The aim of this investigation was to study the use of astrological symbols in two mural paintings by the twentieth century Portuguese artist José Sobral de Almada Negreiros (1893–1970), known as Almada. Dating from 1939, the paintings are situated in the public hall of the Diário de Notícias newspaper building in Lisbon, designed by the architect Porfírio Pardal Monteiro. One painting, Planisfério, represents a world map surrounded by the four elements and the twelve zodiac signs, while the second, the Hours’ Cycle, represents the stages of producing a newspaper in twenty-four hours of a day.
Although Almada was widely studied, not all his works received the same attention and these paintings were not analysed in depth, particularly the significance of their astrological symbols. However, considering the paintings’ size and visibility, as well as Almada’s consistent intention given to everything he painted, it can be thought that they should have impacted the presence and development of astrology in Portugal. Therefore, this investigation has tried to enrich the understanding of Almada’s relationship with astrology.
Almada’s interest in astrology possibly came from his friend Fernando Pessoa, who was a poet and astrologer aware of the astrological knowledge of the late nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, in particular the work of the astrologer Alan Leo. However, Almada’s studies went deeper, pursuing the ancient knowledge of Greek philosophy and culture, particularly through Plato’s ideas, but also through Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Homer.
Almada was probably commissioned by the architect Monteiro who was his friend and, as the artist wrote to his wife, Sarah Afonso, he was given total liberty to create the paintings. Considering that they were located in a public hall with big windows that made the interior of the room clearly seen from the outside, particularly the mural Planisfério, the relevance the artist gave to the astrological symbols is worth noting. Possibly Almada wanted to make astrology visible, sharing it through images that could easily reach more people, even the illiterate, returning to people the ancient knowledge he considered lost and was seeking for. However, it appears that Almada intended to do it from an astronomical or cosmological perspective dedicated to cosmic architecture rather than interpretative astrology.
These paintings reveal that Almada assumed a relationship between earth and sky, a relation between man’s life and the stars which is also present in some of his written works. However, the analyses of the paintings reveal that he would have seen each realm differently – the earth as objective and the sky, subjective. The paintings showed a deeper study of the four elements than the zodiac signs, revealing Almada’s profound knowledge about Greek philosophy and culture, especially of Plato. Thus, Almada showed an intention to study astrology’s foundations and not only what contemporary astrologers were writing.
Almada followed some medieval traditions: the mappa mundi and celestial maps in Planisfério and the labours of the months in the Hours’ Cycle, revealing his interest in ancient knowledge although reworked within the context of contemporary modernist culture, thought and art. Planisfério presents a composition in three levels that may show how he understood the cosmos, with different parts. At the centre is the world map, the terrestrial and concrete level, surrounded by the elemental composition of the world represented by the four elements, ending in the zodiac signs which relate to the star constellations of the ecliptic. In the Hour’s Cycle the sun and moon were related with the cycle of daily hours, reinforcing the idea that Almada’s interest was in the mechanics of the cosmos – its cycles and movements and their possible consequences on life on earth.
Time and space, are consistently present in these paintings in both ancient and modern ways, and they can be associated to astrology and geometry respectively, which are fundamental to an understanding of the cosmos. Considering the extensive work of Almada in the discipline of geometry, seeking its origins, it might be the case that the artist intended to do the same with astrology but at some point clearly focused in the pursue of geometry, as his interest in astrology was not so evident as in geometry in his later work.
The paintings studied are testimony to Almada’s thinking about the cosmos and man’s relation with it, providing proof of the presence of astrology in the Portuguese society of the 1930s and 1940s, and their study is a contribution to the history of astrology in Portugal.
