São Paulo in the dispute for the past: the \Monument to Independence\, by Ettore Ximenes

Author(s)

Michelli Cristine Scapol Monteiro

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI)
• Defense date: 2017-04-25

Examining board members

Paulo César Garcez Marins; Domingos Tadeu Chiarelli; Ana Lucia Duarte Lanna; Paulo Knauss de Mendonca; Gabriela Pellegrino Soares

• Advisor: Paulo César Garcez Marins

Abstract

This thesis analyses the process of establishing the Monument to the Independence of Brazil as a \"place of memory\" representing Brazilian political emancipation. Created within the context of the centennial celebrations of the 1822 Independence, this sculpture was central to São Paulo\'s festivities, and proved to be a representation of the city\'s project to assert itself as the symbolic center of the country, in an overt dispute with the city of Rio de Janeiro for the creation of an official history of Brazil. The history of this piece was retraced back to the earliest intentions of erecting a monument in the Ipiranga district - during the Imperial period - up to its dedication in 1923. The selection process of this sculpture, which was carried out publicly, is herein analyzed, while also examining the debates engendered by its official announcement, its contending projects, and the criticisms published in the press regarding the various projects. The election of a design by Ettore Ximenes - a widely renowned Italian artist - is deemed as a strategy to confer distinction and fame, in national and international levels, to this new monument in São Paulo. The themes found in this set of sculptures and reliefs are shown to be correlated and synergized with the Museu Paulista exhibition - set up by historian Affonso Taunay - for the 1922 celebrations. This convergence of compositions was favored by the fact that Taunay acted simultaneously as member of the public selection\'s judging committee and as director of the aforementioned museum. In addition to the sculpture and to the historical exhibition, the project of aggrandizing and promoting the Ipiranga hill also included creating a monumental urban axis, filled with sculptures and gardens which would connect this historical site to the city center. However, the celebratory intentions of the paulista elite were marred by the delayed construction of the monument and other works connected to it - unfinished in 1922 -, and by the limited repercussion engendered by the inauguration of the Monument to the Independence of Brazil in local and international media. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/08905-2 - São Paulo in dispute for the past: the Monumento à Independência by Ettore Ximenes as a place of memory
• Grantee: Michelli Cristine Scapol Monteiro
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate