Taborda, Prunetti, Vasari and art history between Rome and Lisbon in the early 19th century

Abstract

In 1815 painter José da Cunha Taborda published the first biographies of the Portuguese artists jointly with the edition of Michelangelo Prunetti’s Discorso (1787) on aesthetics and connoisseurship. This article compares his contribution to Portuguese art and art theory in comparative perspective, discussing his formation in Rome and his later activity as a draftsman and official painter in the Palacio de Ajuda with Arcangelo Foschini. The essay concludes pointing to his debt with international art criticism and his unusual interest for female artists.