MASP

By Luciano Migliaccio
The Sculptor Simões de Almeida in his Studio is the homage that Malhoa pays to the sculptor Simões de Almeida (1844-1926) who taught him and a whole generation of naturalistic artists, at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts. Simões de Almeida was the first sculpture scholarship student in the Jouffroy and Mercier atelier. Subsequently, he studied in Rome. From 1881, he was professor of drawing at the Lisbon School of Fine Arts and from 1896 onward, professor of sculpting. In this picture, the sculptor is shown transposing Pedro Álvares Cabral’s figure on to the marble, for the Gabinete Português de Leitura, in 1882-1883. The scene shows the bare atmosphere of the studio, the instruments of his craft, the compasses, and the marble dust. The wooden scaffolding structure links the space within the picture, accentuating the contrast between the enormous size of the stone and the artist’s work. Behind the white marble, a clay model, almost hidden, can be distinguished. The comparison between the two atelier interiors done by Malhoa, that of the previous picture and this one almost suggests the intention of the paragon of the arts, that were translated into visual terms. On the one hand, the physical fatigue, the sculptor’s struggle with the stone in an atmosphere in which one seems to hear the mallet striking and see the white marble chips fly off and, on the other, the painter’s silent reflection, facing his model, the carpets and the colored fabrics, illuminated by the stove’s flame.

— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998

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