José Silos Franco (Sobreiro, Mafra, 19 March 1920 -

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, 14 April 2009) was a Portuguese potter and sculptor. Franco was born into a humble family of potters and started developing his artistic style from a very young age. He was influenced both by the popular art of pottery and also by more high level clay artists, like

Joaquim Machado de Castro Joaquim Machado de Castro (19 June 1731 – 17 November 1822) was one of Portugal's foremost sculpture, sculptors. He wrote extensively on his works and the theory behind them, including a full-length discussion of the statue of Joseph I of Por ...

. He especially cultivated religious art, making many Nativity Scenes. The greatest accomplishment of Franco was his "Aldeia Típica de José Franco" ("Typical Village of José Franco"), an open air museum that recreates a model village from the Mafra region as it might have existed during the first decades of the 20th century, in Sobreiro. Franco's art was admired in Portugal and abroad, by people like actor Raul Solnado and the Brazilian writer

Jorge Amado Jorge Amado ( 10 August 1912 – 6 August 2001) was a Brazilian writer of the modernist school. He remains the best-known of modern Brazilian writers, with his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in film, includi ...

, who owned a collection of his works. One of Franco's Nativity Scenes was offered to

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

, who blessed it. In Franco's last years, he asked the Rotary Club of Mafra to help him create the José Franco Foundation and a School for Arts and Works.

References

1920 births 2009 deaths Portuguese potters Portuguese Roman Catholics 20th-century Portuguese sculptors Portuguese male sculptors 20th-century Portuguese male artists 20th-century ceramists {{Portugal-sculptor-stub