Portugal e o Museu de South Kensington: A “Prodigiosa Galeria”

Over a thirty year period, between 1862 and 1893, a group of Portuguese luminaries, among which José Silvestre Ribeiro, Sousa Holstein, Joaquim de Vasconcelos, Ricardo Guimarães (Viscount of Benalcanfôr), Jacinto António de Sousa, Avelino da Silva Guimarães and Francisco da Fonseca Benevides, alongside some of the toweringfigures in Portuguese literature, namely Ramalho Ortigão, Oliveira Martins and Fialho de Almeida, wrote on a common theme: the South Kensington Museum in London. The reasons leading up to thecreation of this museum, their views on its facilities and, chiefly, its collections, the idea of the travelling museum and the South Kensington Museum’s influence in Europe and Portugal were some of the key topics that intersect in those texts.