The exhibition of nostalgia: the artistic and historical artifacts of Brazil in imperial exile (1889-1975)

• Grant number: 21/09614-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: February 01, 2022
• End date: November 08, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Principal Investigator: Iara Lis Franco Schiavinatto
• Grantee: Carlos Rogerio Lima Junior
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/16121-0 - Reminiscences of an Empire in exile: the Castelo d'Eu and the trajectories of a collection between Brazil and France, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the procedures that involved the withdrawal from Brazil of historical and artistic artifacts (portraits, history paintings, books, documents from the Bragança dynasty, furniture and objects related to royal rituals) at the request of the imperial family, soon after the Proclamation of the Republic, at the end of 1889. Once placed inside the Castle d'Eu, residence of Princess Isabel and the Count d'Eu in exile, these objects seemed to fulfill an evocative and nostalgic function of the imperial period on the part of its residents, in condition of banned. Part of these artifacts returned to Brazil in 1968, becoming part of the collections of the Imperial Museum, in Petrópolis, and of the recently inaugurated, Palácio do Itaramaty in Brasília. It is equally necessary to understand the involvement of Assis Chateaubriand in the project to preserve these works, since the businessman, owner of "Diários Associados", was the one who bought Castelo d'Eu, in the 1950s, from the descendants of Princess Isabel with the intention to create there a foundation of studies focused on the history of Brazil. Research on the formation of this collection, which begins with the end of the Empire, and has its return to Brazil, after Chateaubriand's death in 1968, may shed light on aspects that are still quite nebulous regarding the motivations that guided not only the removal of these works, soon after the implantation of the Republic, but also its return, in full civil-military dictatorship.