UC / Courtesy
Portrait of King D. José
University of Coimbra recovers painting that was thought to be lost or had been lost. It will be presented.
The frame is a portrait of King D. José Iby the Italian painter Domenico Duprà. It’s from 1726.
Domenico Duprà (royal painter at the court of D. João V) portrays D. José I (king of Portugal between 1750 and 1777) while still prince, wearing student attire, a traditional habit.
The frame was missing for a long time. Specialists in Art History thought that there had been lost the work, or that it had been lost
Until, in a international auction, the University of Coimbra (UC) recovered this rarity.
In a statement sent to newsrooms, UC reveals that not even the auctioneer itselfwho was selling the painting, I knew it was a portrait of D. José.
It was (re)discovered by Diogo Lemos, a PhD student in Art History at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Coimbra, as well as a guest assistant professor and researcher at the Center for History, Society and Culture at the same faculty.
Its authenticity has since been confirmed. The painting was purchased and restored by UC – and will now be presented to the public (for the first time in who knows how many years, decades…).
The work will be presented to the public this Tuesday, the 11th, at Paço das Escolas.
It will be on temporary exhibition in the Yellow Room, alongside the portraits of the other leaders who, with D. José I, led the “Pombalina Reform” of the UC and national university education: the Marquis of Pombal and the then Rector of the UC, the Bishop-Conde D. Francisco de Lemos.
D. José, king of Portugal for 27 years, was close to the minister Marquês de Pombal, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo.
He went through the 1755 earthquake, applied himself to remodeling the kingdom’s administration, approved the expulsion of the Jesuits, and became involved in wars with Spain and France.
