# Exterior view [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ARCHITECT, Portuguese]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Photo ## Commentary In Portugal, the new period, which might be seen as initiating the real Baroque architecture, began with the restoration of the Portuguese crown in 1640. Initially it was the aristocracy which made an ostentatious show of their recently regained power. The Palácio Fronteira in Benfica outside Lisbon was architecturally still indebted to Mannerist models. The perfect amalgamation of palace and park, the masterly setting of the staircase, and the varied decoration of the rooms, based on complex, cosmological calculations, were quite in line with Baroque concepts. A unique feature was the series of tile pictures using blue and white 'azulejos'. Even the walls of the garden pond had portraits of the forebears on horseback. ## Related artworks - [Detail of the decoration]() - [Detail of the decoration]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() - [Exterior view]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()