The house-studio of António Teixeira Lopes: a 19th-century microcosm

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse the house-studio of António Teixeira Lopes in formal and iconographic terms, linking it with the private and social life of the sculptor, and the architecture and worldview of Romanticism. Building on the characterisation of the house-studio as a refuge and a stage for the artist, its emergence is correlated with the entrance of art into the public sphere. The construction of Teixeira Lopes’ house-studio is contextualized within the scope of his personal and professional journey and its spatial dynamics is examined. Finally, this paper also decodes the iconographic discourses present in the building. The coexistence between allusions to the artist’s identity and the eclectic appropriation of artistic movements and ornaments susceptible of an initiatory or esoteric reading is interpreted in the light of the Portuguese 19th century.