This is one of the 21 illustrations produced by João Abel Manta for José Cardoso Pires’s book DinossauroExcelentíssimo (Most Excellent Dinosaur) (Lisbon: Arcádia, 1972), a satirical work about the life of António de Oliveira Salazar and the Estado Novo regime. Specifically, it is the last graphic representation to accompany the life story of the ‘Emperor’, a portrait, in the book’s ‘Epilogue’, of his fall and gradual retirement from political life, with his secret replacement – since Salazar believed he still led the government – followed by his death and funeral.

 

In the lower section of the composition, which is divided into two parts, there is a drawing representing the brain haemorrhage suffered by Salazar. In the upper part, depicting the wake for the leader of the nation, our eye is drawn to the multiplicity of graphic details of a row of various figures from Portuguese society.Figures and characters arranged side by side, organically aligned by position, of various sizes and heights, with individual features, different expressions, hairstyles and clothes, turned towards the viewer.

 

Rich in expressive detail, they exemplify the graphic quality of Abel Manta’s art, the visual and communicational density of his work, published in literary works but above all in the Portuguese press, wherethe cartoon formproliferated in the 1960s and 70s and had a far-reaching impact, despite being an expressive medium that was subject to the filter of censorship until the revolution of 25 April 1974.

 

 

 

Sandra Vieira Jürgens

May 2015