17th to 21st century
Sacred art
Luso-Brazilian sacred art is the centre of this house. It was for its sake that David Musse left the textile trade for antiques, and it is from it that most of what fills the two rooms comes.
The Portuguese brought the canon. In Brazil it mixed with our own culture — with new light, warmth and sensuality: the flesh tones grew warmer, the estofado gained flowers, and the saints came to resemble those who prayed to them. Saint Benedict and Balthazar the Magus are not pious exceptions — they are the portrait of a country that made of its sculpture a mirror.
In 2017 the house curated, with Charles Cosac, the exhibition Arte Sacra XVII–XXI, setting three centuries of religious sculpture alongside contemporary work. It is the same reading that organises the Lisbon gallery today.
Selection
See the collection →
Saint Benedict of the Flowers
Brazil · 17th–18th century
Balthazar, the Magus King
Brazil
Saint Francis of Paola
Brazil, Pernambuco · 18th century
Saint Joseph in Boots
Brazil · 18th century
Saint Anne Teaching the Virgin
Brazil · 18th century
Christ of the Resurrection
Brazil · 17th–18th century
The Christ Child
Brazil · 18th century
Our Lady of the Conception
Brazil · 18th century
Risen Christ upon a Cloud
Brazil · 18th century