Museu Nacional de Belas Artes
Encyclopedia
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (MNBA, Portuguese
for National Museum of Fine Arts) is a national art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro
, Brazil
. The museum, officially established in 1937 by the initiative of education minister Gustavo Capanema, was inaugurated in 1938, by president Getúlio Vargas
. The museum collection, on the other hand, takes its rise in the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil
in the early 19th century, when King John VI
brought along with him part of the Portuguese
Royal Collection. This art collection stayed in Brazil after the King's return to Europe
and became the core collection of the National School of Fine Arts
. When the museum was created in 1937, it became the heir not only the National School collection, but also of its headquarters, a 1908 eclectic style building projected by Spanish
architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos.
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is one of the most important cultural institutions of the country, as well as the most important museum of Brazilian art
, particularly rich in 19th century painting
s and sculpture
s. The collection includes more than 20,000 pieces, among paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, of Brazilian and international artists, ranging from High Middle Ages
to contemporary art. It also includes smaller assemblages of decorative arts, folk
and African art
. The museum library
has a collection of about 19,000 titles. The building was listed as Brazilian national heritage
in 1973.
Although the museum was officially established on January 13, 1937 and inaugurated on August 19, 1938, its history is much older, ranging back to the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil in 1808. Fleeing the invasion of Portugal
by French troops
, King John VI established himself in Rio de Janeiro, bringing with him an assemblage of works of art
which originally belonged to the Portuguese Royal Collection. After the king's return to Europe, a major part of this collection stayed in Brazil and is identified as the main core of European art in the museum. The collection was later enlarged by Joachim Lebreton
, a French
artist who led the French Artistic Mission that came to Brazil in 1816 to help organise the arts in the country.
The French Artistic Mission was charged by John VI to organise the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts in Rio de Janeiro. Its first building — designed by French Neoclassical
architect Grandjean de Montigny — was inaugurated in 1826, by Brazilian Emperor Peter I
. On the occasion of the building's inauguration, the Royal School was renamed Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In the following decades, the Imperial Academy, heir of John VI's holdings, was able to expand this collection, gathering an important assemblage of paintings and forming a glyptotheque
.
After the proclamation of the Republic in 1889, the Imperial Academy was renamed Escola Nacional de Belas Artes
(National School of Fine Arts). The school remained in its original building in the following years. But in the 1900s, the center of Rio de Janeiro was extensively remodeled following the models of Parisian
urbanisation. Between 1906 and 1908, a new building was constructed for the National School of Fine Arts
in the Central Avenue (now Avenida Rio Branco
), very close to the new main square of the city (the Cinelândia
).
The style of the new building, designed by Spanish
architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos, is clearly inspired by the Louvre Museum in Paris. But during the construction the project was modified, possibly by Rodolfo Bernardelli and, later, by Archimedes Memoria. As a result, the building presents an eclectic design, with facades modeled after different styles. The main façade toward Avenida Rio Branco is inspired by French Renaissance
, with pediment
, colonnade
and terracotta relief
s representing Ancient civilizations, as well as medallions painted by Henrique Bernardelli, portraying members of the French Artistic Mission and renowned Brazilian artists. The side façades are plainer and make reference to Italian Renaissance
. They are adorned with Parisian mosaic
s with figures of architects, painters and art theorists, such as Vasari
, Vitruvius
and da Vinci
. The back façade is strictly Neoclassical, decorated with reliefs executed by Edward Cadwell Spruce. The interior decoration is based in the use of noble materials, such as marble
, mosaics, stucco
, crystal
, French ceramic
and statuary. The building was listed as a national heritage work on May 24, 1973.
The construction was finished in 1908. This same year, the school and its art collection started being transferred to the new headquarters. The painting collection was installed on the third floor. The collection of plaster copies of ancient statues, used in art classes, was installed on the second floor, with a museographic project specially developed for them. The fourth floor was conceived to house the administrative offices and studios for practical classes. In 1931, the school was incorporated by the University of Rio de Janeiro.
When the museum was created in 1937 by the education minister Gustavo Capanema, it inherited the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes' holdings and was installed in its headquarters; the school's administrative offices, studios and most of the courses stayed in the building. During the 1940s and 1950s, some courses were transferred to other locations. In 1975, the remaining courses were transferred to a modern building on the university main campus (Ilha do Fundão), projected by Jorge Moreira. On the occasion of this transfer, the collection, until then shared by both the museum and the school, was dismembered. Most of the art collection stayed with the museum, and an assemblage of documents, "didactic" works of art or artworks produced in pedagogic activities, as well as the Jeronymo Ferreira das Neves collection (donated to the art school in 1947) was transferred to the Ilha do Fundão campus, serving as core collection of the university's Museu Dom João VI. After the transfer, the Fundação Nacional de Artes (National Arts Foundation) was installed in the school's former rooms.
In the 1980s some serious structural problems were detected in the building. Since they represented a major threat to the preservation of the collection, the museum passed through a series of reforms, with the aim of modernizing the exhibition areas and reformulating the museographic project and, at the same time, preserving the building original style and decoration. In the mid-1990s, the Fundação Nacional de Artes was transferred to another location and the museum was finally able to occupy the whole building. Currently, the museum counts with 6,733.84 square meters of exhibition area and a deposit of 1,797.32 square meters. In addition to the exhibition areas and technical/administrative rooms, the museum possesses laboratories of conservation and restoration and studios for plaster
molding
.
The museum library specializes in 19th and 20th century art. Besides the collection of about 19,000 titles, it comprises more than 12,000 audivisual items, iconographic and textual documents, rare books, newspapers, magazines, catalogues, and other materials related to the institution's history, from the Imperial Academy to nowadays. In addition to permanent and temporary exhibitions, the museum organises educational activities for the general public and art education
programs for teachers, with the aim of diffusing and granting a better understanding of the Brazilian cultural heritage.
.
concerning to the French Artistic Mission
, 19th century and early 20th century painting, even in analogous conditions. The collection includes several works by Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, Jean-Baptiste Debret
, Félix Taunay
, Victor Meirelles
(more than 150 works, including The First Mass in Brazil and Battle of Guararapes), Pedro Américo
(Battle of Avaí, Moses and Jochebed, etc.), Almeida Júnior
(Countrymen stalking, The Brazilian lumberjack, etc.), Manuel de Araújo Porto-alegre
, Pedro Weingärtner
, Rodolfo Amoedo
, Zeferino da Costa, Henrique Bernardelli, Eliseu Visconti, Castagneto, Hipólito Caron, Antônio Parreiras
, and many others.
Although the painting collection is particularly strong concerning the 19th century, it also includes representative paintings of the Colonial period
, such as works by Manuel da Cunha, Leandro Joaquim and Manuel Dias de Oliveira. The modern section includes a modest assemblage of paintings by artists closely related to the Modern Art Week (Anita Malfatti
, Tarsila do Amaral
, Di Cavalcanti
, Lasar Segall
, Vicente do Rego Monteiro
, etc.) and a more representative collection of modernist painters active in the 1930s and on (Cândido Portinari
, Djanira, Guignard, Cícero Dias, Alfredo Volpi
, Maria Leontina, Ivan Serpa, Iberê Camargo
, etc.). Among the contemporary names, the collection includes Hélio Oiticica
, Paulo Pasta and Eduardo Sued.
section is the smallest among the museum's departments of Brazilian art and also has its origins in the holdings of the former National Academy. Several artworks in the collection were acquired through the transfer of works produced by artists who were granted a subvention by the government to study in Europe. The sculptor Rodolfo Bernardelli, who was appointed as director of the Academy in the late 19th century, was the responsible for starting the systematic gathering of sculptures. He is also the best represented sculptor in the collection, with more than 250 works donated by his brother after his death. The Brazilian academic sculpture is also represented by Marc Ferrez
, Chaves Pinheiro, Almeida Reis, and Correia Lima, among others.
The collection of modern and contemporary sculpture include names such as Celso Antônio de Menezes, Franz Weissmann, Amílcar de Castro
, Rubem Valentim
, Sergio de Camargo
, Farnese de Andrade, etc. In recent years, the museum has expanded its collection of colonial sculpture of the 17th and 18th centuries, most of which are of unrecorded authorship.
s in the country, an assemblage of works which is able to provide a remarkable panorama of the historical development of print technique in Brazil. The collection comprises works by August Off, Emil Bauch, Carlos Oswald, Oswaldo Goeldi
, Lívio Abramo
, Lasar Segall
, Maria Bonomi, Fayga Ostrower, Carlos Scliar, Poty Lazzarotto
, Edith Behring, Anna Letycia Quadros, Dionísio del Santo, Anna Bella Geiger
, Rubens Gerchman
. In addition to the prints, the collection includes a group of 126 woodblocks by Goeldi, 62 copper plates by Carlos Oswald, and 27 plates by Djanira, etc. The collection of prints is permanently available to consult by researchers, artists and general public in the "Gabinete de Gravuras" (prints cabinet) and is presented in revolving exhibitions at the Carlos Oswald Room.
and the brothers Rodolfo and Henrique Bernardelli, as well as other 19th century masters, such as Rodolfo Amoedo
, Grandjean de Montigny, Zeferino da Costa, Eliseu Visconti, Manuel de Araújo Porto-alegre
, Lucílio de Albuquerque
and Henrique Alvim Corrêa, but the collection also includes a number of modern and contemporary artists such as Anita Malfatti
, Di Cavalcanti
, Tarsila do Amaral
, Flávio de Carvalho
, Oswaldo Goeldi
, Cândido Portinari
, Anna Maria Maiolino, Gregório Gruber and Aldemir Martins
. One of the highlights in the modern section is the assemblage of more than 600 drawings by Djanira.
, followed by Italian
, Portuguese
, Spanish
, Dutch
and Flemish
schools, and, to a lesser extent, by paintings of the Latin American countries
, Canada
and the United States
. The earliest painting in the collection dates back to the 13th century, but most part concerns to 19th century.
The collection of Italian paintings is notable for specific sections, such as Mannerist
and Baroque
artworks. Artists represented include Bartolomeo Passarotti
, Luca Cambiaso, Gioacchino Assereto
, Giovanni Lanfranco
, Il Raffaellino, Francesco Albani
, Antonio Maria Vassallo
, Luciano Borzone
, Simone Cantarini
, Valerio Castello
, Jacopo Vignali
, Grechetto
, Giambattista Langetti, Ciro Ferri
, Francesco Cozza
, Baciccio
, Corrado Giaquinto
, Francesco Guardi
, Tiepolo
and Alessandro Magnasco
.
The nucleus of French paintings is mainly composed by 18th and 19th century artworks. It comprises, aside from the painters of the French Artistic Mission
, names such as Jacques Courtois
, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre
, François Bonvin
, Théodule Ribot
, Jules Breton, Jean-Paul Laurens
, Constant Troyon
, Jean-Jacques Henner
, Jules Dupré
, Gustave Doré
, Henri Harpignies
, Alfred Sisley
, Armand Guillaumin
, Edmond Aman-Jean
and Henri Martin
. Among the highlights of the collections is the group of 20 paintings by Eugène Boudin
, one of the largest such ensembles outside France.
The collection of Dutch, Flemish and German paintings is mainly composed by works ranging from 15th to 17th century. It includes an important group of eight Brazilian landscapes by Dutch artist Frans Post
, the first landscapist of the New World
. The collection also includes paintings by Joos van Cleve
, Hans von Kulmbach
, Jan Dirksz Both
, Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Jan Brueghel the Elder
, Abraham Brueghel
, David Teniers the Younger
, Daniel Seghers
, Gerard ter Borch
, David Beck
, Jan Steen
.
Other European artists presented in the collection include Juan Pantoja de la Cruz
, Bernardo Germán de Llórente
and Federico de Madrazo (Spanish), Francisco de Holanda
, Silva Porto, António Pedro
, Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro
and José Malhoa
(Portuguese), Emile Claus
(Belgian), Árpád Szenes
(Hungarian) and Carlos Schwabe
(Swiss). The Latin American painting is represented by a number of anonymous works of the Cuzco School
and some modern artists, such as the Argentinians Benito Quinquela Martín
and Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós
. Also representing the art of the Americas are the Canadians Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté and Paul Duff.
marble bust of Antinous
, dating back to the 2nd century BC, as well as a Greek
torso of a woman, stand out. The collection also include three bronze
busts
by François Rude
, Constantin Meunier
's The Harvester, Auguste Rodin
's Meditation without Arms, and other works by Antoine-Louis Barye
, António Teixeira Lopes
, etc. Several works int the collection are by foreign artists active in Brazil during the 19th century, such as the French brothers Marc and Zéphyrin Ferrez and the Italian Augusto Girardet. The collection also includes a number of bronze reductions produced by artistic-industrial companies, such as Barbedienne, and a didactic collection of plaster copies of ancient Greek and Roman statues.
, Albrecht Dürer
, Hans Sebald Beham
, Cornelis Visscher
, Anthony van Dyck
and Rembrandt's famous Hundred Guilder Print
. The French school is also well represented. In addition to works by artists such as Jacques Callot
and Claude Lorrain
, the museum has two albums by Gustave Doré
, with woodcut
s produced to illustrate newspapers, as well as 80 lithographies
by Honoré Daumier
, imbued with political and social criticism, published in the 1830s by the historical magazine Le Charivari
.
Italian print in the collection is represented by the works of Agostino Carracci
, Piranesi
, Bartolozzi, Tiepolo
and reproduction prints by Giovanni Folo
and Raffaello Morghen
. Other important engravers represented are Francisco de Goya (Los disparates
), William Hogarth
and Joseph Mallord William Turner. Modern prints include several works by Pablo Picasso
, Joan Miró
Jacques Lipchitz
, Marc Chagall
, Vassily Kandinsky and Jacques Villon
. Another highlight of the collection is the ensemble of more than one hundred 17th and 18th century Japanese woodcuts (ukiyo-e
) by artists such as Utamaro
and Hiroshige
.
, Honoré Daumier
, Rosa Bonheur
, Édouard Detaille
, Henri-Edmond Cross
and Jean-Louis Forain
, etc. Other European schools well represented in the collection include Italy (Bartolomeo Cesi
, Annibale Carracci
, Guido Reni
, Pompeo Batoni
), Portugal (Francisco de Holanda
, Domingos Sequeira
, Vieira Portuense
, José Malhoa
), Netherlands and Germany (Paulus Potter
, Johann Moritz Rugendas
), among others.
is composed by 442 works, attesting several ethnological aspects of the regional societies of Brazil. The collection includes works of both functional and artistic nature and its value lies in its capacity of revealing the life conditions, traditions, religiosity, recreation, aesthetic ideals, creativity and the human-nature relationship of the peoples of Brazil, as well as the regional differences concerning these issues. Popular piety
and other aspects of Religion in Brazil
are well documented in the collection, which includes many examples of ex-voto
s, clay and wood statuary, etc. Manuel Eudócio, Zé Caboclo and Mestre Cândido are some of the artisans represented in the collection.
is composed by wood carving
s, mask
s, ceremonial objects, functional objects, ivory and bronze sculptures, textile
s, body ornaments, and other items related to several ethnic group
s, most part of which indigenous to Western Africa, more specifically, to the Bight of Benin
. The collection is of particular importance for its coherent geographical unity, which allows the identification of interethnic flows among groups such as Ashanti, Bassa, Baoulé
, Dan, Bambara, Fon
, Fulani
, Senufo, Yoruba
, and unidentified groups of Benin
. It is, therefore, an important register of the common symbols of political, social and economic power, concerning the Pan-African theories
. Other important aspect of the collection is the fact that several artworks, mainly of devotional nature, are closely related to Afro-Brazilian
culture.
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
for National Museum of Fine Arts) is a national art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. The museum, officially established in 1937 by the initiative of education minister Gustavo Capanema, was inaugurated in 1938, by president Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas served as President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Vargas led Brazil for 18 years, the most for any President, and second in Brazilian history to Emperor Pedro II...
. The museum collection, on the other hand, takes its rise in the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil
Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil
The Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil was an episode in the history of Portugal and the history of Brazil in which the Portuguese royal family and its court escaped from Lisbon on November 29, 1807 to Brazil, just days before Napoleonic forces captured the city on December 1...
in the early 19th century, when King John VI
John VI of Portugal
John VI John VI John VI (full name: João Maria José Francisco Xavier de Paula Luís António Domingos Rafael; (13 May 1767 – 10 March 1826) was King of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves (later changed to just King of Portugal and the Algarves, after Brazil was recognized...
brought along with him part of the Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
Royal Collection. This art collection stayed in Brazil after the King's return to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and became the core collection of the National School of Fine Arts
Escola Nacional de Belas Artes
Escola de Belas Artes is one of the centers of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and dates back to colonial times....
. When the museum was created in 1937, it became the heir not only the National School collection, but also of its headquarters, a 1908 eclectic style building projected by Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos.
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is one of the most important cultural institutions of the country, as well as the most important museum of Brazilian art
Brazilian art
Brazil was colonized by Portugal in the middle of the 16th century. In those early times, owing to the primitive state of Portuguese civilization there, not much could be done in regard to art expression. The original inhabitants of the land, pre-Columbian Indian peoples, most likely produced...
, particularly rich in 19th century painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s and sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s. The collection includes more than 20,000 pieces, among paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, of Brazilian and international artists, ranging from High Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....
to contemporary art. It also includes smaller assemblages of decorative arts, folk
Folk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....
and African art
African art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
. The museum library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
has a collection of about 19,000 titles. The building was listed as Brazilian national heritage
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
in 1973.
History
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
by French troops
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
, King John VI established himself in Rio de Janeiro, bringing with him an assemblage of works of art
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...
which originally belonged to the Portuguese Royal Collection. After the king's return to Europe, a major part of this collection stayed in Brazil and is identified as the main core of European art in the museum. The collection was later enlarged by Joachim Lebreton
Joachim Lebreton
Joachim Lebreton was a French professor, public administrator and legislator.- Biography :Lebreton began his career as professor of Rhetoric at the Collège de Tulle....
, a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
artist who led the French Artistic Mission that came to Brazil in 1816 to help organise the arts in the country.
The French Artistic Mission was charged by John VI to organise the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts in Rio de Janeiro. Its first building — designed by French Neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
architect Grandjean de Montigny — was inaugurated in 1826, by Brazilian Emperor Peter I
Peter I of Brazil
Dom Pedro I of Brazil , nicknamed "the Liberator" and "the Soldier-King", was the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil and also King of Portugal as Pedro IV, having reigned for eight years in Brazil and two months in Portugal.-Birth:Pedro was born on 12 October 1798, around...
. On the occasion of the building's inauguration, the Royal School was renamed Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In the following decades, the Imperial Academy, heir of John VI's holdings, was able to expand this collection, gathering an important assemblage of paintings and forming a glyptotheque
Glyptotheque
A glyptotheque is a collection of sculptures. It is part of the name of several museums and art galleries.The designation glyptotheque was coined by the librarian of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, derived from the ancient Greek verb glyptein, meaning "cut into stone." It was an allusion to the ancient...
.
After the proclamation of the Republic in 1889, the Imperial Academy was renamed Escola Nacional de Belas Artes
Escola Nacional de Belas Artes
Escola de Belas Artes is one of the centers of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and dates back to colonial times....
(National School of Fine Arts). The school remained in its original building in the following years. But in the 1900s, the center of Rio de Janeiro was extensively remodeled following the models of Parisian
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
urbanisation. Between 1906 and 1908, a new building was constructed for the National School of Fine Arts
Escola Nacional de Belas Artes
Escola de Belas Artes is one of the centers of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and dates back to colonial times....
in the Central Avenue (now Avenida Rio Branco
Avenida Rio Branco
The Avenida Rio Branco, formerly Avenida Central, is the street that crosses the center of city of Rio de Janeiro. And is the leading brand of urban reform carried out by the mayor Pereira Passos in early 20th century....
), very close to the new main square of the city (the Cinelândia
Cinelândia
Cinelândia is the popular name of a major public square in the centre of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Its official name is Praça Floriano Peixoto, in honour of the second president of Brazil, Floriano Peixoto.-History:...
).
The style of the new building, designed by Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos, is clearly inspired by the Louvre Museum in Paris. But during the construction the project was modified, possibly by Rodolfo Bernardelli and, later, by Archimedes Memoria. As a result, the building presents an eclectic design, with facades modeled after different styles. The main façade toward Avenida Rio Branco is inspired by French Renaissance
French Renaissance architecture
French Renaissance architecture is the style of architecture which was imported to France from Italy during the early 16th century and developed in the light of local architectural traditions....
, with pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
, colonnade
Colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....
and terracotta relief
Relief
Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
s representing Ancient civilizations, as well as medallions painted by Henrique Bernardelli, portraying members of the French Artistic Mission and renowned Brazilian artists. The side façades are plainer and make reference to Italian Renaissance
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
. They are adorned with Parisian mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
s with figures of architects, painters and art theorists, such as Vasari
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...
, Vitruvius
Vitruvius
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He is best known as the author of the multi-volume work De Architectura ....
and da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
. The back façade is strictly Neoclassical, decorated with reliefs executed by Edward Cadwell Spruce. The interior decoration is based in the use of noble materials, such as marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
, mosaics, stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
, crystal
Lead glass
Lead glass is a variety of glass in which lead replaces the calcium content of a typical potash glass. Lead glass contains typically 18–40 weight% lead oxide , while modern lead crystal, historically also known as flint glass due to the original silica source, contains a minimum of 24% PbO...
, French ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
and statuary. The building was listed as a national heritage work on May 24, 1973.
The construction was finished in 1908. This same year, the school and its art collection started being transferred to the new headquarters. The painting collection was installed on the third floor. The collection of plaster copies of ancient statues, used in art classes, was installed on the second floor, with a museographic project specially developed for them. The fourth floor was conceived to house the administrative offices and studios for practical classes. In 1931, the school was incorporated by the University of Rio de Janeiro.
When the museum was created in 1937 by the education minister Gustavo Capanema, it inherited the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes' holdings and was installed in its headquarters; the school's administrative offices, studios and most of the courses stayed in the building. During the 1940s and 1950s, some courses were transferred to other locations. In 1975, the remaining courses were transferred to a modern building on the university main campus (Ilha do Fundão), projected by Jorge Moreira. On the occasion of this transfer, the collection, until then shared by both the museum and the school, was dismembered. Most of the art collection stayed with the museum, and an assemblage of documents, "didactic" works of art or artworks produced in pedagogic activities, as well as the Jeronymo Ferreira das Neves collection (donated to the art school in 1947) was transferred to the Ilha do Fundão campus, serving as core collection of the university's Museu Dom João VI. After the transfer, the Fundação Nacional de Artes (National Arts Foundation) was installed in the school's former rooms.
In the 1980s some serious structural problems were detected in the building. Since they represented a major threat to the preservation of the collection, the museum passed through a series of reforms, with the aim of modernizing the exhibition areas and reformulating the museographic project and, at the same time, preserving the building original style and decoration. In the mid-1990s, the Fundação Nacional de Artes was transferred to another location and the museum was finally able to occupy the whole building. Currently, the museum counts with 6,733.84 square meters of exhibition area and a deposit of 1,797.32 square meters. In addition to the exhibition areas and technical/administrative rooms, the museum possesses laboratories of conservation and restoration and studios for plaster
Plaster
Plaster is a building material used for coating walls and ceilings. Plaster starts as a dry powder similar to mortar or cement and like those materials it is mixed with water to form a paste which liberates heat and then hardens. Unlike mortar and cement, plaster remains quite soft after setting,...
molding
Molding (process)
Molding or moulding is the process of manufacturing by shaping pliable raw material using a rigid frame or model called a pattern....
.
The museum library specializes in 19th and 20th century art. Besides the collection of about 19,000 titles, it comprises more than 12,000 audivisual items, iconographic and textual documents, rare books, newspapers, magazines, catalogues, and other materials related to the institution's history, from the Imperial Academy to nowadays. In addition to permanent and temporary exhibitions, the museum organises educational activities for the general public and art education
Art education
Art education is the area of learning that is based upon the visual, tangible arts—drawing, painting, sculpture, and design in jewelry, pottery, weaving, fabrics, etc. and design applied to more practical fields such as commercial graphics and home furnishings...
programs for teachers, with the aim of diffusing and granting a better understanding of the Brazilian cultural heritage.
Collections
Since its beginning in 1808, the collection of works of art has been enormously expanded and now has around 20,000 items. The collections include painting, sculpture, drawing as well as decorative arts, furniture, folk art and African artAfrican art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
.
Brazilian art
Paintings
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is the heir of the collections gathered since the early 19th century by the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts and its successors (the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and the National School of Fine Arts), i.e., the national institution responsible for the register of Brazilian pictorial output. Therefore, it is widely accepted that no other collection, public or private, is able to present such a wide and comprehensive panorama of Brazilian paintingBrazilian painting
Brazilian painting emerged in the late 16th century, influenced by the Baroque style imported from Portugal. Until the beginning of the 19th century, that style was the dominant school of painting in Brazil, flourishing across the whole of the settled settled territories, mainly along the coast but...
concerning to the French Artistic Mission
Missão Artística Francesa
The French Artistic Mission in Brazil was composed by a group of French artists and architects that came to Rio de Janeiro, then the capital city of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in March 1816, under the auspices of the royal court of Portugal, which was exiled in Brazil...
, 19th century and early 20th century painting, even in analogous conditions. The collection includes several works by Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, Jean-Baptiste Debret
Jean-Baptiste Debret
Jean-Baptiste Debret was a French painter, who produced many valuable lithographs depicting the people of Brazil.-Biography:...
, Félix Taunay
Félix Taunay
Félix Émile Taunay, 2nd Baron of Taunay was a French painter, drawing and Greek teacher. He was the father of famous writer and politician Alfredo d'Escragnolle Taunay, the Viscount of Taunay....
, Victor Meirelles
Victor Meirelles
Victor Meirelles de Lima was a 19th century painter. He studied art in Paris but painted most of his works in and about his native Brazil. His religious and military paintings helped him become one of the most popular and celebrated Brazilian painters...
(more than 150 works, including The First Mass in Brazil and Battle of Guararapes), Pedro Américo
Pedro Américo
Pedro Américo de Figueiredo e Melo was one of the most important academic painters of Brazil. He was also a writer and a teacher....
(Battle of Avaí, Moses and Jochebed, etc.), Almeida Júnior
José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior
José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior was a Brazilian painter of the 19th century. He is widely regarded as the most important Brazilian realist painter of the 19th century, and a major inspiration for the modernist painters...
(Countrymen stalking, The Brazilian lumberjack, etc.), Manuel de Araújo Porto-alegre
Manuel de Araújo Porto-alegre
Manuel José de Araújo Porto-alegre, Baron of Santo Ângelo was a Brazilian Romantic writer, painter, architect, diplomat and professor. He is patron of the 32nd chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.-Life:...
, Pedro Weingärtner
Pedro Weingärtner
Pedro Weingärtner was an important Academic painter of Brazil, and the first artist born in Rio Grande do Sul to win international praise for his work....
, Rodolfo Amoedo
Rodolfo Amoedo
Rodolfo Amoedo was a Brazilian history painter. He began his career as an artist in 1873 as a student of Victor Meirelles. In 1878 he won the first prize at the Brazilian Academy, which allowed him to travel to Paris, where he lived from 1879 to 1887 studying at the École des Beaux Arts...
, Zeferino da Costa, Henrique Bernardelli, Eliseu Visconti, Castagneto, Hipólito Caron, Antônio Parreiras
Antônio Parreiras
Antônio Parreiras was a Brazilian painter. Although much of his work was made up of historical and nude paintings, he expressed himself best in his landscapes, which combined European influences with those of his native Brazil....
, and many others.
Although the painting collection is particularly strong concerning the 19th century, it also includes representative paintings of the Colonial period
Colonial Brazil
In the history of Brazil, Colonial Brazil, officially the Viceroyalty of Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to kingdom alongside Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.During the over 300 years...
, such as works by Manuel da Cunha, Leandro Joaquim and Manuel Dias de Oliveira. The modern section includes a modest assemblage of paintings by artists closely related to the Modern Art Week (Anita Malfatti
Anita Malfatti
Anita Catarina Malfatti is heralded as the first Brazilian artist to introduce European and American forms of Modernism to Brazil...
, Tarsila do Amaral
Tarsila do Amaral
Tarsila do Amaral, , known simply as Tarsila, is considered to be one of the leading Latin American modernist artists, described as "the Brazilian painter who best achieved Brazilian aspirations for nationalistic expression in a modern style." She was a member of the Grupo dos Cinco , which...
, Di Cavalcanti
Emiliano Di Cavalcanti
Emiliano Augusto Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Melo , known as Di Cavalcanti, was a Brazilian painter who sought to produce a form of Brazilian art free of any noticeable European influences...
, Lasar Segall
Lasar Segall
The artist Lasar Segall was a Brazilian Jewish painter, engraver and sculptor born in Lithuania. Segall's work is derived from impressionism, expressionism and modernism...
, Vicente do Rego Monteiro
Vicente do Rego Monteiro
Vicente do Rego Monteiro , born in Recife, in a family of artists, was a Brazilian painter.Already in 1911 Vicente do Rego Monteiro was in Paris , attending a course, for little time, at the Académie Julian. Precocious talent, in 1913 he participated of the Hall of the Independent Artists, in the...
, etc.) and a more representative collection of modernist painters active in the 1930s and on (Cândido Portinari
Cândido Portinari
Candido Portinari was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting....
, Djanira, Guignard, Cícero Dias, Alfredo Volpi
Alfredo Volpi
Alfredo Volpi , was a famous painter of the artistic and cultural Brazilian modernist movement. He was born in Lucca, Italy but, less than two years later, he was brought by his parents to São Paulo, Brazil, where he lived for most part of his life...
, Maria Leontina, Ivan Serpa, Iberê Camargo
Iberê Camargo
Iberê Bassani Camargo was a Brazilian painter, one of the greatest expressionist artists from his country.-External links:*...
, etc.). Among the contemporary names, the collection includes Hélio Oiticica
Hélio Oiticica
Hélio Oiticica was a Brazilian visual artist, best known for his participation in the Neo-Concrete group, for his innovative use of color, and for what he later termed "environmental art", which included Parangolés and Penetrables, like the famous Tropicália.- Early work :Oiticica's early works,...
, Paulo Pasta and Eduardo Sued.
Sculptures
The Brazilian sculptureBrazilian sculpture
The roots of Brazilian sculpture have been traced back to the late 16th century, emerging soon after the first settlements in the newly discovered land. Through the following century, most of the sculpture in Brazil was brought from Portugal and displayed Baroque features...
section is the smallest among the museum's departments of Brazilian art and also has its origins in the holdings of the former National Academy. Several artworks in the collection were acquired through the transfer of works produced by artists who were granted a subvention by the government to study in Europe. The sculptor Rodolfo Bernardelli, who was appointed as director of the Academy in the late 19th century, was the responsible for starting the systematic gathering of sculptures. He is also the best represented sculptor in the collection, with more than 250 works donated by his brother after his death. The Brazilian academic sculpture is also represented by Marc Ferrez
Marc Ferrez
Marc Ferrez was a Brazilian photographer born in Rio de Janeiro.Ferrez's life was dedicated to the art of photography and he is considered one of the greatest photographers of his time. His production was massive, and his photographs document the consolidation of Brazil as a nation and Rio de...
, Chaves Pinheiro, Almeida Reis, and Correia Lima, among others.
The collection of modern and contemporary sculpture include names such as Celso Antônio de Menezes, Franz Weissmann, Amílcar de Castro
Amílcar de Castro
Amílcar Augusto Pereira de Castro was a Brazilian artist, sculptor and graphic designer...
, Rubem Valentim
Rubem Valentim
Rubem Valentim was born on November 9, 1922 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. A self-taught artist, he started to paint as a child, doing figure and landscapes for Christmas creches....
, Sergio de Camargo
Sergio de Camargo
Sérgio de Camargo was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. De Camargo studied at the Academia Altamira in Buenos Aires under Emilio Pettoruti and Lucio Fontana. Camargo also studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris...
, Farnese de Andrade, etc. In recent years, the museum has expanded its collection of colonial sculpture of the 17th and 18th centuries, most of which are of unrecorded authorship.
Prints
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes has one of the most important collections of engravingEngraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
s in the country, an assemblage of works which is able to provide a remarkable panorama of the historical development of print technique in Brazil. The collection comprises works by August Off, Emil Bauch, Carlos Oswald, Oswaldo Goeldi
Oswaldo Goeldi
Oswaldo Goeldi was a Brazilian artist and renowned engraver, the son of Swiss naturalist Émil Goeldi....
, Lívio Abramo
Livio Abramo
Livio Abramo was a Paraguayan sketcher, engraver, and aquarellist.Abramo was born on June 23, 1903, in Araraquara, Brazil, to Italian parents. He described his father as a liberal and his paternal grandfather as an anarchist...
, Lasar Segall
Lasar Segall
The artist Lasar Segall was a Brazilian Jewish painter, engraver and sculptor born in Lithuania. Segall's work is derived from impressionism, expressionism and modernism...
, Maria Bonomi, Fayga Ostrower, Carlos Scliar, Poty Lazzarotto
Poty Lazzarotto
Napoleon Potyguara Lazzarotto, better known as Poty was a Brazilian artist. His murals - often made of ceramic tiles- can be seen in many locaties of Brazil as well as in Portugal, France and Germany....
, Edith Behring, Anna Letycia Quadros, Dionísio del Santo, Anna Bella Geiger
Anna Bella Geiger
Anna Bella Geiger, is a Brazilian multi-disciplinary artist of Jewish-Polish ancestry, and professor at the Escola de Artes Visuais do Parque Lage...
, Rubens Gerchman
Rubens Gerchman
Rubens Gerchman was a Brazilian painter and sculptor. He was heavily influenced by concrete and neoconcrete art....
. In addition to the prints, the collection includes a group of 126 woodblocks by Goeldi, 62 copper plates by Carlos Oswald, and 27 plates by Djanira, etc. The collection of prints is permanently available to consult by researchers, artists and general public in the "Gabinete de Gravuras" (prints cabinet) and is presented in revolving exhibitions at the Carlos Oswald Room.
Drawings
The section of Brazilian drawings of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes contains about 4,000 works, being one of the largest collections of the institution. It includes works on pencil, pen, ink, crayon, watercolor, chalk, and other techniques, either produced as sketches or as independent artworks. The main core is composed by the large assemblages of works by Victor MeirellesVictor Meirelles
Victor Meirelles de Lima was a 19th century painter. He studied art in Paris but painted most of his works in and about his native Brazil. His religious and military paintings helped him become one of the most popular and celebrated Brazilian painters...
and the brothers Rodolfo and Henrique Bernardelli, as well as other 19th century masters, such as Rodolfo Amoedo
Rodolfo Amoedo
Rodolfo Amoedo was a Brazilian history painter. He began his career as an artist in 1873 as a student of Victor Meirelles. In 1878 he won the first prize at the Brazilian Academy, which allowed him to travel to Paris, where he lived from 1879 to 1887 studying at the École des Beaux Arts...
, Grandjean de Montigny, Zeferino da Costa, Eliseu Visconti, Manuel de Araújo Porto-alegre
Manuel de Araújo Porto-alegre
Manuel José de Araújo Porto-alegre, Baron of Santo Ângelo was a Brazilian Romantic writer, painter, architect, diplomat and professor. He is patron of the 32nd chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters.-Life:...
, Lucílio de Albuquerque
Lucílio de Albuquerque
Lucílio de Albuquerque was a painter in Brazil. He was known for his interest in portrait and landscapes. His wife Georgina was a noted painter in her own right and the two are strongly associated with each other.- Reference :...
and Henrique Alvim Corrêa, but the collection also includes a number of modern and contemporary artists such as Anita Malfatti
Anita Malfatti
Anita Catarina Malfatti is heralded as the first Brazilian artist to introduce European and American forms of Modernism to Brazil...
, Di Cavalcanti
Emiliano Di Cavalcanti
Emiliano Augusto Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Melo , known as Di Cavalcanti, was a Brazilian painter who sought to produce a form of Brazilian art free of any noticeable European influences...
, Tarsila do Amaral
Tarsila do Amaral
Tarsila do Amaral, , known simply as Tarsila, is considered to be one of the leading Latin American modernist artists, described as "the Brazilian painter who best achieved Brazilian aspirations for nationalistic expression in a modern style." She was a member of the Grupo dos Cinco , which...
, Flávio de Carvalho
Flavio de Carvalho
Flávio de Rezende Carvalho was a Brazilian architect and artist.Carvalho was educated in France from 1911 to 1914, and then in Newcastle-upon-Tyne until 1922, attending the King Edward the Seventh School of Fine Arts and Durham University's Armstrong College. In Newcastle he obtained degrees in...
, Oswaldo Goeldi
Oswaldo Goeldi
Oswaldo Goeldi was a Brazilian artist and renowned engraver, the son of Swiss naturalist Émil Goeldi....
, Cândido Portinari
Cândido Portinari
Candido Portinari was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting....
, Anna Maria Maiolino, Gregório Gruber and Aldemir Martins
Aldemir Martins
Aldemir Martins was a Brazilian artist. He is noted for paintings, drawings, and illustrations which depicted the flora and fauna of his native state.- References :...
. One of the highlights in the modern section is the assemblage of more than 600 drawings by Djanira.
Paintings
The section of international paintings of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes represents the initial core of the museum holdings. It takes its rise from the collection of King John VI of Portugal, which was transferred to Brazil in 1808, together with the Portuguese Court. Later, the collection was expanded with the paintings brought by Joaquim Lebreton, who came to Brazil with the mission of organising the country's first art academy. Subsequent acquisitions and donations greatly enlarged the international art collection, which is today one of the most representative among South American museums. Major part of the collection is composed by European paintings, mainly FrenchFrench art
French art consists of the visual and plastic arts originating from the geographical area of France...
, followed by Italian
Art of Italy
The history of Italian art is in many ways also the history of Western art. After Etruscan civilization and especially the Roman Republic and Empire that dominated this part of the world for many centuries, Italy was central to European art during the Renaissance. Italy also saw European artistic...
, Portuguese
Portuguese art
Portuguese art includes many different styles from many different eras. Portuguese sculptures can be best analysed by studying the many tombs of the 12th and 13th Centuries that are found throughout Portugal. In the late 1700s, Brazil was the main influence in Portuguese sculpture. This can be seen...
, Spanish
Art of Italy
The history of Italian art is in many ways also the history of Western art. After Etruscan civilization and especially the Roman Republic and Empire that dominated this part of the world for many centuries, Italy was central to European art during the Renaissance. Italy also saw European artistic...
, Dutch
Dutch School (painting)
The Dutch School were painters in the Netherlands from the early Renaissance to the Baroque. It includes Early Netherlandish and Dutch Renaissance artists active in the northern Low Countries and, later, Dutch Golden Age painting in the United Provinces.Many painters, sculptors and architects of...
and Flemish
Flemish painting
Flemish painting flourished from the early 15th century until the 17th century. Flanders delivered the leading painters in Northern Europe and attracted many promising young painters from neighbouring countries. These painters were invited to work at foreign courts and had a Europe-wide influence...
schools, and, to a lesser extent, by paintings of the Latin American countries
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The earliest painting in the collection dates back to the 13th century, but most part concerns to 19th century.
The collection of Italian paintings is notable for specific sections, such as Mannerist
Mannerism
Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
and Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
artworks. Artists represented include Bartolomeo Passarotti
Bartolomeo Passarotti
Bartolomeo Passarotti was an Italian painter of the mannerist period, who worked mainly in his native Bologna.He traveled to Rome in the mid-16th century, where he worked under Girolamo Vignola and Taddeo Zuccari. Upon returning to Bologna, he accumulated a large studio, and influenced many...
, Luca Cambiaso, Gioacchino Assereto
Gioacchino Assereto
Gioacchino Assereto was an Italian painter of the early Baroque period, active in Genoa.He initially apprenticed with Luciano Borzone and later Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo. He painted two vault frescoes in the church of Santissima Annunziata del Vastato: David and Abimelech and Santi Giovanni and...
, Giovanni Lanfranco
Giovanni Lanfranco
Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.-Biography:Giovanni Gaspare Lanfranco was born in Parma, the third son of Stefano and Cornelia Lanfranchi, and was placed as a page in the household of Count Orazio Scotti...
, Il Raffaellino, Francesco Albani
Francesco Albani
Francesco Albani or Albano was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early years in Bologna:Born 1578 in Bologna, his father was a silk merchant who intended to instruct his son in the same trade; but by age twelve, Albani became an apprentice under the competent mannerist painter Denis Calvaert, where he...
, Antonio Maria Vassallo
Antonio Maria Vassallo
Antonio Maria Vassallo was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Genoa, and painting mythologic scenes and still lifes....
, Luciano Borzone
Luciano Borzone
Luciano Borzone was an Italian painter of the Baroque period , active mainly in his natal city of Genoa....
, Simone Cantarini
Simone Cantarini
Simone Cantarini , also known as Simone da Pesaro, was an Italian painter and etcher of the Bolognese School of painting.Cantarini was born in Oropezza near Pesaro, then part of the Papal States....
, Valerio Castello
Valerio Castello
Valerio Castello was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. He was very active during his short life in Genoa.He was the youngest son of Bernardo Castello, who died when Valerio was six year old...
, Jacopo Vignali
Jacopo Vignali
Jacopo Vignali was an Italian painter of the early Baroque period.Vignali was born in Pratovecchio, near Arezzo, and initially trained under Matteo Rosselli. He painted the ceiling fresco of the Love of the Fatherland and Jacob's dream for the Casa Buonarroti in Florence. In 1616 he entered the...
, Grechetto
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione
Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was an Italian Baroque artist, painter, printmaker and draftsman, of the Genoese school. He is best known now for his elaborate engravings, and as the inventor of the printmaking technique of monotyping. He was known as Il Grechetto in Italy and in France as Le...
, Giambattista Langetti, Ciro Ferri
Ciro Ferri
Ciro Ferri was an Italian Baroque sculptor and painter, the chief pupil and successor of Pietro da Cortona.He was born in Rome, where he began working under Cortona and with a team of artists in the extensive fresco decorations of the Quirinal Palace...
, Francesco Cozza
Francesco Cozza (painter)
Francesco Cozza was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.He was born in Stilo in Calabria and died in Rome. As a young man, he went to Rome and apprenticed with Domenichino...
, Baciccio
Giovanni Battista Gaulli
Giovanni Battista Gaulli , also known as Baciccio, Il Baciccio or Baciccia , was a painter of the Italian High Baroque verging onto that of the Rococo...
, Corrado Giaquinto
Corrado Giaquinto
Corrado Giaquinto was an Italian Rococo painter.-Early training and move to Rome:He was born in Molfetta. As a boy he apprenticed with a modest local painter Saverio Porta, , escaping the religious career his parents had intended for him...
, Francesco Guardi
Francesco Guardi
Francesco Lazzaro Guardi was a Venetian painter of veduta, a member of the Venetian School. He is considered to be among the last practitioners, along with his brothers, of the classic Venetian school of painting....
, Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice...
and Alessandro Magnasco
Alessandro Magnasco
Alessandro Magnasco , also known as il Lissandrino, was an Italian late-Baroque painter active mostly in Milan and Genoa...
.
The nucleus of French paintings is mainly composed by 18th and 19th century artworks. It comprises, aside from the painters of the French Artistic Mission
Missão Artística Francesa
The French Artistic Mission in Brazil was composed by a group of French artists and architects that came to Rio de Janeiro, then the capital city of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves in March 1816, under the auspices of the royal court of Portugal, which was exiled in Brazil...
, names such as Jacques Courtois
Jacques Courtois
Jacques Courtois was a French painter.-Biography:He was born at Saint-Hippolyte, near Besançon. His father was a painter, and with him Jacques remained studying up to the age of fifteen...
, Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre
Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre
Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre was a French painter, drawer and administrator.-Life:He was a student of Charles-Joseph Natoire at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture and painted a self-portrait in 1732...
, François Bonvin
François Bonvin
François Bonvin was a French realist painter.Bonvin was born in humble circumstances in Paris, the son of a police officer and a seamstress. When he was four years old his mother died of tuberculosis and young François was left in the care of an old woman who underfed him...
, Théodule Ribot
Théodule Ribot
Théodule-Augustin Ribot was a French realist painter.He was born in Saint-Nicolas-d'Attez, and studied at the École des Arts et Métiers de Châlons before moving to Paris in 1845. There he found work decorating gilded frames for a mirror manufacturer; he also studied in the studio of...
, Jules Breton, Jean-Paul Laurens
Jean-Paul Laurens
Jean-Paul Laurens , was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style.Born in Fourquevaux, he was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexandre Bida...
, Constant Troyon
Constant Troyon
Constant Troyon , French painter, was born in Sèvres, near Paris, where his father was connected with the famous manufactory of porcelain....
, Jean-Jacques Henner
Jean-Jacques Henner
Jean-Jacques Henner was a French painter, noted for his use of sfumato and chiaroscuro in painting nudes, religious subjects, and portraits....
, Jules Dupré
Jules Dupré
Jules Dupré , French painter, was one of the chief members of the Barbizon school of landscape painters. If Corot stands for the lyric and Rousseau for the epic aspect of the poetry of nature, Dupré is the exponent of her tragic and dramatic aspects.Dupré exhibited first at the Salon in 1831, and...
, Gustave Doré
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
, Henri Harpignies
Henri Harpignies
Henri-Joseph Harpignies was a French landscape painter of the Barbizon school.He was born at Valenciennes. His parents intended for him to pursue a business career, but his determination to become an artist was so strong that it conquered all obstacles, and he was allowed at the age of...
, Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley
Alfred Sisley was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life, in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air...
, Armand Guillaumin
Armand Guillaumin
Armand Guillaumin , was a French impressionist painter and lithographer.Born Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin in Paris, he worked at his uncle's lingerie shop while attending evening drawing lessons. He also worked for a French government railway before studying at the Académie Suisse in 1861...
, Edmond Aman-Jean
Edmond Aman-Jean
Edmond François Aman-Jean was a French symbolist painter, who co-founded the Salon des Tuileries in 1923....
and Henri Martin
Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin
Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin was a renowned French impressionist painter.- Background :Born in Toulouse to a French cabinet maker and a mother of Italian descent, Martin successfully persuaded his father to permit him to become an artist...
. Among the highlights of the collections is the group of 20 paintings by Eugène Boudin
Eugène Boudin
Eugène Boudin was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors.Boudin was a marine painter, and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores...
, one of the largest such ensembles outside France.
The collection of Dutch, Flemish and German paintings is mainly composed by works ranging from 15th to 17th century. It includes an important group of eight Brazilian landscapes by Dutch artist Frans Post
Frans Post
Frans Janszoon Post was a Dutch painter. He was the first European artist to paint landscapes of America. In 1636 he traveled to Dutch Brazil at the invitation of Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen.- Biography :...
, the first landscapist of the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
. The collection also includes paintings by Joos van Cleve
Joos van Cleve
Joos van Cleve was a painter active in Antwerp around 1511 to 1540. He was born around 1485 and died in between 1540 and 1541...
, Hans von Kulmbach
Hans von Kulmbach
Artist Hans von Kulmbach was born around 1480 in Kulmbach, Franconia and died previous to Dec. 3, 1522 in Nuremberg. Hans von Kulmbach was the artist who created the Kraków St. John's Altar....
, Jan Dirksz Both
Jan Dirksz Both
Jan Dirksz Both Jan Both was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher, who made an important contribution to the development of Dutch Italianate landscape painting.-Biography:...
, Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, Jan Brueghel the Elder
Jan Brueghel the Elder
Jan Brueghel the Elder was a Flemish painter, son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and father of Jan Brueghel the Younger. Nicknamed "Velvet" Brueghel, "Flower" Brueghel, and "Paradise" Brueghel, of which the latter two were derived from his floral still lifes which were his favored subjects, while the...
, Abraham Brueghel
Abraham Brueghel
Abraham Brueghel was a Flemish painter from the famous family of artists. He was the son of Jan Brueghel the Younger, the grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder and the great-grandson of Pieter Brueghel the Elder.-Early life:...
, David Teniers the Younger
David Teniers the Younger
David Teniers the Younger was a Flemish artist born in Antwerp, the son of David Teniers the Elder. His son David Teniers III and his grandson David Teniers IV were also painters...
, Daniel Seghers
Daniel Seghers
Daniel Seghers was a Jesuit brother and Flemish Baroque painter who specialized in flower still lifes, and is particularly well-known for his contributions to the genre of "flower garland" painting. His paintings were collected enthusiastically by courtly patrons and he had numerous imitators...
, Gerard ter Borch
Gerard ter Borch
Gerard ter Borch was a Dutch genre painter, who lived in the Dutch Golden Age.-Biography:Gerard ter Borch was born in December 1617 in Zwolle in the province of Overijssel in the Dutch Republic....
, David Beck
David Beck
David Beck , was a Dutch Golden Age portrait painter.-Biography:Beck was born in Delft, and was named after his uncle, a well-known poet from Arnhem. He was the son of a schoolmaster in Delft, where he learned painting from Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, a prominent portrait painter in the Netherlands...
, Jan Steen
Jan Steen
Jan Havickszoon Steen was a Dutch genre painter of the 17th century . Psychological insight, sense of humour and abundance of colour are marks of his trade.-Life:...
.
Other European artists presented in the collection include Juan Pantoja de la Cruz
Juan Pantoja de la Cruz
Juan Pantoja de La Cruz Spanish painter, one of the best representatives of the Spanish school of court painters. He worked for Philip II and Philip III. The Museo del Prado contains examples of his severe portraiture style.- Life :Juan Pantoja de La Cruz was, born 1553 in Valladolid...
, Bernardo Germán de Llórente
Bernardo Germán de Llórente
Bernardo Germán de Llórente was a Spanish painter of the late-Baroque period.Born and died in Seville. He was a pupil of Cristóbal López, painter of la Feria. Llorente worked in a style resembling Murillo. Father Isidoro de Sevilla, a capuchin missionary, commissioned from him a Virgin in...
and Federico de Madrazo (Spanish), Francisco de Holanda
Francisco de Holanda
Francisco de Holanda , was a Portuguese humanist and painter. Considered to be one of the most important figures of the Portuguese Renaissance, he was also an essayist, architect, and historian...
, Silva Porto, António Pedro
António Pedro
António Pedro da Costa was a Portuguese actor, writer and painter born to a prominent family from the Cape Verde Islands, son of José Maria da Costa and wife Elizabeth Savage de Paula Rosa...
, Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro
Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro
Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro , who is usually referred to as Columbano, was a Portuguese Realist painter...
and José Malhoa
José Malhoa
José Vital Branco Malhoa, known simply as José Malhoa was a Portuguese painter....
(Portuguese), Emile Claus
Emile Claus
Emile Claus was a Belgian painter.- Life :Emile Claus was born on 27 September 1849, in Sint-Eloois-Vijve, a village in West-Flanders , at the banks of the river Lys. Emile was the twelfth child in a family of thirteen. Father Alexander was a grocer-publican and for some time town councillor...
(Belgian), Árpád Szenes
Árpád Szenes
Árpád Szenes was a Hungarian-Jewish abstract painter who worked in France.He and Portuguese-French painter Maria Helena Vieira da Silva married in 1930 and became French citizens in the 1950s...
(Hungarian) and Carlos Schwabe
Carlos Schwabe
Carlos Schwabe was a German Symbolist painter and printmaker.Schwabe was born in Altona, Holstein, and moved to Geneva, Switzerland at an early age. After studying art in Geneva, he relocated to Paris as a young man, where he worked as a wallpaper designer, and he became acquainted with Symbolist...
(Swiss). The Latin American painting is represented by a number of anonymous works of the Cuzco School
Cuzco School
The Cuzco School was a Roman Catholic artistic tradition based in Cusco, Peru during the Colonial period, in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries...
and some modern artists, such as the Argentinians Benito Quinquela Martín
Benito Quinquela Martín
Benito Quinquela Martín , 1890 – January 28, 1977) was an Argentine painter born in La Boca, Buenos Aires. Quinquela Martín is considered the port painter-par-excellence and one of the most popular Argentine painters...
and Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós
Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós
Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós was an Argentine painter of the post-impressionist school.- Life and work :De Quirós was born in Gualeguay, Entre Ríos Province, in 1879. He began to paint at age eight, and shortly afterwards, created a facial composite sketch that resulted in a fugitive criminal's...
. Also representing the art of the Americas are the Canadians Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté and Paul Duff.
Sculptures
The museum holds a small collection of international sculpture, most part of which dating of the 19th century. Unlike the collection of Brazilian sculpture, this group of works were not gathered through systematic acquisitions, but rather by sporadic donations and legacies. Among them, the RomanAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
marble bust of Antinous
Antinous
Antinoüs or Antinoös was a beautiful Bithynian youth and the favourite of the Roman emperor Hadrian...
, dating back to the 2nd century BC, as well as a Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
torso of a woman, stand out. The collection also include three bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
busts
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
by François Rude
François Rude
François Rude was a French sculptor. He was the stepfather of Paul Cabet, a sculptor.Born in Dijon, he worked at his father's trade as a stovemaker till the age of sixteen, but received training in drawing from François Devosges, where he learned that a strong, simple contour was an invaluable...
, Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier , Belgian painter and sculptor, was born in Etterbeek, Brussels.His first exhibit was a plaster sketch, "The Garland," shown at the Brussels Salon in 1851. Soon afterwards, on the advice of the painter Charles de Groux, he abandoned the chisel for the brush...
's The Harvester, Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
's Meditation without Arms, and other works by Antoine-Louis Barye
Antoine-Louis Barye
Antoine-Louis Barye was a French sculptor most famous for his work as an animalier, a sculptor of animals.-Biography:Born in Paris, Barye began his career as a goldsmith, like many sculptors of the Romantic Period...
, António Teixeira Lopes
António Teixeira Lopes
António Teixeira Lopes was a Portuguese sculptor.Teixeira Lopes was the son of sculptor José Joaquim Teixeira Lopes and started learning his art in his father's workshop...
, etc. Several works int the collection are by foreign artists active in Brazil during the 19th century, such as the French brothers Marc and Zéphyrin Ferrez and the Italian Augusto Girardet. The collection also includes a number of bronze reductions produced by artistic-industrial companies, such as Barbedienne, and a didactic collection of plaster copies of ancient Greek and Roman statues.
Prints
The museum owns approximately 2,000 examples of international prints. Though not extensive in size, the collection is considerably diversified and eclectic, offering a brief panorama of the history of engraving in distinct civilizations. The group of Flemish, Dutch and German prints is of particular importance. Authors in the collection include Pieter de Jode IPieter de Jode I
Petrus, or Pieter de Jode I was a Flemish Baroque painter and engraver.-Biography:He learned drawing and engraving first from his father, the map maker Gerard de Jode, and later from Hendrik Goltzius. His engravings of Italian master paintings became a source for Karel van Mander...
, Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
, Hans Sebald Beham
Hans Sebald Beham
Hans Sebald Beham was a German printmaker who did his best work as an engraver, and was also a designer of woodcuts and a painter and miniaturist...
, Cornelis Visscher
Cornelis Visscher
Cornelis Visscher , was a Dutch Golden Age engraver and the brother of Jan de Visscher and Lambert Visscher.-Biography:...
, Anthony van Dyck
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I of England and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next...
and Rembrandt's famous Hundred Guilder Print
Hundred Guilder Print
The Hundred Guilder Print is an etching by Rembrandt. The etching's popular name derives from the large sum of money supposedly once paid for an impression...
. The French school is also well represented. In addition to works by artists such as Jacques Callot
Jacques Callot
Jacques Callot was a baroque printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine . He is an important figure in the development of the old master print...
and Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French Claude Gellée, , dit le Lorrain) Claude Lorrain, , traditionally just Claude in English (also Claude Gellée, his real name, or in French...
, the museum has two albums by Gustave Doré
Gustave Doré
Paul Gustave Doré was a French artist, engraver, illustrator and sculptor. Doré worked primarily with wood engraving and steel engraving.-Biography:...
, with woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
s produced to illustrate newspapers, as well as 80 lithographies
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
by Honoré Daumier
Honoré Daumier
Honoré Daumier was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century....
, imbued with political and social criticism, published in the 1830s by the historical magazine Le Charivari
Le Charivari
Le Charivari was an illustrated newspaper published in Paris, France from 1832 to 1937. It published caricatures, political cartoons and reviews...
.
Italian print in the collection is represented by the works of Agostino Carracci
Agostino Carracci
Agostino Carracci was an Italian painter and printmaker. He was the brother of the more famous Annibale and cousin of Lodovico Carracci....
, Piranesi
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric "prisons" .-His Life:...
, Bartolozzi, Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , also known as Gianbattista or Giambattista Tiepolo, was an Italian painter and printmaker from the Republic of Venice...
and reproduction prints by Giovanni Folo
Giovanni Folo
Giovanni Folo was an Italian engraver of the Neoclassic period, active in Italy.He originally studied with Giulio Golini and G.B. Mengardi in Venice...
and Raffaello Morghen
Raffaello Sanzio Morghen
Raffaello Sanzio Morghen was an Italian engraver.He was born in Naples, apparently to a German family of engravers. He received his earliest instructions from his father, himself an engraver; but, to obtain more advanced training, he was placed as a pupil under the celebrated Giovanni Volpato...
. Other important engravers represented are Francisco de Goya (Los disparates
Los disparates
Los disparates or Los proverbios is a probably-incomplete series of engravings in aquatint and etching, with retouching in drypoint and burin. It was produced by Francisco de Goya between 1815 and 1823....
), William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
and Joseph Mallord William Turner. Modern prints include several works by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Joan Miró
Joan Miró
Joan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz was a Cubist sculptor.Jacques Lipchitz was born Chaim Jacob Lipchitz, son of a building contractor in Druskininkai, Lithuania, then within the Russian Empire...
, Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
, Vassily Kandinsky and Jacques Villon
Jacques Villon
Jacques Villon was a French cubist painter and printmaker.-Early life:Born Gaston Emile Duchamp in Damville, Eure, in the Haute-Normandie region of France, he came from a prosperous and artistically inclined family...
. Another highlight of the collection is the ensemble of more than one hundred 17th and 18th century Japanese woodcuts (ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e
' is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters...
) by artists such as Utamaro
Utamaro
was a Japanese printmaker and painter, who is considered one of the greatest artists of woodblock prints . His name was romanized as Outamaro. He is known especially for his masterfully composed studies of women, known as bijinga...
and Hiroshige
Hiroshige
was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....
.
Drawings
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes has a small but highly distinguished collection of international drawings. Most part of the pieces are of French origin, including 247 drawings by Grandjean de Montigny and other works by François GérardFrançois Gerard
François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard was a French painter born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador. His mother was Italian. As a baron of the Empire he is sometimes referred to as Baron Gérard.-Life:François Gérard was born in Rome, on 12 March 1770, to...
, Honoré Daumier
Honoré Daumier
Honoré Daumier was a French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor, whose many works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century....
, Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur
Rosa Bonheur, born Marie-Rosalie Bonheur, was a French animalière, realist artist, and sculptor. As a painter she became famous primarily for two chief works: Ploughing in the Nivernais , which was first exhibited at the Salon of 1848, and is now in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris depicts a team...
, Édouard Detaille
Édouard Detaille
Jean Baptiste Édouard Detaille , was a French Academic painter and military artist noted for his precision and realistic detail....
, Henri-Edmond Cross
Henri-Edmond Cross
Henri-Edmond Cross was a French pointillist painter.- Life and career :Cross was born in Douai and grew up in Lille. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. His early works, portraits and still lifes, were in the dark colors of realism, but after meeting with Claude Monet in 1883, he painted in...
and Jean-Louis Forain
Jean-Louis Forain
Jean-Louis Forain was a French Impressionist painter, lithographer, watercolorist and etcher.-Overview:Forain was born in Reims, Marne but at age eight, his family moved to Paris. He began his career working as a caricaturist for several Paris journals including Le Monde Parisien and Le rire...
, etc. Other European schools well represented in the collection include Italy (Bartolomeo Cesi
Bartolomeo Cesi
Bartolomeo Cesi was a painter of the Baroque era of the Bolognese School.Born to a wealthy family of Bologna, he studied under Giovanni Francesco Bezzo . In Bologna, he contributed works to the Duomo, Santo Stefano and the Basilica of San Domenico. He collaborated with Ludovico Carracci and...
, Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci was an Italian Baroque painter.-Early career:Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna, and in all likelihood first apprenticed within his family...
, Guido Reni
Guido Reni
Guido Reni was an Italian painter of high-Baroque style.-Biography:Born in Bologna into a family of musicians, Guido Reni was the son of Daniele Reni and Ginevra de’ Pozzi. As a child of nine, he was apprenticed under the Bolognese studio of Denis Calvaert. Soon after, he was joined in that...
, Pompeo Batoni
Pompeo Batoni
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni was an Italian painter whose style incorporated elements of the French Rococo, Bolognese classicism, and nascent Neoclassicism.-Biography:He was born in Lucca, the son of a goldsmith, Paolino Batoni...
), Portugal (Francisco de Holanda
Francisco de Holanda
Francisco de Holanda , was a Portuguese humanist and painter. Considered to be one of the most important figures of the Portuguese Renaissance, he was also an essayist, architect, and historian...
, Domingos Sequeira
Domingos Sequeira
Domingos António de Sequeira , was a Portuguese painter.-Biography:He was born in Belém, Lisbon, into a modest family. He later changed his family name from Espírito Santo to the more aristocratic Sequeira...
, Vieira Portuense
Vieira Portuense
Francisco Vieira de Matos , who choose the artistic name of Vieira Portuense, was a Portuguese painter, one of the introducers of Neoclassicism in Portuguese painting. He was, in the neoclassical style, one of the two great Portuguese painters of his generation, with Domingos Sequeira.He first...
, José Malhoa
José Malhoa
José Vital Branco Malhoa, known simply as José Malhoa was a Portuguese painter....
), Netherlands and Germany (Paulus Potter
Paulus Potter
Paulus Potter was a Dutch painter, specialized in animals in landscapes, usually with a low point of view. Before Potter died of tuberculosis, 28-years old, he succeeded in producing about a hundred paintings, working continuously.-Life:Few details are known of Potter's life...
, Johann Moritz Rugendas
Johann Moritz Rugendas
Johann Moritz Rugendas , was a German painter, famous for his works depicting landscapes and ethnographic subjects in several countries in the Americas, in the first half of the 19th century....
), among others.
Brazilian folk art
The museum collection of folk artFolk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....
is composed by 442 works, attesting several ethnological aspects of the regional societies of Brazil. The collection includes works of both functional and artistic nature and its value lies in its capacity of revealing the life conditions, traditions, religiosity, recreation, aesthetic ideals, creativity and the human-nature relationship of the peoples of Brazil, as well as the regional differences concerning these issues. Popular piety
Popular piety
Popular piety refers to religious practices that arose and occur outside of the official Church. Typically the term is used within the context of the Catholic church, the practices are generally accepted and allowed...
and other aspects of Religion in Brazil
Religion in Brazil
Religion in Brazil has a higher adherence level compared to other Latin American countries, and is more diverse.In 1891, when the first Brazilian Republican Constitution was set forth, Brazil ceased to have an official religion. The present Constitution guarantees absolute freedom of religion...
are well documented in the collection, which includes many examples of ex-voto
Ex-voto
An ex-voto is a votive offering to a saint or divinity. It is given in fulfillment of a vow or in gratitude or devotion...
s, clay and wood statuary, etc. Manuel Eudócio, Zé Caboclo and Mestre Cândido are some of the artisans represented in the collection.
African art
The museum collection of African artAfrican art
African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of people, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African...
is composed by wood carving
Wood carving
Wood carving is a form of working wood by means of a cutting tool in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation of a wooden object...
s, mask
Mask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
s, ceremonial objects, functional objects, ivory and bronze sculptures, textile
Textile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
s, body ornaments, and other items related to several ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
s, most part of which indigenous to Western Africa, more specifically, to the Bight of Benin
Bight of Benin
The Bight of Benin is a bight on the western African coast that extends eastward for about 400 miles from Cape St. Paul to the Nun outlet of the Niger River. To the east it is continued by the Bight of Bonny . The bight is part of the Gulf of Guinea...
. The collection is of particular importance for its coherent geographical unity, which allows the identification of interethnic flows among groups such as Ashanti, Bassa, Baoulé
Baoulé
The Baoulé are an Akan people and one of the largest groups in the Ivory Coast. The Baoulé are farmers who live in the eastern side of Côte d'Ivoire . The Baoule people are represented by religion, art, festivals, and equal society . There are more than sixty-five different Akan-speaking ethnic...
, Dan, Bambara, Fon
Fon people
The Fon people, or Fon nu, are a major West African ethnic and linguistic group in the country of Benin, and southwest Nigeria, made up of more than 3,500,000 people. The Fon language is the main language spoken in Southern Benin, and is a member of the Gbe language group...
, Fulani
Fula people
Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa, but found also in Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa...
, Senufo, Yoruba
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language...
, and unidentified groups of Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
. It is, therefore, an important register of the common symbols of political, social and economic power, concerning the Pan-African theories
Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism is a movement that seeks to unify African people or people living in Africa, into a "one African community". Differing types of Pan-Africanism seek different levels of economic, racial, social, or political unity...
. Other important aspect of the collection is the fact that several artworks, mainly of devotional nature, are closely related to Afro-Brazilian
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
culture.
See also
- São Paulo Museum of Art
- Pinacoteca do Estado de São PauloPinacoteca do Estado de São PauloThe Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo is one of the most important art museums in Brazil. It is housed in a 1900 building in Jardim da Luz, Downtown São Paulo, projected by Ramos de Azevedo and Domiziano Rossi to be the headquarters of the Lyceum of Arts and Crafts...
- Rio Grande do Sul Museum of ArtRio Grande do Sul Museum of ArtThe Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art is an art museum in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. It is located in the centre of Porto Alegre. Its eclectic building, national heritage, is one of the most noteworthy historic buildings in Porto Alegre...