Mural history
The artist João Fazenda has created a visual history of mural painting for this space, evoking some of its moments. 2025.
The first known paintings were made on the walls of caves inhabited by prehistoric humans. Numerous pre-classical, classical and later civilizations created painted images on walls, showing daily activities and the flora and fauna of the surrounding environment, glorifying gods and leaders, and conveying religious and political messages. These paintings did not always have a representational function: rather, they were used for summoning or warding off spirits, propitiating bountiful harvests, or celebrating special events.
As primeiras pinturas que se conhecem foram feitas nas paredes de cavernas habitadas pelos seres humanos da pré-história. Inúmeras civilizações pré-clássicas, clássicas e posteriores, pintaram nas paredes, mostrando as atividades do quotidiano, a flora e fauna da região, glorificando deuses e reis, transmitindo mensagens religiosas e políticas. Nem sempre essas pinturas tiveram a função de representar: tinham antes o papel de convocar ou afastar espíritos, augurar boas colheitas, ou celebrar acontecimentos.
Although it never disappeared entirely, mural painting experienced a new impetus in the 20th century in its decorative and political functions.
In the West, mural painting reached a period of great development at the end of the Middle Ages and in the Italian Renaissance, especially the fresco technique, which consisted of applying colored pigments mixed with water to freshly laid plaster. This process gave excellent quality and durability to the paintings. Throughout the 16th century, artists developed mixed techniques of fresco and secco to expand the range of possibilities for mural painting. The secco technique involves mixing the pigment with a binding agent such as egg white, glue or oil so that the paint adheres to the wall. Although it never disappeared entirely, mural painting experienced a new impetus in the 20th century in its decorative and political functions, and was used to promote modern life (in nightclubs and cafes, for example) and to convey the propaganda of dictatorial regimes, as well as revolutionary and resistance messages.
Almada's paintings for Alcântara and Rocha do Conde de Óbidos mix fresco and dry techniques, and the restoration process involved testing various possible combinations of materials. Several of these tests can be seen in the Interpretive Centre (provided by the restoration company Nova Conservação). The restoration was carried out thanks to fundraising by the World Monuments Fund and was filmed by filmmaker Graça Castanheira.
Artist João Fazenda created a visual history of mural painting for the Interpretive Centre, evoking some of its moments: cave painting, the painting of the ancient Egyptians, Classical Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Aztec art, the Renaissance and Mannerism, the painted walls of Lunda in Angola, Almada Negreiros himself painting the Gares Marítimas, the Mexican muralists, Miró, the walls covered with the murals of the PREC (Revolutionary Period in Progress) that followed the Revolution of 25 April 1974, and the Street Art, official or clandestine, that we see on city walls today.