Unveiling the Landscape. Theoretical Knowledge and Practices in the Representation of Portuguese Cities

Abstract Having the Portuguese landscape as a backdrop, this article unveils scientific contents and resources applied to the production of urban iconography (comprising both cartography and vedute ), from the end of the 16th to the nineteenth century. To this end, and focusing on the Portuguese context, a panoramic recognition of the Portuguese theoretical and drawing collection is provided, together with the analysis and graphic speculation over the city of Braga’s iconography in order to understand the assumptions and followed procedures in its outline. In the pursuit of such an objective, the articulation among systematised scientific contents (namely practical geometry and perspective), and drawing’s intrinsic qualities (verisimilitude, imagination and discourse) is taken under consideration, which progressively shaped and qualified the resolution of such images. However, it should be borne in mind that such representations are grounded in the convergence of scientific and artistic knowledge and procedures, as well as symbolic and rhetorical issues.