What Epochs Do the Facilities Represent at the Museum Nacional De Bellas Artes
Rio de Janeiro
Ten days ago I had a vacation in search of some sun and hot weather and arrived in Rio. Besides the usual things to practise like swim in the ocean, visit Corcovado and Christ the Redeemer and take cable car journeys to the top of Sugar Loaf Mount I went to the main art gallery in the city, Museu Nacional de Bellas Artes. One travel volume said information technology held 18,000 works of art and sculpture whilst another put the figure at 20,000. Drawn in by those figures and having little or no knowledge well-nigh Brazilian art information technology was a destination I did not want to miss. The building housing this vast collection was in the eye of the metropolis and when nosotros walked in nosotros were told the collection was on the second and third floor. Whether I am non good at counting just I would gauge the full number of artworks to be most 500 with about 200 sculptures so what happened to the others? At that place was room later on room of empty white walls so perchance in that location was once a large collection but information technology has now disappeared. I am sure somebody will tell me where they all went. Before I evidence yous some of the fine works which were on display I accept another complaint! How many art galleries have you lot been to that have no store or café? Well this was a first for me. I so wanted to purchase some catalogues to notice out near the works which were on display then I asked well-nigh the whereabouts of the store only to be told that unfortunately there wasn't 1….unbelievable !!!!
In my adjacent couple of blogs I am going to put those disappointments backside me and concentrate on what was expert most the museum. There were many beautiful paintings on display including two awe-inspiring historical works past ii different Brazilian painters, which were displayed along one wall of a very long room. The get-go piece of work was by Victor Meirelles and was entitled Battle of Guararapes which he completed in 1879. It measured 494cms x 923cms and the other, which was even bigger was entitled, Boxing of Avaí and was by the Brazilian artist Pedro Américo. This one measured 600cms x 1100cms. However today I want to concentrate on the art piece of work of Victor Meirelles.
Victor Meirelles de Lima was built-in in August 1832 in Nossa Senhora practice Desterro, which is at present known as Florianópolis, a town on the island of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. His parents, Antonio Meirelles de Lima and Maria da Conceição, were impoverished Portuguese immigrants.
He showed an early on talent for art and in 1849, aged 17, he attended the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. It was here that he specialised in genre and historical painting. This Academy was founded past the then present ruler of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, Don João VI, effectually 1816. It was the main official institution of Brazilian academic art. It had come up to fruition with the arrival of the Missão Artistica Francesca (French Artistic Mission), which arrived in Brazil in 1816 and had suggested the cosmos of an fine art academy which would be modelled on the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. It, like its French analogue, would have graduation courses both for artists and craftsmen for such diverse activities modelling, decorating and carpentry. The leader of the mission and the instigator of this plan was Joachim Lebreton who had fallen foul of the post-French revolutionary leaders and had sort exile in Brazil. Like the French Academy the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Rio awarded every bit a prize to the best artists a travel scholarship.
Victor Meirelles was a brilliant scholar and in 1852 won the travel scholarship to Europe with his painting São João Batista no Cárcere(St. John the Baptist in Prison) and in June 1853 he set up off on his artistic journey. His showtime port of telephone call was Le Havre and so after a brief stay in Paris headed to Rome.
His initial studies were at the Piazza Venezia studio of the Italian painter and author of books on fine art theory, Tommaso Minardi but Meirelles found his tuition also dogmatic and he felt artistically constrained and felt that he lacked the prospect of developing his own artistic ideas. He then moved to the studio of Nicola Consonni who was a member of Rome'southward Guild of St. Luke. Again Meirelles constitute his mentor also strict just the one matter he did gain was the opportunity to ameliorate his life drawing skills as Consonni gave his students drawing sessions with live models. The ability to main the fine art of figure drawing was a prerequisite to condign a talented historical painter. Meirelles left Rome and moved to Florence where the museums were alluvion with the works of the bang-up Italian Masters such equally Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese and he spent much of his time copying their works. One of the stipulations of the Travel Prize was that he would regularly send back to Rio work he had completed as proof of his artistic progress and this he had washed during his 3-year European stay. The Brazilian government was and then impressed with the piece of work they received, that they granted him a further three year scholarship in Europe.
In 1856, Meirelles moved from Florence to Milan and then on to Paris where he studied at the ateliers of the French historical painter and portraitist, Léon Cogniet and the Paris-based Italian historical painter, André Gastaldi. Meirelles was a dedicated student whose whole life was devoted to learning almost art and when his extended scholarship came to an finish the Brazilian authorities on seeing the work he had sent to them agreed to a further two year scholarship extension. They were well aware that Meirelles was going to go one of Brazil'southward finest painters.
It was during this final scholarship extension that Meirelles painted his nearly famous work, Primeira Missa no Brasil, (The First Mass in Brazil), which was exhibited at the 1861 Paris Salon. In fact it was the first piece of work by a Brazilian artist to appear at the Salon. It is now housed at the art museum in Rio. The painting depicts the official celebrated version of the discovery of Brazil as a heroic and peaceful event, celebrated in harmony by colonists and native Indians. Meirelles had based his delineation on some resources he found about the Brazilian Indian at the Sainte-Geneviève Library in Paris. In the piece of work we encounter the monk Henrique de Coimbra celebrating mass on April 26, 1500. The painting made Meirelles's name and has illustrated many history books, stamps, bank notes, catalogues and magazines. It is such an iconic piece of work and is probably the best known painting in Brazil.
Following his artistic success with his painting, Meirelles returned to Brazil in 1861 equally an artistic hero because of this painting. He was awarded theImperial Ordem da Rosa (Knight of the Guild of the Rose) by Emperor Dom Pedro II and he became ane of the Emperor's favourite painters, and in 1864 he completed a portrait of the Emperor.
He was appointed Honorary Professor of the Academy, and shortly after promoted to Acting Teacher of the Purple Academy of Fine Arts in Rio de Janeiro. He connected painting important historical works, which for many Brazilians pictorially recounted their history. In his 1866 work entitled Moema he highlighted the sad plight of the Brazilian indigenous population and their clashes with the Dutch and Portuguese colonists. It was a piece of work of fine art which was known every bit Indianism which was the term used which refers to the idealisation of the ethnic people of Brazil,d who were sometimes portrayed as mythical national heroes. In nineteenth century Brazilian literature the indigenous people of the country were chosen to stand for the new nation. Indianism was a form of Romanticism in Brazilian art.
In 1875 Meirelles was commissioned to produce a historical work based on a seventeenth century battle between the Dutch colonizers and the Portugeuse/Brazilian ground forces. He went to the surface area where the conflict had occurred in society to produce a topographical authentic background and began making preliminary sketches for his monumental historical work which became known as Batalha de Guararapes (Battle of Guararapes). Meirelles completed the piece of work iv years afterwards. It was a depiction of the Start Battle of Guararapes which took place in 1648 in the Guararapes Hills in the n-e of the country and was part of the Pemambucana Coup between the Dutch army who had colonized much of the area and the Portuguese ground forces. Still it was non the Portuguese army per se as the forces fighting the Dutch colonizing army were in fact considered the origin of the Brazilian Ground forces, because it was the first time where whites, blacks and Indians joined forces to fight for Brazil, their land, instead of fighting for Portugal.
The painting had a surface expanse of 45 square metres, measuring 494cms x 923cms. I stood earlier this work and marvelled at the particular that went into information technology. It really is an crawly work of art.
Being known equally a potent supporter of the Empire and because of his loyalty to the national cause, Meirelles was also deputed in 1868 by the Brazilian regime to create an historical work which featured Brazil's crucial naval victory during its war with Paraguay. The Boxing of Riachuelo took place on the Paraná River in June 1865 and it was a turning signal in the war between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The war which had begun in 1864 lasted 6 years. Meirelles travelled to the region of the disharmonize so as to gather impressions of the mural and the military surroundings. He installed a workshop on the ship Brazil, which was the flagship of the Brazilian fleet, and remained on lath for six months preparing sketches for the painting.
Everything was going well for Meirelles until on November 15, 1889, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca headed a military insurrection which led to the downfall and exile of the sixty-eight yr former Emperor Dom Pedro II . The Empire had fallen and was replaced by a Republic. As was the case with many French artists who had connections with the family of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, they too rapidly fell out of favour with the onset of the French Revolution. Whereas When Emperor Dom Pedro was ruler of Brazil his patronage of Victor Meirelles was a benefaction to the artist just when the Emperor was deposed artists continued with the Emperor and the court were cutting adrift. Meirelles too lost his position at the Imperial University of Fine Arts, the spurious reason for his sacking was that he was too quondam. He was merely fifty-seven years of age. Victor Meirelles de Lima died in Rio de Janeiro on February 23rd 1903 aged 70. Information technology was a Sun morning and the Funfair was in total swing but few mourned the passing of the in one case iconic artist.
Today, also his work which is on display at the Museu Nacional de Bellas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, there is a museum defended to him and his piece of work in his birthplace, Florianapolis. The museum is in a house, built of rock masonry, bricks and stucco, fences which have openings with a wooden roof with tiles. It was caused past the Wedlock in 1947 and National Heritage and National Art in 1950 The works of Meirelles are exhibited on the upper floor whilst the footing floor contains works by contemporary artists. The mission of the Victor Meirelles Museum, fix in its Museum Plan, is set out as:
"…To preserve, inquiry, and the life and work of Victor Meirelles, and disseminate, promote and preserve the historical, artistic and cultural order, and also stimulate reflection and experimentation in the arts, heritage and contemporary idea, contributing to the expansion of access to the virtually different cultural events and for grooming and practise of citizenship…"
It is skillful that the land that once hailed Meirelles as an iconic artist and then abased him have finally realised the contribution he made to the history and life of Brazil.
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Source: https://mydailyartdisplay.uk/2014/03/08/museu-nacional-de-bellas-artes-part-1-victor-meirelles/