About This Room
Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro was the most wickedly talented hand in 19th-century Portugal. Caricaturist, ceramicist, satirist — he created the Caldas da Rainha pottery tradition and the immortal everyman figure of Zé Povinho. This room carries his spirit: irreverent, craft-proud, and deeply, warmly Portuguese.
Highlights
What's Included
The Craft
Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro founded the Fábrica de Faianças in Caldas da Rainha in 1884 and proceeded to fill Portugal with irreverent, gloriously glazed ceramics. His most enduring creation was Zé Povinho — the perpetually put-upon Portuguese everyman — who has been raising his fist at authority for over 150 years. His studio still operates today. The tradition is unbroken.
Portugal laughs at itself through Bordalo's hands — and that is how it survives.