In a north Lisbon neighbourhood, between Sporting’s football stadium and the campus sprawl of Universidade de Lisboa, is a garden. From the outside it seems discreet, but once you are inside, it is wild. A fountain is filled with lurid green frogs, snakes climb the walls, a giant wasp and alligator perch on hedges, crabs stretch out and a swan sticks its beak into the mouth of a dog.
This is Jardim Bordallo Pinheiro and the animals are the work of Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro, artist, ceramicist and titan of 19th-century Portuguese culture. He launched his factory, Fábrica de Faianças das Caldas, in 1884, creating decorative and utilitarian tableware and wider ceramic pieces, colourful and gaudy, approaching folk art, using glazed earthenware that was cheap to mass produce.
