Shaping a shapeless sculptor: Henrique Bernardelli’s Aleijadinho and the depiction of the first genius of Brazilian art history

Abstract

In this text, I will discuss the first Latin American known picture which represents a master from our colonial times: Aleijadinho, o escultor Antônio Francisco Lisboa, by the Brazilian painter Henrique Bernardelli. Firstly, it interests me to understand the relation of this painting with other 19th century Brazilian paintings whose objects were also the representation of artists, from the past as well those contemporaneous. Then, an introductory discussion is developed on the process of the biographical construction of Aleijadinho, in order to understand the way by which Bernardelli's painting, with the help of the sculptor's first biography (published in the 1850s), expands the idea of a predestined colonial "genius", although reversing the narrative in some of its fundamental parts. Using an approach drawn on analytical iconography, it is my intention to highlight some of the social and cultural questions depicted in the image, concerning essentially the interpretations of Bernardelli towards Brazilian colonial past. Finally, an analysis is set out on how Bernardelli, representing a poor and handicapped sculptor, significantly subverts the usual formulas practiced in the European artworks dedicated to the lives of masters.