Pedro Américo and the 1884 Fine Arts General Exhibition: religious history painting and Orientalism

• Grant number: 16/01908-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2016
• End date: August 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Elaine Cristina Dias
• Grantee: Fabriccio Miguel Novelli Duro
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 17/08424-5 - Pedro Américo and the 1884 Fine Arts General Exhibition: Religious History Painting and Orientalism, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This research aims to study three paintings maintained in The National Museum of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro: David and Abishag (1879), Judith and Holofernes (1880) and Moses and Jochebed (1884), painted by the Brazilian artist Pedro Américo (1843-1905). These paintings depicts scenes from the Old Testament and were exhibited in 1884 at the 26th Fine Arts General Exhibition organized by the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. We aim to investigate this group of paintings in their formal and thematic conceptions, emphasizing its relationship with the renewal of religious history painting in the nineteenth century and the changes on that specific genre during this period as well as the changes caused by the orientalism in the arts. We also intend to understand the place of these paintings in Pedro Américo's work and the way that they relate to national and foreign artists from the same period, trying to understand Américo's paintings in the artistic context in which they were produced and to analyze the critique they originated. (AU)