Cirilo Volkmar Machado
1748–1823 · Portuguese painter, sculptor and architect, considered the first historian of Portuguese art
Cirilo Volkmar Machado (Lisbon, 1748 – Lisbon, 1823) was a Portuguese painter, sculptor and architect, widely regarded as the first historian of Portuguese art. He is remembered both for his work as a decorative painter and for gathering the artistic memory of his country.
He was a pupil of his uncle, João Pedro Volkmar, and completed his training in Seville and Rome. On returning to Portugal he tried to set up a Nude Academy. He painted panels and ceilings in churches, palaces, noble houses and public buildings. He designed the project for the Relação prison in Oporto and worked on the remodelling of the Palácio Nacional de Mafra, the Palacio do Grilo and the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, where some of his ceilings stand out. At Ajuda he was often consulted on painting and architecture, and he proposed a project to complete the facade.
His most lasting legacy is the Collection of Memories on painters, sculptors, architects and engravers who worked in Portugal, published posthumously in 1823. Alongside his paintings he wrote treatises such as Conversations on Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and New Painting Academy. He was a corresponding member of the Tubucian Academy of Abrantes.
Works (1)
Dated 1785, this religious painting presents the twelve apostles, a familiar group in Christian iconography, usually shown as witnesses to Christ's life. It hangs in the Church of Loreto in Lisbon. Few details about its commission or composition are recorded, so it is best understood as an example of late eighteenth-century devotional art.