The 1909 royal meeting in Vila Viçosa

The iconographic coverage in Ilustração Portuguesa

Abstract

The Kings of Portugal, Manuel II, and Spain, Alfonso XIII, met in Vila Viçosa between February 12 and 15, 1909, at a time when the Portuguese Monarchy was in crisis, threatened by the Republicans, and when Spain, on the other hand, was emerging from its crisis of the end of the 19th century. This research analyzes the iconographic narrative - including the correlative verbal text - that the illustrated weekly magazine Ilustração Portuguesa constructed of the meeting, through a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the discourse, with the aims of determining its thematic structure, explaining the proposals for generating meaning suggested for the event and understanding the concept of photographic coverage that existed at the time. It was concluded that the photographic report presents current features, such as the exploration of visual peculiarities of human interest, and dated ones, such as the dominance of general and group shots. It was also concluded that there is tension between the verbal text, which occasionally refers to the immaturity of Manuel II, and the iconographic narrative, which produces a positive impression of the meeting of the sovereigns and highlighted the association of Alfonso XIII with symbols and acts typical of a modern king, who could be a model for Manuel II.