Domingos, Antônio de Segueira

(1768-1837)

   From a modest background, Domingos was educated at the Casa Pia of Lisbon, after which he attended the design and figure drawing course at the Aula Régia. In 1788, while working as a decorator, he received a scholarship from Queen Maria I to study at the Portuguese Academy in Rome, where he took classes from Antônio Cavallucci. Later, he studied at the Academy of San Luca. He returned to Lisbon in 1795. He was named court painter in 1802, and codirected the decoration of the Palace of Ajudá. In 1803, he was professor of drawing and painting to the royal princesses and, in 1806, director of drawing in Oporto. His works included patriotic allegories and portraits. He contributed to the cause of Portuguese nationalism through his art. He painted Junot Protecting Lisbon (1808), Apotheosis of Wellington (1811), and, in 1821, the portraits of 33 liberal deputies.

   After the return of absolutist King Miguel I (1802-66) in 1828, Domingos went into exile in France, where he showed his work at the Louvre alongside that of other romantic painters, such as Eugéne Delacroix. His Death of Camões won a gold medal. In 1826, he settled in Rome, where he dedicated himself to religious painting, the Life of Christ (1828) and Final Judgement (1830) being the best of these. He died in Rome without returning to Portugal in 1837. His work is considered transitional from neoclassicism to romanticism.