Carlos de Azevedo

Carlos Mascarenhas Martins de Azevedo (18 May 191814 October 1995) was a Professor in the history of art and architecture and a curator at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Portugal. Considered an important figure in the promotion of Portuguese culture, as well as for his research work, he was honoured with a colloquium “Homenagem a Carlos de Azevedo” (Homage to Carlos de Azevedo) on the centenary of his birth that took place at the São Roque Museum of the Santa Casa Da Misericórdia de Lisboa in May 2018.

Early life and education Carlos de Azevedo was born in Lisbon but spent his early years in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique as his parents moved there when he was just two years old. In Mozambique he attended an English school, becoming bilingual.

Career In 1946 Carlos de Azevedo moved to England with his wife to become Portuguese Reader at the University of Oxford. He gained an MA from Wadham College and became a Fellow in 1947. Upon his return to Portugal, he firstly worked at the National Museum of Ancient Art for four years, and, in 1951, he was invited to take part in a study of the Portuguese architecture in Goa, Damão and Diu, India. The resultant book Solares Portugueses was published in 1969 with a second edition in 1988.

Carlos de Azevedo lectured both at home and abroad, specifically in London and America where he undertook a series of lectures on Portuguese art at various universities and museums in a number of cities. He also undertook research on architecture in Italy at Villa I Tatti. for example, Robert C. Smith, Professor at the School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania, whose speciality was Brazilian and Portuguese Baroque and C. R. Boxer, Camoens Professor of Portuguese studies at King's College London, whom he met while in Oxford.

Selected publications

Churches of Portugal, Photographs by Chester E. V. Brummel, New York : Scala Books, 1985, Baroque Organ-Cases of Portugal, Organ Literature Foundation, 1972, Fort Jesus and the Portuguese in Mombasa, 1593-1729, C.R. Boxer and Carlos de Azevedo, London : Hollis and Carter, 1960