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III Centenary of the Passarola of Bartolomeu de Gusmão

The shape of the commemorative medal-object takes on a verticality that is accentuated by the bands and the arrangement of the elements set out in a rhythmic sequence, to describe the ascending trajectory of a balloon.
According to the author, António Canau, "...this formal solution used a hoax to hide something close to the true object; this is what Bartolomeu de Gusmão did when he purposefully disclosed something that did not have anything to do with his invention, in order to protect it from third parties. This action taken by Bartolomeu de Gusmão was so successful that nowadays we often believe that his invention was the passarola and not the balloon, as the design he used as a decoy included the shape of a bird, and the rest of the design was far from the shape of a hot air balloon."