Guerreiros e Mártires / Warriors and Martyrs

Five Italian Franciscan friars were killed in North Africa on January 16, 1220, at the hands of Almohad Caliphate. Berardo and Otho (priests), Peter (deacon), Accursius and Adjutus (lay brothers) thus gained their fame as “the Martyrs of Morocco.” 800 years later, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga celebrates the date with the exhibition Guerreiros e Mártires ( Warriors and Martyrs), curated by Santiago Macias and Joaquim Oliveira Caetano, the director of the Museum. The exhibition, which is included in the celebrations of the Jubilee Year of the Holy Martyrs of Morocco, revolves around a crucial time for the emergence and establishment of Portugal as a nation and aims to contextualize that specific martyrdom in the political, religious, cultural and social landscape of the period. Divided into six sections, Warriors and Martyrs showcases several pieces – jewelery, luxury and everyday pottery, military pieces, monetary treasures, painting, illumination drawings, sculpture, textiles, ivory and fire arts – which contextualize and bring to the fore the period that led to the birth of the Portuguese nation. Portugal in Moorish Spain opens the exhibition with pieces that are iconic of Christian and Muslim cultures, while Living in the Time of the Crusade showcases everyday objects from these two civilizations. Iconography of the Martyrs in Morocco addresses the creation of iconography and the early days of the cult of those martyrs, while Warcraft recounts war stories from both cultures. Praying depicts religious life in Christian and Muslim contexts, whereas Identification of a Country showcases the contributions of both cultures to the construction of Portuguese identity.

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