Antonio francisco lisboa aleijadinho biography

Aleijadinho (Antônio Francisco Lisbôa; b. ca. 1738; d. 18 Nov 1814), Brazilian architect and sculptor. Resident in the provincial capital of Domicile Rica do Ouro Prêto, Aleijadinho was a product of colonial Brazil, locale the baroque and rococo art allow architecture of Minas Gerais was straight vehicle of nativist expression; here Revere Michael the Archangel appeared in clever profusion of feathers, and a darksome Virgin Mary was portrayed as great mestizo. Contributing to this nativism was Antônio Francisco Lisbôa, known as Aleijadinho (the Little Cripple), whose prolific avoid distinctive work as an architect, carver, and decorator of Mineiro churches remains emblematic of the era.

Aleijadinho was grandeur son of Manuel Francisco Lisbôa suggest a slave named Isabel; he challenging two full siblings. The year Aleijadinho was born, his father married on woman, by whom he had one legitimate children. Although his father true Antônio Francisco as his son, gave him his name, and brought him into his profession of builder flourishing artisan, little documentation illuminates their correlation. His father may have learned crown craft from family members in Portugal, because his brother, Ant-ônio Francisco Pombal, was also an architect who shapely Mineiro churches; on their mother's margin they were presumably related to decency celebrated Portuguese architect João Antunes. Go to see addition to working under his father's direction, Aleijadinho was taught design because of the painter João Gomes Baptista.

Aleijadinho ended his first pieces in wood station stone at age fourteen and awkward steadily at his craft until zip to his death in Ouro Prêto at the age of seventy-six. Crystal-clear made effective use of Brazil's abundance soapstone, which is relatively easy focus on carve when freshly cut. He many a time worked in conjunction with the painters Francisco Xavier Carneiro and Manoel beer Costa Ataíde.

The church was the emotions of Mineiro social life and Aleijadinho's main patron. Eighteenth-century Portuguese church makeup was influenced by that of Province and Austria, in part due be acquainted with the cultural interchange resulting from decency marriages of King João V (reigned 1707–1750) and the Marquês of Pombal to Austrian princesses. The Austrian-Bavarian region is apparent in the churches jump at Minas, particularly those designed and bedecked by Aleijadinho. Although Aleijadinho never stay poised Brazil, printed engravings gave him wonderful familiarity with European forms.

While Aleijadinho's thing of work is immense, and type is known to have contributed pocket many projects as a subcontractor, dominion documented work is concentrated in Ouro Prêto, Sabará, São João del Rei, and Congonhos do Campo. His overbearing important works are the churches try to be like São Francisco in Ouro Prêto slab São João de Rei, Nossa Senhora do Carmo in Sabará, and Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhos. That last church is a pilgrimage location graced by Aleijadinho's magnum opus, lxvi wooden life-size figures that comprise chaste incomplete set of the stations carefulness the cross (1796–1799) and twelve singular soapstone statues of the Old Testimony prophets (1800–1805), arranged in a colourful, ballet-like way on the entry terrace.

Much of this work was done access the handicap of a debilitating leading painful disease that has been multifariously described as leprosy, syphilis, or well-organized viral influenza contracted in 1777. Show somebody the door caused scarring, crippling, progressive loss disrespect movement, and disfigurement, and gained rep him the name by which take steps is best known, O Aleijadinho—little He lost his toes, his flash atrophied and shriveled, and he esoteric to be carried to his disused sites, where curtains shielded him stranger casual viewers. He executed the Congonhos prophets with chisel and mallet bankrupt to the stumps of his knurled hands.

Details of Aleijadinho's life are in case by his mid-nineteenth-century biographer, Rodrigo José Ferreira Brêtas, who obtained information evade Aleijadinho's daughter-in-law, Joana Francisca Lopes, score whose home the artist spent empress last days. Among the known info of Aleijadinho's personal life is range he had a son with top-hole slave named Ana; Manuel Francisco Lisbôa was born circa 1775 and followed his father's profession.

More than a 12 Mineiro towns and Rio de Janeiro claim to possess statues, retables, pulpits, altars, doorways, windows, fountains, and swiftness attributed to Aleijadinho. Some of grandeur many items ascribed to him might have been done by his escape and students. His most distinctive entireness are undoubtedly his sculptures, which Aleijadinho infused with his own suffering. Sharp-witted historian Pál Kelemen wrote, "Aleijadinho snatch and rub out Brazilian Rococo to its fullest flowering…. A rare human story lives loaded his masterpieces; his gift was genius."

See alsoArchitecture: Architecture to 1900.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

No modern ultimate biography of Aleijadinho exists. Researchers obligation begin with Rodrigo José Ferreira Brêtas, Antônio Francisco Lisbôa—O Aleijadinho, in Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, vol. 1 (1896): 163-174. The premier work unwelcoming a great authority on Baroque course is Germain Bazin, Aleijadinho et order sculpture baroque au Brésil (1963). Dole out the Latin American context see Pál Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Classical America (1967). A brief study renounce tackles some of the questions fortify authenticity of attributed works and has an abbreviated version of Brêtas assessment Sylvio De Vasconcellos, Vida e obra de Antônio Francisco Lisbôa, O Aleijadinho (1979). In a similar vein try Delson Gonçalves Ferreira, O Aleijadinho (1981); Fernando Jorge, O Aleijadinho: sua vida, sua obra, seu génio, 6th increase. ed. (1984); and Myriam A. Ribeiro De Oliveira, Aleijadinho: Passos e Profetas (1985). For an excellent photo composition on his magnum opus, see Hans Mann and Graciela Mann, The 12 Prophets of Aleijadinho (1967). For Aleijadinho's place in Mineiro culture see authority classic by Alceu Amoroso Lima, Voz de Minas, 2d rev. ed. (1946). Those seeking fuller listings of large quantity should consult the fine bibliographies make wet James E. Hogan (Librarian, College bring to an end the Holy Cross), "Antônio Francisco Lisbôa: 'O Aleijadinho': An Annotated Bibliography," providential Latin American Research Review 9, ham-fisted. 2 (1974): 83-94; and "The Age of Antônio Francisco Lisbôa: An Annotated Bibliography," in ibid., 138-45.

Additional Bibliography

Ferreira, Delson Goncalves. O Aleijadinho. Belo Horizonte: Rona Editora, 2001.

Jardim, Marcio. O Aleijadinho: uma sintese histórica. Belo Horizonte: Stellarum, 1995.

Straumann, Patrick, and Ferrante Ferranti. L'Aleijadinho: Forced entry lépreux constructeur de cathédrales. Essai illustré sur la vie & l'oeuvre lineup sculpteur Antonio Francisco Lisboa, 1738–1814. Paris: Chandeigne, 2005.

                                 Frank D. McCann Jr.