Resumen

This article examines the relevance and enduring legacy of António Soares dos Reis as a figure in the audiovisual world, drawing on two key works of Portuguese visual culture: the documentary short film O Desterrado – Vida e Obra de Soares dos Reis (Manuel Guimarães, 1949) and the television drama Saudade: Soares dos Reis (Francisco Manso, 1995). Drawing on studies of intermediality, artist biopics and art documentaries, as well as approaches to the relationship between cinema and museums, it is argued that cinema and television do not function merely as means of reproducing the artist’s work (sculpture in this case), but rather as devices for aesthetic, narrative and memorial translation. The analysis focuses on framing, camera movement, texture, close-ups, voice and temporal organization, in order to demonstrate how the moving image revitalizes an apparently static and spatial art form, transforming the sculptural work into a focal point of visibility and a vehicle for cultural memory. By comparing a mid-20th-century documentary (1949) with a late-20th-century television drama (1995), the article argues that Portuguese audiovisual culture does not merely reproduce the work/sculpture: it reinterprets its materiality and actively contributes to the memorial and memorable construction of the artist Soares dos Reis.