Stories of an Empire

The Távora Sequeira Pinto collection documents the profound artistic connections between Portugal and the cultures of the Asian Empire.

Unlike other collections also focused on the Period of the Discoveries but usually more specialised in one or another plastic expression – such as Chinese porcelain, Indian furniture, Goan ivory or Japanese lacquers – this collection documents an extremely wide diversity of origins, typologies and materials. On the other hand, the European models adopted at the Asian workshops are also represented here. This permanent dialogue between West and East is perhaps what best defines this collection.

Avoiding a traditional and reductive reading, namely a chronological and geographical one , the exhibition seeks, with its eight different nuclei, to reveal the richness and complexity of the art produced in the commercial networks created by Portugal across Asia, in a genuine visual essay of which the collection is a remarkable example.