The rose cords of the Virgin Mary: Our Lady of the Rosary and African communities in the Capitany of Minas Gerais and Portugal.

• Grant number: 25/02940-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Principal Investigator: Angela Brandão
• Grantee: Luciana Braga Giovannini
• Supervisor: Teresa Leonor Magalhaes do Vale
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/11494-6 - The rose strings of the Virgin Mary: Our Lady of the Rosary and the African communities in the Capitany of Minas Gerais, BP.PD

Abstract

The research Project aims to investigate the origins and history of the devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary and the Rosary Brotherhoods of Black Men in Portugal, analyzing their various representations. The title "Our Lady of the Rosary" and "Rosary Brotherhoods" were established in Europe in the context of religious conflicts which preceded the Protestant Reformation and the Counter-Reformation movements. As early as 1460, the Dominican Order revived and adapted the medieval religious practice of reciting the rosary as part of its efforts to combat heresies and convert non-Christian populations. Shortly thereafter, the Rosary Brotherhood of Black Men, composed of Africans and Afro-descendants, was founded at the Monastery of São Domingos in Lisbon around 1480, and the statutes that governed the Brotherhood served as a model for other confraternities established in the Luso-Brazilian world. In order to deepen the research already being conducted in Brazil through FAPESP Postdoctoral Fellowship (process no. 2023/11494-6), we intend to investigate the origin of the religious congregations of Black Men and the iconographic traditions preserved in Portugal. Our main objective is to understand the diversity of the repertoire of images present in the decoration of temples in Brazil, specifically those in Minas Gerais built by the Rosary Brotherhoods of Black Men, to explore their meanings and examine the continuities and iconographic variations over time. Within this scope, from the perspective of Art History, we will conduct a comparative study between the artistic and devotional objects produced for the worship of the Virgin of the Rosary in Minas Gerais and Portugal, including rosaries, oratories, processional banners, paintings, sculptures, engravings and records of saints. The ongoing research project, conducted within the Graduate Program in Art History at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), under the supervision of Professor Dr. Angela Brandão and supported by FAPESP, has been investigating the iconography of Our Lady of the Rosary and its relationship to the cultural and religious conceptions related to the devotion to the Virgin and Child in colonial Minas Gerais. During our studies, we have observed that the works of art executed for the worship of Our Lady's Rosary in the Capitany of Minas Gerais are connected to various iconographic types, produced in Europe from the 15th century onwards. These devotional symbols were widely disseminated through engravings, Marian litanies, records of Saints and other widely circulated objects in the Luso-Brazilian world. In this context, we have found that the iconography was assimilated, reinterpreted and adapted by Portuguese and local artists working in the mining region, drawing upon their artistic and cultural references. This connection between the works of art created in Minas Gerais and the set of images disseminated through printed engravings and various religious artifacts, reveals the importance of gaining a deeper understanding of the history of the cult and the origin of the Rosary Brotherhood of the Black Men in Portugal. Although religious congregations were transferred from Portugal to the Portuguese colony in America during the colonial period, the Rosary Brotherhood of the Black Men in Minas Gerais exhibit significant differences from their Portuguese counterparts. These distinctions likely influenced the iconographic choices for the decoration of the chapels in Minas Gerais, characterized by the great variety of themes. However, only an in-depth comparative study, as proposed in this stage of the research project, between the vast iconographic repertoire of the Virgin of the Rosary produced in Minas Gerais and Portugal, will clarify these differences and their implications, highlighting the social, cultural and artistic influences that shaped these representations in distinct territories of the Portuguese Empire.