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Pleasant hollow QUELUZ continue… June 15, 2008

Posted by dodo in : Aquarium, Art Gallery, Coliseum, Dolphinarium, Gymnasium, Library, Lisbon, London, Museum, Oceanarium, Planetarium, Portugal, Restaurant, USA , trackback

The interior of the palace (which was partially destroyed by fire in 1934 but felicitously restored) is entered from the cour d’honneur. The cheerful lightness of first room, a corridor known as the Sala das Mangas, derives from its wall-to-ceiling revetment in blue and yellow azulejos, the characteristic Portuguese decorative tiles. A key position in the palace is occupied by the ceremonial reception room, the Hall of the Ambassadors. This room is also called the Hall of Mirrors, for most of the wall space not occupied by the window embrasures is filled with mirrors in gilt Rococo frames. The coved ceiling is decorated with a large painting, in which members of the royal family are depicted behind a balustrade as if watching one of the evening concerts for which Queluz was famous. These concerts were often held in the near-by Music Room built in 1759 but redesigned in 1768. Here the wall surfaces are relatively plain, and one’s attention is drawn to the oval ceiling with its supporting rib structure that is reminiscent of the vestibule at Caserta. Apart from an Empire grand piano, the room is sparsely furnished. (Other concerts, which sometimes included the Brazilian moudinhos or folk songs, were held in the gardens-.) In 1760 Robillion threw together five small chambers to create the glittering Ball Room. With its two enormous crystal chandeliers and extravagant ormulu decorations this oval-plan hall is the most festive of all the state rooms.

Travel GuidebookThe other chambers of Queluz are mostly rather small. The Sala de Merendas includes four panels by Joao Valentim showing picnic scenes that recall Goya’s early designs for tapestries. The Don Quixote Room displays paintings of episodes from Cervantes’s novel by Manuel da Costa and Jose Antonio Narciso, and the Queen’s Boudoir has representations of children dressing up by João Courado Rosa. The lightness and delicacy of touch that are characteristic of Queluz are maintained in the Gun Room, where the walls appear to open out in airy frescoes showing trees and foliage. The well-preserved kitchen has been turned into a luxury restaurant for the convenience of visitors to the palace.

The Hanging Gardens, laid out in the formal French manner by Robillion in 1758, focus on the Triton Pool with its vivacious marble nymphs. The lead figures in these gardens, which John Cheere cast from moulds in London, were originally painted in bright colours. Beyond stretches the italianate park which concludes in a large cascade similar to those found at the Villa d’Este at Frascati near Rome. In this park the sinister Queen Carlota Joaquina received the English writer William Beckford in 1794, making him run a race and then dance a bolero.

From 1760 Robillion had the assistance of a Dutch gardener, Gerald van den Kolk, who was responsible for the topiary work at Queluz. He also seems to have conceived the picturesque 400-foot canal west of the palace, which has blue-and-white tiles depicting shipping scenes. The grounds also originally contained a theatre and a Chinese pavilion, but these were made of wood and have not sur- vived. The Jardim dos Azereiros with its languorous alleys of mag- nolias and mulberry trees was laid out by General Andoche Junot during the Napoleonic occupation of Portugal at the beginning of the 19th century.

A recent addition to Queluz is the monument to Queen Mary I in Carrara marble, which has had a chequered past. This is the work of the Portuguese neo-classical sculptor Joao Jose de Aguiar, who worked with Canova in Rome. The sculptor was forced to quit Rome in 1798, leaving his marble group behind. But a friend rescued it from the French armies and it was brought to Portugal in 1802, only to lie dismembered in Lisbon. It has now been reassembled and the queen (who was completely mad by the time her effigy was made) stands proudly before her palace. Beneath her are groups represent- ing the four continents, a fitting envoi to the centuries of Portugal’s greatness as maritime power.

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