Between Robes and Virtues: Clothing in the Colonial Period

• Grant number: 25/04919-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2026
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Art Fundamentals and Criticism
• Principal Investigator: Angela Brandão
• Grantee: Isabella Ferreira Favaron
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This scientific initiation project aims to analyze clothing in the Brazilian colonial period, focusing on the 18th century, based on the iconography of Saints Barbara and Luzia. Considering the Catholic Church as an institution that held part of the ideological power in the organization of society at the time, we seek to understand how the female figures of Catholic saints dialogue with the ways of dressing during the period. Using the concept of "religion of happiness" coined by Gauvin Bailey to refer to the religiosity characteristic of the 18th century, it will be analyzed how the decorum and moral duty of the rococo, guided by a spiritual sense, relate to the growing luxury and new habits that emerge during the 18th century. The results have the potential to contribute to the analysis of clothing as an element of the social structures that governed Brasil during the colonial period, as well as propose new ways of analyzing the clothing of religious figures from the 18th century. (AU)