The Four Elements of the Universe

The construction of the octagonal tower of the Jesuit University was funded by
António Franco, and the edifice was an opportunity for the elaboration of an
innovative iconographic program.

The octagonal tower is a hall that serves to connect four corridors of the University
buildings. The construction was funded by António Franco, a teacher of Latin and
Rhetoric, and the edifice was an opportunity for the elaboration of an innovative
project, as the Jesuit teacher could assign an iconographic program without the
restrictions that tradition imposed on other areas of the University, such as the great
hall, the library or the classrooms.

The works had started in 1726, but the tiles were placed only in the early 1740s and,
therefore, probably commissioned after the death of António Franco, deceased in
1732.

The dome, with four large windows, brought a new source of light for this crossing
area and inside, on the top, there are four polychromed terracotta angels. In displaying
the coat of arms of Archbishop D. Henrique, the Society of Jesus, the Portuguese Royal
House and the City of Évora, the angels represent the main institutions responsible for
the creation of the University. Above, on the walls, tile panels, in blue and white,
depict the the four fundamental elements of nature.

These elements are concepts of Aristotelian Physics, which aims to define the whole
process of transformation of the matter. Of course, this idea is also present in the
Commentary of the Eight Books of Physics written, in the late sixteenth century, by the
Jesuit teacher and philosopher Manuel de Góis, who underlined the presence of a
creative driving force as an essential property of natural elements:

It is because the elements can be understood as a certain and definite place

in the world, to which they are linked by an innate propensity or a
movement of their own. They are also the first bodies subject to generation
 and corruption, which had given all other sublunar bodies the cause of birth
and death.

In the tile panels, the essential elements of nature, identified by the titles in the
cartouche, are symbolized by gods of classical mythology. The water is personified by
Neptune, the god of the sea, the air by Eolo, the keeper of the winds, the fire by the
Almighty Jupiter, and the earth by a trio of the deities: Cybele, Ceres, and Bacchus.

To represent the mythological themes, the tile painter freely used a series of Étienne
Baudet prints, engraved in 1695, as a model. In turn, the French engraver, a recognized
member of the Royal Academy of Paris, reproduced a famous group of paintings by
Francesco Albani, which today remains in the Sabauda Gallery in Turin.

During the same period, the Great Lisbon Workshop, which brought together the tile
painters Nicolau de Freitas, Joaquim de Brito e Silva, Valentim de Almeida, Sebastião
de Almeida, and José dos Santos Pinheiro made the tiles for the Jesuit College of the
Santo Antão-o-Novo, in Lisbon.

Like a rhetorical discourse, António Franco’s tower decoration makes use of the figures
of personification, allegory, and metaphor in a visual language. Enriched by the appeal
of classical mythology, the tile panels and the four heraldic angels operate as a
metaphor, in such a way that the Archbishop of Évora, the Society of Jesus, the
Portuguese Royal House, and the City of Évora are compared and qualified as the
natural elements of the creation of the University of Évora.

It is a relatively simple program, but with the peculiarity of presenting itself as a

symbolic representation of the Jesuit University of Évora. In its simplicity, using basic
concepts of Aristotelian Physics, the set is also a lesson in the best tradition of the
Jesuit didactic method.
Element de l'Air, Étienne Baudet, 1695. ©Rijksmuseum
Angel with Society of Jesus christogram, c.1740. © Teresa Verão