and magnificent ceremonial of the court of the Braganca monarch, Dom Joao V, adorned with works of art he commissioned from the leading masters in Italy and France and made possible by the fabulous wealth arriving from colonial Brazil. The author has gathered together a wealth of previously unpublished archival material discovered in Portugal and Italy to trace the development of these fascinating patterns of international patronage.

This book provides significant new insights into the Enlightenment in Portugal and its relationships with other European cultural movements using Eugénio dos Santos (1711–1760) as a common reference point. Eugénio dos Santos was a Portuguese architect and city planner who, among other projects, was responsible for the plans to rebuild Lisbon after the earthquake of 1st November 1755. His artistic and technical training, architectural production, aesthetic preferences and some of the books in his private library point to a person who embodied the transition between two moments in Portuguese culture, with their specific characteristics and particular reception of the practices and ideas that circulated among European intellectuals and practitioners. Over the 18 chapters of this volume, several specialists in different disciplinary areas discuss ideas, libraries, printed and handwritten documents, drawings, printing techniques, and architects, philosophers and writers of the 18th century, in order to offer a broad view of a time period closely associated with the construction of modernity.

Reflecting a wide variety of approaches to eighteenth-century opera, this Companion brings together leading international experts in the field to provide a valuable reference source. Viewing opera as a complex and fascinating form of art and social ritual, rather than reducing it simply to music and text analysis, individual essays investigate aspects such as audiences, architecture of the theaters, marketing, acting style, and the politics and strategy of representing class and gender. Overall, the volume provides a synthesis of well established knowledge, reflects recent research on eighteenth-century opera, and stimulates further research. The reader is encouraged to view opera as a cultural phenomenon that can reveal aspects of our culture, both past and present. Eighteenth-century opera is experiencing continuing critical and popular success through innovative and provoking productions world-wide, and this Companion will appeal to opera goers as well as to students and teachers of this key topic.

This volume is dedicated to "Serenata and Festa Teatrale in 18th Century Europe", especially to the production of this music-dramatic genre at the courts on the Iberian Peninsula, in Italy, and the Holy Roman Empire where it was an integral part of court ceremonials and a privileged ritual of repraesentatio maiestatis. The 16 studies on patrons and artists, exceptional events and local traditions, reveal highly interesting material for the research on these up to now largely neglected genre. Any approach to these works full of metaphors, symbols and allusions has to take into account the context of the celebration and the resulting multiplicity of aspects: choice of themes, dramaturgical forms, textual and musical structures, vocal and instrumental ensembles, and the various options regarding the stage apparatus. "Serenata and Festa Teatrale in 18th Century Europe", edited by Iskrena Yordanova (Lisbon) and Paologiovanni Maione (Naples), inaugurates the series "Cadernos de Queluz", a subseries of "Specula Spectacula" by Don Juan Archiv Wien.

Cabinets of Experimental Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Europe is an ambitious contribution to the growing interest in how science came to engage the attention of a public outside the academic and professional spheres and how collections of instruments played a formative role in this development. Collections of physical instruments for research and demonstration appeared throughout Europe in the eighteenth century and the coverage of the book is correspondingly broad. While collections in different cultural and geographical locations had much in common, there were significant local modifications. The essays in this book illustrate how science, sometimes thought to be monolithic and universal, can maintain core intellectual characteristics and practical techniques while adapting to particular sites and circumstances. Contributors include: Jim Bennett, Sofia Talas, Huib J. Zuidervaart, Hans Hooijmaijers, Ad Maas, Tiemen Cocquyt, Inga Elmqvist Söderlund, Paola Bertucci, Marta C. Lourenço, David Felismino, Ivano Dal Prete, Ewa Wyka, Martin Weiss, and Paolo Brenni.

A pioneering account of the links between Portugal and Brazil which survived despite the demise of the Portuguese Atlantic empire.

Historical Dictionary of Rococo Art covers all aspects of Rococo art history through a chronology, an introductory essay, a review of the literature, an extensive bibliography, and over 350 cross-referenced dictionary entries on prominent Rococo painters, sculptors, decorative artists, architects, patrons, theorists, and critics, as well as major centers of artistic production. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Rococo art.