Thousands of images from collections and archives available online
Following the strategy, developed since the beginning of the century, of making its documentary collections digitally available on the Internet, the Art Library and Archives has been digitising, within the scope of the ROSSIO Project – Research Infrastructure for the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, a set of documentary cores on Portuguese art, generating approximately 600,000 new images. The Art Library is thus constituted as a library in which the digital universe is increasingly important, alongside the development of its collections in the traditional paper format.
Since last year, these newly digitised collections and archives are being made available on the Internet via the Art Library catalogue. Twenty-seven new collections and archives are currently available, from photographic collections on the most varied aspects of the history of art in Portugal to archives of artists, architects, and researchers, totaling 168,774 new images, which can be accessed and explored by any Internet user.
The new photographic collections include sections as varied as a set of over 2,500 slides on the work of João Cutileiro, 527 images on the work of the emblematic 20th century Portuguese designer Daciano da Costa, or even themes such as Portuguese noble houses, Macao Architecture, Yemen Architecture and Gothic and Manuelina Architecture.
Among the new collections of architects, we especially highlight that of architect Manuel Tainha, one of the leading figures of 20th century Portuguese architecture. It is composed by more than 3.300 documents that portray his professional activity. One can find projects such as the Piscinas do Tamariz (Estoril, 1954-1956), the Pousada de Santa Bárbara (Oliveira do Hospital, 1957-1971), the Escola Agroindustrial de Grândola (1959-1963), the Escola de Regentes Agrícolas de Évora (1960-1966), the Torres dos Olivais (Lisbon, 1961-1967), the Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação de Lisboa (1987-1990; Valmor Prize, 1991), the Building of the Municipal Council of Seixal (1990-1994; 1st prize in the competition), and the European Maritime Safety Agency Headquarters (Lisbon, 2007).
Personalities such as the designer Sebastião Rodrigues or the painter and ceramist Hein Semke can now be known by the public and studied in greater depth by specialists. Sebastião Rodrigues has 184 of his graphic projects available, and from the Hein Semke archive are available more than 17 thousand documents, including 35 Artist’s Books.
The production of one of the most important jewelers in the capital – Joalharia do Carmo – is also accessible through 857 drawings of silver pieces.
Finally, we should note the publication of the archive of one of the most renowned Portuguese art historians of the 20th century, Luís Reis Santos, which consists of more than 110,000 images documenting his intellectual production.
