An art historian who was particularly noted for his study of Portuguese Gothic architecture and the architecture of the Portuguese overseas world in the 16 th and 17 th centuries, particularly in India. Although he was born to parents from Alentejo, his mother was the adopted daughter of Rufina da Conceição Guimarães and Manuel Rodrigues Chicó, an agronomist of Goan descent. His admiration for this grandfather led him to take on the surname Chicó when he reached adulthood, as his parents registered him only as Mário de Sousa Tavares. His high school studies were conducted in Beja, Évora and Coimbra and it was in the latter city that he enrolled at the Escola Agrícola [ Agricultural School ] , before moving on to the Faculdade de Direito e para a Faculdade de Letras [ School of Law and the School of Arts and Humanities ] in Lisbon, where he graduated in 1935 with a degree in Historical and Philosophical Sciences. His intention to pursue his studies in the agricultural world, which was thankfully thwarted, was probably the result of some imposition or guidance from his father and Goan grandfather, while his shift towards the arts must have had the blessing of his mother, a painting student at the Escola Superior de Belas Artes [ School of Fine Arts ] , and his uncle, José de Sousa Tavares, a professor of Art History in Beja. He attended the Institute of Art and Archaeology at the University of Paris in the academic years 1937-38 and 1938-39, under the guidance of the prestigious professors Élie Lambert and Henri Focillon, thanks to a scholarship from the Instituto de Alta Cultura [ Institute of High Culture ] .

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