Carneiro (Da Sylva), Joaquim

Carneiro (Da Sylva), Joaquim a Portuguese engraver and writer, was born at Oporto in 1727. He went to Brazil at the age of twelve, and became a pupil of Joao Gomez, at Rio de Janeiro. He not only studied art, but also became a skilful musician, and made himself acquainted with literature. He went to Lisbon in 1756, and in the following year visited Rome to study its masterpieces. An order of Don Francisco d'Almeida called back all Portuguese who were staying in that city, but Carneiro went to Florence to perfect himself there in his art. In 1769 he was placed at the head of an engraving school attached to the royal printing house at Lisbon. Some time after that he was a teacher of design in the royal college. He died at Lisbon in 1818. He left a great number of engravings, among which are, The Child Jesus carried by Saint Joseph; The Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, etc. He also translated several useful books from the French into the Portuguese language, such as, Les Elements de Geometrie de Clairant (Lisbon, 1772): —and the Traite Thoriue des Carctes ract Typogracphiques (1802). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Géneralé, s.v.