1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sequeira, Domingo Antonio de

SEQUEIRA, DOMINGO ANTONIO DE (1768-1837), Portuguese painter, was born at Lisbon in 1768, and studied art first at the academy of Lisbon, and subsequently under A. Cavallucci in Rome. By the age of thirteen he had evinced such marked talent that F. de Setubal employed him as assistant in his work for the Joao Ferreiras Palace. Sequeira sojourned in Rome from 1788 to 1794, when he was made honorary member of the Academy of St Luke. After another two years' travel and study in Italy, he returned to his native country preceded by so great a reputation that important commissions for churches and palaces were immediately entrusted to him — scriptural subjects, large historical compositions and cabinet pictures. In 1802 he was appointed first court painter, in which capacity he executed many works for the prince regent, for Donna Maria Teresa, and for the members of the court. He designed the valuable silver service which was presented by the Portuguese nation to Wellington, and a monument that was erected in 1820 in the Rocio square at Lisbon. In 1823 he visited Paris, where he is known to have tried his skill in lithography and etching. The last years of his life he spent in Rome, devoting himself chiefly to devotional subjects and to his duties as head of the Portuguese Academy. He died in Rome in 1837. His best-known pictures are the “Last Moments of the Poet Camoens,” “Flight into Egypt,” “Ugolino,” the “St Bruno” at the Lisbon Academy, and the “Descent from the Cross.” Numerous paintings by Sequeira are in the royal palace at Mafra, the convent of Laveinas, the new palace of Ajuda, and in the principal palaces and churches of Lisbon.