About this sheet
This engraving shows the great palace and convent of Mafra in Portugal on a distant hilltop, with the mountains of Sintra rising beyond, and a long column of soldiers marching along a winding road in the foreground. The plate is lettered "Distant View of Mafra and the Mountains of Cintra." beneath the image, using the older spelling of Sintra, with the engraver's credit "Heath, sculp." at lower right and the imprint "London, Published by Thomas Kelly, Paternoster Row, March 22 1817."
The road climbs from the lower left across a steep green hillside toward the palace, the marching troops strung out along it with their muskets shouldered. At the right a cloaked figure in a broad hat stands by a stone wall outside a cottage, watching them pass, and white houses dot the valley below the peaks.
Mafra lies north west of Lisbon and is dominated by the vast baroque palace, basilica and convent built for King John V in the eighteenth century, while the hills of Sintra rise to the south. During the Peninsular War the country between Lisbon and these hills was crossed again and again by British, Portuguese and French armies, and the column of soldiers on the road gives the view the feel of that campaign. Thomas Kelly issued a number of Portuguese and Spanish views in 1817, and this plate belongs with them.
Kelly of Paternoster Row was one of the most successful London publishers of books issued in weekly parts, illustrated with small dated plates such as this. The engraving is printed in black only and has never been colored, and the engraver has given the landscape a fine sense of distance.
This Mafra engraving will appeal to collectors of Portuguese views, of the Peninsular War and of Wellington's campaigns, and it would look well framed in a study or library, or with other Iberian views of the period.
Condition: Good condition for its age. Light toning with a few faint spots and light soiling to the margins. Please review the images for further condition details.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
