Neoclassicism - Portugal and Latin America

Following a disastrous earthquake in 1755, the government of Portugal was largely in the hands of Sebastiao Jose de Carvalho (later Marquess of Pombal, by which name he is best known), who took charge of the necessary reorganisation and gained complete ascendancy over the king, Joseph I (reigned 1750 - 1777). Employing arbitrary and at time ruthless methods, Pombal succeeded in building up the economic strength of the country and limiting the power of British merchants in Portugal. In spite of this last reform, English influence on Portuguese handmade furniture, already quite marked, tended to increase. An early form of the convertible bed-settee, of which relatively few English examples now exist, became very popular in Portugal and was known as a leito a inglesa. 

The true Portuguese bed, however, owed little to any other country and certainly nothing to England. Having long ago discarded the posts of tester, the Portuguese adapted their beds to the Neoclassical style of making them more architectural in form and by decorating the headboards with fine marquetry employing Pompeiian features.

Among articles of seat furniture, the influence of late 18th century English styles was evident. During the earlier years of the melancholic Queen Maria I (reigned 1777 - 1816), there was a marked absence of comfortable, French-style armchairs. Instead, there was a fashion for suites of chairs and settees (dioradinhas) of framed construction. They were extremely prim-looking, the settees formed on the principal of three rectangular chair-backs joined together, standing on square tapered legs, in the manner of Hepplewhite or Sharaton. They were painted with urns, pendant husks and flowers en grisaille - a French term describing painting in tones of grey, green and buff, and originally used on walls to simulate architectural details and sculpture but often employed on fitted and non fitted furniture for depicting other subjects.

The 'Donna Maria' commode was rectilinear and break-fronted with an unusually deep apron below the break. It was three drawers deep, each drawer being fitted with enamelled handles. The top was of marble. Semicircular shapes were also popular for small commodes, made in pairs, and for gaming tables. It was a prosperous period in Portugal and money was available for such luxurious pieces as the cylinder-top commode enriched with parquetry on the cylinder, marquetry on the drawer-fronts and quartered veneers on the ends.

One of the new Lisbon makers who was in the habit of signing his work was Domingos Tenuta, who flourished in the last years of the century and who sometimes embossed his name on leather tablets concealed in one of the secret drawers with which 18th century bureaux abounded.

In 1808 the court exiled itself to Brazil and the Neoclassical style was introduced into that country. Neoclassicism was very late arriving in Latin America; Father Joseph Schmidt is said to have introduced it to Peru. Immigrants from many lands arrived with ideas and varying ability to execute them. The more sophisticated pieces are decorated with rather old fashioned looking marquetry, more Baroque than Neoclassical in spirit but the new style was observed in the increased use of straight lines for actual shapes, where previously a delight in curves had triumphed.