In a broad context of carving commissions by private individuals and religious people, there are some carved examples, remaining, in reserve and on display at the Aveiro Museum/Santa Joana, which intersect with other items identical to each other and inserted in different sacred spaces, constituting series of a specific model of carved and gilded «sanefas» from the rocaille period. Because of its specificity, we will pay special attention to a particular case of the design and production of pelmets1 by the master carver from Aveiro, Manuel Ferreira e Sousa «filho», who was active at the end of the 18th century (1775­1790) and who deserves particular attention because of the proliferation of this model, which was so coveted by everyone. This type of pelmet was commissioned in a wide circle of influence: in the Convent of São João Evangelista of the Discalced Carmelites of Aveiro, in the Convent of Jesus of the Dominican Sisters of Aveiro, in the Church of the Presentation in the parish of Vera Cruz in Aveiro and even, in a displaced way, in the Mother Church of São João do Loure, in the municipality of Albergaria­a­Velha.

The problem of ephemerality in art has almost exclusively focussed on the Baroque and its grandiose celebrations for the elite. The metamorphosis of religious spaces that the diversity of materials and the complexification of liturgical rituals had allowed since the end of the Middle Ages and growing through­out the Modern period has rarely been addressed. Some Portuguese authors have drawn attention to «armadores» (Portuguese name for officials who used to hang textiles and other objects in churches for solemnities) and the ornamentation of churches up until the 18th century. In this work we propose, through written sources and images, particularly photography, to take a closer look at the labour, profile and transformation of these officials and their activity in the city of Porto, Portugal. in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The distance between Portugal and the Holy Places was bridged by the omnipresence of biblical references in the daily lives of the faithful. The Commissariat of the Holy Land in Portugal (1621­1833), a Franciscan institution closely tied to the Custody of the Holy Land, was dedicated to collecting and sending alms for its support, reinforcing this connection. Benefactors’ generosity was rewarded with devotional objects made in the Holy Land, crafted from olive wood and mother­of­pearl. This study aims to contextualize and analyse this practice as a mechanism for fostering piety, examining the presence of such items in Portuguese altarpieces, while considering their significance beyond their materiality.

Although this is not his best-known facet, Pedro da Silveira was a notable researcher who made important discoveries, generously shared and not always properly recognized. In this article, I present three examples that had repercussions on other literatures: Brazilian literature (with the discovery of the codex «Manual de Obras», attributed to the eighteenth-century poet Cláudio Manuel da Costa), Angolan literature (with the identification, in the pages of a newspaper, of the novella Nga Muturi, by Alfredo Troni), and the Azorean literature (with the publication of a series of texts by ancient authors in the Antologia de poesia açoriana). For all these fields, I will present new elements, thus demonstrating the persistence of Pedro da Silveira’s legacy and example.

Since musical instruments from the Romanesque period are practically non-existent, iconographic sources are particularly important to get close to the musical universe of that time. Studying the images allows us to shed a little on the way they were played, the relative dimensions of the instru-ments, their relationship with other artistic expressions, such as dance, for example, or to confirm other relevant elements. It should be noted that for the sculptors of that period, the figuration of instruments was a new challenge, since in the High Middle Ages, musical images appeared almost exclusively in illuminated manuscripts. Thus, the Romanesque period is also a period of rehearsal and discovery in this area. About the Romanesque in the Peninsula and France, it can be said that some motifs circulated between building sites, certainly due to the circulation of craftsmen and master builders. In the Portu-guese case, there are no major iconographic programmes. Figurative themes represent a small part of the sculpture, mostly ornamental sculpture of a vegetal nature, present in modillions or capitals. In terms of the variety of musical instruments, chordophones predominate; aerophones are all signalling instruments, like oliphants. However, the constructive impetus recorded in our Romanesque favoured and encouraged the introduction of new aesthetic and iconic values, to which music was called upon to make its contribution, even as a mute testimony to a very rich musical culture.

This article focuses on the Estado Novo in the early 1930s and 1940s. The aim is to examine the Portuguese colonial imaginary, based on the visual narrative developed at three exhibitions: the Great Portuguese Industrial Exhibition of 1932, the First Portuguese Colonial Exhibition in 1934, and the Colonial Section of the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940. In all cases, the Empire was exhibi-ted in miniaturised form through groups of villages and dwellings characteristic of the different colonies, including indigenous people and specimens of local fauna. These visual communication forms provided a sensual immediacy that allowed access to the general public, inspired by the staging techniques of ethnographic environments that had been established in major exhibitions since the mid-1800s. The purpose is to analyse the expositive scenographic forms used, drawing on the resulting iconographic universe, of a propagandistic nature — mainly magazines and films — seeking to understand the process of cultural objectification to which the Portuguese colonial universe was subjected.

Fragments of Muslim musical instruments have been found in archaeological excavations carried out in current Portuguese territory. However, they constitute a small number, if we compare them to other contemporary materials. This evidence is related to the fact that many were built with perishable materials, such as wood, skins, textiles, and bone. We also have some testimonies, which, as they are fragmentary, prevent their functional identification, and it is possible that others have not been duly recognised. The surviving evidences fall into the categories of aerophones, chordophones, idiophones, and membranophones or bimembranophones, having been identified in both urban and rural areas. The remains that have survived, with chronologies located between the 8th and 13th centuries, were produced in bone, shell, ceramic, or metal.

We present the description and information contained in the two bells of the Church of Santiago, in the Castle of Palmela: one dated 1673 (cast again in 1946), the other dated 1768.

Bells are one of the most important heritage assets of the Valencian cultural heritage. Since their origins, in addition to their utilitarian character, they have had a wide symbolic value that justified the presence of texts and images on them. In the present study we intend to approach the case of Valencian bells in the transition between the 16th and 17th centuries, paying special attention to the changes and continuities, as well as to the artisans who cast them.The process of change was slow and the wake of the medieval tradition, through its texts and images, survived almost until the mid-seventeenth century, leaving a unique heritage of bells that shows the symbolic complexity of the bells and their relationship with the historical, artistic and cultural context of the time.

The paper analyses the performance of I had too much coffee, by Ismael Ivo, directed by the German Ralf Schmerberg in 2002. From the audiovisual document, the human values expressed through the dancer’s body language bring forth the concepts of «colonial» and «decolonial». The audiovisual is rich in references to body language and can be interpreted through the concept of intrigue within Paul Ricœur’s narrative framework. The research examines and identifies the social meanings of coffee cultural memory by understanding virtual narratives in times of dystopia and the meanings that emerge from the concept of colonialism. The study utilises the selection of audiovi-sual material and describes the elements of document analysis based on social theory criticism, enabling us to confront contemporary impressions and the chosen memories of the past. The analy-sis yields an understanding that goes beyond the immediate perceptions enabled by entertainment, thus integrating the operative arguments of social reality.