1st Lisbon Contemporary Jewellery Biennial

COLLOQUIUM

PROTECTION

THE MASK, PROTECTION AND ELEGANCE

Denis Bruna (FR)

RELICS AND OBJECTS OF PROTECTION

IN THE HISTORICAL HERITAGE OF MUSEUM AND CHURCH OF SÃO ROQUE

Teresa Morna

PROTECTIVE OBJECTS IN THE PHARMACY MUSEUM COLLECTION

João Neto

BUYING TO PROTECT: HOARDING THROUGH JEWELLERY

AND GOLD ORNAMENTS IN PORTUGAL (16TH-20TH CENTURIES)

Gonçalo de Vasconcelos e Sousa

Moderated by Kirstin Kennedy

18 September, Saturday

10h–13h

Brotéria

Teresa Morna

RELICS AND OBJECTS OF PROTECTION IN THE HISTORICAL HERITAGE OF MUSEUM AND CHURCH OF SÃO ROQUE The idea of protection is present in several dimensions of the heritage of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa. This notion is implicit in the structuring mission of the Institution, due to the charge it holds in supporting the most vulnerable and needy population, and also due to the responsibility it assumes in the conservation of its historical, artistic, religious and social heritage. This concept is also evident in the mission of the Museum of São Roque, whose primordial responsibility is to conserve the cultural assets it has in its custody so that they may be fully enjoyed. The same idea is particulary evident in its collections, especially the treasure of reliquaries whose original function was to protect sacred relics. This universe also includes objects that go beyond the religious and embrace a social dimension, a good example of which is the collection of signs of the exposed preserved in the Historical Archive of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa.

TERESA MORNA is director of the Museum of São Roque / Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisbo. In this quality, she has undertaken the co-ordination of the activities of the Museum of São Roque in its different sections, highlighting the scientific coordination of the renovation project and the promotion of the improvement programme of the Church of São Roque, through the implementation of conservation and restoration actions, highlighting, the renovation project of the Chapel of São João Baptista.

Slide

PROTECTIVE OBJECTS IN THE PHARMACY MUSEUM COLLECTION. «The Goa Stone was a secret medicine of the Jesuit apothecaries of the 17th century, being a man-made version of the Bezoar Stones, to which other medicinal substances were incorporated. Made from paste of bezoar stones, clay, iodine, crushed shells, amber, musk, resin and sometimes strange materials such as shavings of narwhal horn (thought to be a unicorn), precious stones, coral and pearls. It was known as an antidote to the venom of the bites of snakes, scorpions and insects.» This is one of the objects of protection of the Pharmacy Museum that João Neto will present in his communication.

JOÃO NETO is director of the Museu da Farmácia and president of APOM – Associação Portuguesa de Museologia [Portuguese Association of Museology].

Slide

BUYING TO PROTECT: HOARDING THROUGH JEWELLERY AND GOLD ORNAMENTS IN PORTUGAL (16TH-20TH CENTURIES). In Portugal, the tradition of acquiring pieces of jewellery and gold ornaments, both women and men, was a way of achieving a set of social and aesthetic functions, which may perhaps reach a much more varied range than one can think. Due to the value of the precious metals and/or the gems used in them, one of the functions of the jewel or the gold adornment was to constitute a resource that the owner could help themselves to in times of economic, structural or simply conjunctural needs. Sometimes the object was sold, other times it was pawned, and it can be redeemed later. On several occasions of financial difficulties, naturally on a different scale, the different social classes used their precious ornaments to sell or pawn to certain people in exchange for money. There is some documentation regarding the sale of pieces, but the most abundant and studied documentary information is related to the pawning of pieces of jewellery and gold ornaments, with information from the 16th to the 20th century. A set of historically localized situations will be referenced in which the precious ornaments served as economic safeguard of its possessors, illustrating the role of pieces of this nature in the protection of the individual in the face of problems of lack of economic resources. Gonçalo de Vasconcelos e Sousa

GONÇALO DE VASCONCELOS E SOUSA (Porto, 1970) is full Professor at the School of Arts of the Portuguese Catholic University, where he is president of the Scientific Council. He earned a PhD in 2002 and Aggregate Professor in History of Art, Arts Faculty of Porto University since 2006, where he defended his master’s dissertation in 1997. Director of CIONP (Silver and Goldsmithing Centre in the North of Portugal) and former director of CITAR (Research Centre for Science and Technology of the Arts), from 2011-2016. Fellow of the Portuguese Academy of History, since 2003, and of the National Fine Arts Academy, since 2001. He chaired the board of Círculo Dr. José de Figueiredo/Friends of Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, Porto between 1997 and 2006.

KIRSTIN KENNEDY is curator of English and European silver at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She is also managing editor of Jewellery History Today, the magazine of the UK Society of Jewellery Historians.