Luís Vaz de Camões
Um Poeta Genial / A Genious Poet
Luís de Camões is Portugal’s most iconic poet, best known for Os Lusíadas, a 16th-century epic that shaped Portuguese literary identity. By coincidence, I had already explored his work during my undergraduate studies, when I co-created Luzidias (2010) — an interactive illustrated book inspired by Os Lusíadas.Returning to Camões years later gave me the opportunity to look beyond the epic itself and focus on the author behind it — a historical figure about whom surprisingly little is known, almost as mythological as his own work. This ambiguity became a central part of my approach, shaping both the visual language and the narrative atmosphere of the illustrations.Client:Instituto Nacional da Casa da Moeda
Art Direction: Pato Lógico
Text: Isabel Alçada & Ana Maria Magalhães
Illustration: Margarida Mouta
The story of Os Lusíadas unfolds across three interconnected layers: the divine, the historical, and the journey of the Portuguese fleet to India.
In this page, I divided the layout into three sections to offer a glimpse into each of these layers. At the top, the Council of the Gods takes place on Olympus, with Jupiter presiding over the debate about the Portuguese journey, while Venus and Mars argue in their favour.
In the middle, Vasco da Gama recounts the journey and the history of Portugal to the King of Melinde.
Finally, I chose to illustrate a symbolic episode from the history Vasco recounts: the crowning of the dead Inês de Castro, who was assassinated on the orders of King Afonso IV, the father of her lover, Prince Pedro.
