Portugal has a rich tradition of country houses and manors indigenously known as solares or quintas. Some were modelled on the great 18th century gardens of Le Notre and other landscape architects in France. Under King Joao, himself a great patron of the arts, began the great 18th century period of Portuguese baroque. The previous austere architectural style albeit heavily influenced by renaissance Italy was replaced with exuberance. With great profits from its colonies and most especially gold and precious stones from Minas Gerias and the Sertao of Sao Paulo in Brazil, it was the golden era of Portuguese architecture and ornament.
From it there emerged a new artistic language. Named the Joanine, in honour of the king, it was an architectural style that transformed quintas not only in Portugal but also in the nation’s Atlantic provinces and overseas colonies. This spectacular sundial , monumental in scale incorporates many architectural elements synonymous with the baroque architecture of the mid 18th century.
It was a highly creative Italian who created a style of this style of architecture perfectly suited to Northern Portugal. Born in 1691 and trained in Sienna Nicolau Nasoni arrived in Oporto in 1725. Having established his reputation modernising the city’s cathedral, he was commissioned by Jeronimo de Tavora e Noronha to build the Church of Clerigos, one of Oporto’s great 18th century churches. Commissions for other churches and quintas followed of which the most well known is the grand solar de Mateus, known all over the world for the rose wine bearing its name.
The architectural composition of this sundial probably owes more to the façade of the Cas dos Porto Carreiro. Commissioned by Antonio de Vasconcelos Carvalho e Menezes, a wealthy Portugese noble who made part of his wealth in Brazil it was constructed by a Spanish architect but heavily influenced by Nasoni’s work. The volute scrolls and the foliate elements as well as the stylized lambrequins all echo Nasoni’s designs for the gilt woodwork of Oporto churches.
Garden ornament
Garden statue
