Page 73 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Lisbon

BELÉM  71

0 Museu Colecção
Berardo
Praça do Império. Map 1 B5.
Tel 213 612 878. @ 727, 728,
729, 751. v 15. £ Belém.
Open 10am–7pm daily. 7
∑ museuberardo.pt
The brainchild of business
mogul and art collector José
Manuel Rodrigues Berardo,
this fascinating gallery, located
in the Centro Cultural de
Belém, boasts around 1,000
The huge pavement compass in front of the Monument to the Discoveries works by more than 500 artists.
The Museu Colecção Berardo
royal patrons and all those who the Republic of South Africa in provides a rich compendium
took part in the development 1960. The central map, dotted of a century of modern and
of the Portuguese Age of with galleons and mermaids, contemporary art through
Discovery. The monument shows the routes of the a variety of media, from
is designed in the shape of discoverers in the 15th and 16th canvas to sculpture and
a caravel, with Portugal’s coat centuries. Inside the monument, from photography to
of arms on the sides and the a lift whisks you up to the sixth video installations.
sword of the Royal House of floor where steps then lead Among the highlights are
Avis rising above the entrance. to the top for a splendid Pablo Picasso’s Tête de Femme
Henry the Navigator stands at panorama of the river and (1909), a good example of the
the prow with a caravel in hand. Belém. The basement level is Spanish artist’s Cubist style;
In two sloping lines either side used for temporary exhibitions. several variants of Andy
of the monument are stone The monument also functions Warhol’s famous Brillo Box
statues of Portuguese heroes as an educational centre where (1964–8); Jeff Koons’s Poodle
linked with the Age of children can learn about (1991) and Balthus’s Portrait
Discovery. On the western face Portugal’s golden Age of de Femme en Robe Bleue (1935).
these include Dom Manuel I Discovery and Lisbon’s Other artists on show include
holding an armillary sphere, the chequered history. Piet Mondrian, Francis Bacon,
poet Camões with a copy of Os The Padrão is not to Willem de Kooning, Richard
Lusíadas and the painter Nuno everyone’s taste but the setting Long and Henry Moore. There
Gonçalves with a paint pallet. is undeniably splendid and the is also much Portuguese art
On the monument’s north caravel design is imaginative. on display, including Alberto
side, the huge mariner’s The monument looks Carneiro’s sculptures, etchings
compass cut into the paving particularly dramatic when by Paula Rego and dramatic
stone was a viewed from the west in the black-and-white photographs
present from light of the late afternoon sun. by Fernando Lemos.

Eastern Face of the
Monument to
the Discoveries

Afonso V (1432–81),
patron of the first explorers Pedro Álvares Cabral
(1467–1520), discoverer
Henry the Navigator of Brazil
(1394–1460)
Fernão Magalhães
Vasco da Gama (Magellan), who crossed Padrão erected by Diogo
(1460–1524) the Pacific in 1520–21 Cão in the Congo in 1482

070-071_EW_Lisbon.indd 71 17/10/16 11:34 am