Joanine period frame

The name is a matter of dates. English Wikipedia says the Cycle of the Masters, the Ciclo dos Mestres, coincided with the reign of King João V (1706-1750), so the style is also called Joanine. It names the main designers of the early 18th century: António Pereira, Manuel dos Santos, the workshop of António de Oliveira Bernardes and his son Policarpo, the monogrammist P.M.P. with Teotónio dos Santos and Valentim de Almeida, and Bartolomeu Antunes with his pupil Nicolau de Freitas.

Frames did more than decorate. A cartela, in Portuguese Wikipedia's definition, is a motif at its height in the Baroque that serves as ground for an image or scene to set it apart; it may be a scroll or shield whose curled corners or plant elements act as a frame. The same period saw the figura de convite: a cut-out life-size figure of a footman, lady or warrior, placed in an entrance in a welcoming gesture. English Wikipedia says P.M.P. invented it and that it occurs only in Portugal. From the 1740s the heavy frame gave way to lighter Rococo panels.