This richly illustrated volume presents the earliest known treatise dedicated to portraiture - Francisco de Holanda’s On Portraiture - in its first English translation. Accompanying commentaries and essays situate Holanda’s importance within the culture of the Portuguese Renaissance. Despite its significance, the treatise has remained relatively unknown to modern scholars, and its publication here will be a revelation.
Francisco de Holanda (c. 1518-1585) was a court painter, architect, and essayist at the Lisbon court of John III, King of Portugal and Catherine of Austria. He was the son of the Flemish painter and miniaturist Antonio de Holanda (d. 1557), from whom he learned illumination and drawing. Francisco himself became an important figure in the Portuguese Renaissance. Sponsored by John III, he travelled to Italy in 1538-1540, where he produced a volume of drawings documenting fortifications and antiquities for his patron. In Rome, he frequented the home of Vittoria Colonna, who introduced him to Parmigianino, Giambologna, and Michelangelo.
These experiences deeply shaped his outlook and informed the groundbreaking treatises he later produced. Upon his return to Lisbon, he re-entered court service, propagating the Italianate style in Portugal through his writings. In 1548, he completed On Ancient Painting (Da Pintura Antigua), the first treatise on painting written in Portugal. The following year, he added an appendix of ten illustrated dialogues, On Portraiture (Do tirar polo natural), completed in 1549. Initially circulated in manuscript at the Lisbon court, On Portraiture was translated into Spanish in Madrid in 1563 by Holanda’s friend, the Portuguese court painter Manuel Denis, but remained unpublished.
This landmark volume, edited by the late John Bury together with Annemarie Jordan Gschwend and Fernando António Baptista Pereira, makes Holanda’s treatise accessible to English readers for the first time. Alongside a transcription of the Portuguese original, it offers commentaries and essays that illuminate Holanda’s role as portraitist and theorist at the Lisbon court until he died in 1585.
On Portraiture (Do Tirar polo Natural)
Francisco de Holanda
Edited by John Bury (†), Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, and Fernando António Baptista Pereira
With Alberto Cláudio Rodrigues Faria and Erik Verroken
Translations by Jeremy Roe
September/October 2026
Paperback, 270 x 195 mm
128 pages, 40 illus.
ISBN: 978-1-912168-11-8About the authors
Francisco de Holanda (1517–1585) was a Portuguese painter, architect, and humanist, widely recognised as one of the leading artistic theorists of the Iberian Renaissance. Trained at the Portuguese court and influenced by his time in Rome, he engaged with some of the foremost intellectual and artistic currents of sixteenth-century Europe, including direct contact with Michelangelo.
Among his most significant works is the treatise Do Tirar Polo Natural (On Portraiture), completed in 1549. The text occupies an important place in the history of Renaissance art theory, articulating the central role of drawing both as the basis of artistic practice and as a vehicle for intellectual and creative expression. Holanda’s reflections combine practical guidance with theoretical and philosophical considerations, situating the act of drawing within broader debates on imitation, nature, and invention. Through this work and others, Francisco de Holanda contributed to the dissemination of Italian Renaissance artistic ideals in Portugal while also shaping a distinctive theoretical voice that bridged local traditions with European humanist thought.
John Bury (1917–2017) was an art historian associated with the Warburg Institute whose scholarship focused on Renaissance Portugal, particularly the work of Francisco de Holanda. His research combined art history with the study of military and architectural theory, bringing renewed attention to Holanda as a source for understanding the intersections of art, humanism, and fortification design in the sixteenth century. Among his key publications are: “Francisco de Hollanda, a Little-Known Source for the History of Fortification in the Sixteenth Century”, (Arquivos do Centro Cultural Português 14, 1979, 163-202) and Two Notes on Francisco de Holanda (Warburg Institute Studies & Texts, London, 1981). Through these studies, Bury established Holanda not only as a theorist of art but also as a figure whose drawings and writings shed light on the technical and intellectual history of Renaissance fortifications. His work remains a touchstone for scholars exploring the broader European contexts of Portuguese Renaissance art and architecture.
Annemarie Jordan Gschwend is a distinguished art historian, curator, and independent research scholar. She earned her PhD from Brown University in 1994 with a dissertation on the court, household, and collections of Catherine of Austria, Queen of Portugal. Her scholarly expertise encompasses court culture, patronage, and material culture in Renaissance Iberia, with particular emphasis on the global exchanges between Africa, Asia, the Americas, Portugal and the Habsburg courts. Among her notable publications are Retrato de Corte em Portugal. O legado de António Moro (1552–1572) (Lisbon, 1994), The Story of Süleyman: Celebrity Elephants and Other Exotica in Renaissance Portugal (Zurich–Philadelphia, 2010), and a biography, Catarina de Áustria. A rainha colecionadora (Lisbon, 2017). Jordan Gschwend has made significant scholarly contributions, including articles, exhibition catalogue essays, and contributions to books.
With K.J.P. Lowe, Jordan co-edited the award-winning book, The Global City. On the streets of Renaissance Lisbon (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2015), granted the “Almirante Teixeira da Mota” prize by the Academia de Marinha in Lisbon in 2016. She co-curated with Lowe in 2017 the international exhibition: The Global City. Lisbon in the Renaissance, which was exhibited at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon, and in 2018, she guest curated with Dagmar Eichberger, Women. The Art of Power. Three Women from the House of Habsburg, at Schloss Ambras in Innsbruck. Jordan was decorated in 2011 by the Portuguese government with the Order of Henry the Navigator (Comendadora). In recognition of her academic contributions, she was conferred a Doctor honoris causa by the University of Lisbon in June 2023.
Fernando António Baptista Pereira is Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon. Trained in History at the University of Lisbon (1976), he later specialised in Museology (1984) and earned his PhD in Art Sciences (Art History) from FBAUL (2002). Over the course of his career, he has held several leadership positions, including President of the Pedagogical Council (2005–2012), President of the Scientific Council (2012–2017), and Director of the Centre for Research and Studies in Fine Arts (CIEBA, 2010–2016). He has published widely on Portuguese art, museology, and cultural heritage, with a special focus on Renaissance theory and Francisco de Holanda. His studies include the chapter, “Da Pintura Antiga e Do Tirar polo Natural de Francisco de Holanda: estrutura, argumento e proposta de um novo tipo de ensino artístico” in Obras Pioneiras da Cultura Portuguesa. Primeiros Tratados de Pintura (Lisbon, 2019), and the volume, co-edited with Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, On Portraiture: O Retrato. Teoria, prática e ficção (Universidade de Lisboa, 2022). Through his teaching, research, and curatorial work, Baptista Pereira has been a central figure in advancing the study of Portuguese Renaissance art and in bringing renewed attention to Francisco de Holanda’s theoretical writings within a European context.