The portraits of the Museu Afro Brasil and the representation of Preto Velho: an iconographic research

• Grant number: 22/03419-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2022
• End date: April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Principal Investigator: Letícia Coelho Squeff
• Grantee: Lucius Goyano de Santana
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this work is to suggest approximations between the set of works that represent black characters belonging to the Museu Afro Brasil Association and to the Secretary of Culture and Creative Economy of the State of São Paulo and the iconography of pretos velhos and pretas velhas, entities worshiped in spiritualist religions, especially of African origin. The study proposes a comparison of the iconography of these entities and the works of painters such as Brothers Timotheo da Costa and Benedito José Tobias, linking the production of these works to the emergence of umbanda, from the late nineteenth century until the 1930s. The intent is to understand this body of work beyond the traditional European approach tied to the genres of Western painting: genre painting, portraiture, and the study of "types". Thus, admitting that these portraits are part of a visual culture in which not only academic, but also Afro-Brazilian traditions blend. Therefore, the research will be constituted by the study of the works selected in contrast with the bibliography that encompasses: the social context of the selected artists and their production, social relations and daily life in the post-abolition period and the history of Afro-Brazilian religions, especially the cult of the pretos velhos and pretas velhas.(AU)