Vieira Lusitano lived admired and honoured, to a venerable age,
eighty-four; and his constant heroine, the Lady Agnes, also reached a
good old age, and shared prosperity which could hardly have been real,
or of any value, without her. She died at Mafra in 1775, and from the
day of her death he never again touched a pencil. To the last, says
Cyrillo, he idolised her memory; and, no doubt, the strength of his
affection for her was the governing motive of his publication of their
strange history, five years after her decease, and but three before
his own. Both his own portrait and hers were often introduced into
his paintings. Many of his works perished in the earthquake, with
the temples and mansions they adorned. He particularises, as thus
destroyed, "his grand picture of the Martyrs--the inestimable portrait
of the first Patriarch of Lisbon, Don Thomas Almeida," (who figures as
an important influence, for and against him, in the narration of his
love adventure;) "the portraits of the Royal Children, and that sublime
idea," (the words are his own,) "the Meeting of the Blessed Mother with
her Son, after her assumption--the Death of Moses--Pluto and the Court
of Hell listening to the suit of Orpheus." He says he designed the
last-named performance as an allegorical plea for the restoration of
his wife, to whom the convent was a hell. In another composition, which
he calls "a stupendous work," and which was also demolished--Perseus
exhibiting the Gorgon's head to Phineus--he represented his own effigy
as that of the Greek hero, and the image of his cloistered wife, as a
winged Victory, hovering over him, and about to drop a laurel wreath on
his helm, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account