Curated by Maria de Aires Silveira and in collaboration with the National Museum of Theater and Dance, the exhibition Otelo e Desdémona. On the stage of passion you will receive visitors right at the entrance, in the space of the MNAC Atrium. As Maria de Aires Silveira points out, “This painting is one of the best works in the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art and follows its history. At the end of the 19th century, precisely in 1881, at a time of great cultural rapprochement with Spain, the 2nd Visconde Soares Franco acquired this work, one of the most significant by the author, and made his donation to the State, to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Lisbon. In 1912, a year after the founding of MNAC, the painting is part of its collection, after the division of the National Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology. ”
Inspired by the play Otelo, by William Shakespeare (c. 1603), this painting (rarely presented, due to the limited space of the MNAC and because of the exposure of national artists), weaves strong relations with literature, history and concepts aesthetic of the time. In 1882, Companhia Rosas e Brasão, took her to the scene at the Teatro D. Maria II, with enormous success, highlighting then the innovative proposals and the participation of the scenographer Luigi Manini (1848-1936).
Thus, it can be said, as Maria de Aires Silveira points out, that “Muñoz Degrain underlines an important intersection of interests, based on a true story of passion, from the 16th century, with a fatal outcome, staged, painted and displayed on stage , from the 17th to the 19th century. ”
Come and see the painting and the history around it, until the end of August 2020.
At the MNAC, of ​​course!