Aga Khan donates three paintings to the museums of Ancient Art and Soares dos Reis
Prince Aga Khan will donate three Portuguese paintings from the 17th century to the Portuguese state, at a ceremony to be held on Friday at the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon, today announced.
[dropcap type=”background”]A[/dropcap]ccording to a statement from the cabinet of the Minister of Culture, Graça Fonseca, of the works donated by the painter Bento Coelho da Silveira (1617-1708), the royal painter of D. Pedro II, two are destined for the National Museum of Art Antiga, in Lisbon, and the other to the Soares dos Reis National Museum in Porto.
The National Museum of Ancient Art will now be given ‘Rest in the return of Egypt’ and ‘Virgin with the boy and the vision of the Cross.’
In the Soares dos Reis National Museum, there will be, later, the ‘Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple’.
‘Rest in the Return of Egypt’, oil on canvas measuring 219 by 216 centimeters, from 1695, “is an admirable work of Bento Coelho, for its dynamism and staged Baroque,” the statement said.
‘Virgin with the Boy and the Vision of the Cross’, oil on canvas measuring 221 by 227 centimeters, also from 1695, follows closely the work of the Mannerist painter Maarten de Vos (1532-1603), known through an engraving of 1614, scored by Raphael Sadeler.
The Church of St. Christopher, in Lisbon, brings together one of the greatest known nuclei known as Mannerist painters, with 44 screens, among which the Last Supper, recently restored as part of a collective financing action, included in the project ‘Arte por São Cristóvão’, of the Participatory Budget of Lisbon, which mobilized artists such as Rui Chafes and Madalena Vitorino.
The Ministry of Culture emphasizes that “these donations contribute to the enrichment of the collections exhibited in national museums, and reinforce a national policy that asserts itself diverse for artistic and patrimonial collections, public and / or private.”
The works are donated through Imamat Ismaili and the Aga Khan Development Network.
The entities agreed in 2015 with the Portuguese State to set up its world headquarters in Lisbon, and are “committed to continued collaboration with the country’s cultural institutions,” he adds.
The ceremony will take place at 3:00 p.m., with the presence of Aga Khan, 49th Hereditary Immanuel and spiritual leader of the Ismaili Shiite Muslims, his brother, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, and the director of the National Museum of Ancient Art, António Filipe Pimentel.
