The architecture of a consul for a consul: Palladianism and Republicanism in John Whitehead's work at Oporto during João de Almada's office

Abstract

This Dissertation examines the interrelationships between Palladianism and Republicanism in Oporto during the government (1757–1786) of João de Almada e Melo (1703–1786). It focuses on the architecture which the British Consul – John Whitehead (1726–1802) – built in the city, questions why the former sponsored the architectural style of the latter, and considers how this initiative, of introducing a Palladian nature in the rectification of a Medieval fabric, formed part, within the context of the Inquisition and a non-constitutional monarchy, of a broader perspective, encompassing an empathy for an alternative form of governing and being governed. Drawing on the study of the ideology of the patronage of English Palladianism, on the analysis of the political thoughts that seem to have been expressed by John Whitehead and João de Almada, and on the subsequent identification of the connection between these discourses and the order of the Palladian theory and practice, THE ARCHITECTURE OF A CONSUL FOR A CONSUL reads John Whitehead’s all’antica architecture in Oporto as the physical object of the idea of an abstract Respublica Felix where, in the image of the heads of state of one of the periods of ancient Rome, João de Almada performed like a Roman consul. This reading, fundamentally derived from primary sources, is supported by the contents in available texts published during the post-English Civil War (1642–1651) era. Moreover by examining the political model of Andrea Palladio’s (1508–1580) homeland – La Serenissima – as a vehicle for approaching Antiquity, this fostered the republican analogy that rose to prominence in England in the course of the Glorious Revolution (1688). Evidence is also to be found in correspondence recounting John Whitehead’s political and religious ideas; in the tracts that were published in Oporto under João de Almada’s patronage; and in the treatises, which promoted the taste for importing Palladianism into the English architectural arena of the first half of the eighteenth century. Specific visits to personally examine the works by Andrea Palladio, the introducer of Palladianism in England – Inigo Jones (1573–1652) –, and a schoolfellow of John Whitehead – John Carr of York (1723–1807) –, as well as the production and presentation of analytical drawings, identifying a common stylistic grammar, allow verification of how Palladian the Palladianism that John Whitehead and João de Almada left in Oporto actually is. Finally this opens to conjecture and further investigation influence of this legacy in Oporto’s architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.