Machado de Castro

Why this artist matters now

Joaquim Machado de Castro was Portugal's preeminent late eighteenth-century sculptor, working primarily in marble and bronze. He modeled monumental equestrian statues and public commemorative works that defined the neoclassical idiom in Portuguese sculpture. Unusually for a sculptor of his era, Machado de Castro documented his own practice in detailed theoretical writings, most notably his 1810 analytical account of the equestrian statue of King Joseph I, which serves as both artistic manifesto and technical record. His work established a foundation for Portuguese sculpture well into the nineteenth century.