Entre História, Arte, Liturgia e Devoção: Um possível percurso narrativo do Antigo Recolhimento de Santa Teresa em São Paulo

Abstract

ABSTRACT:

 The Old Retreat of Saint Teresa, built in 1685, by architect and manumit Tebas following the initiative from Lourenço Castanho Taques and his brother Pedro Taques de Almeida, through authorization conceded by Carioca Bishop José de Barros de Alarcão, holds a long history. Built in order to shelter women who had certain patrimony and instruction, besides bad reputation and considered disobedient women, the religious building works as an institution until the beginning of the twentieth century, when Archbishop Duarte Leopoldo e Silva determines its demolishing in the year of 1917, following the urbanistic reform program which the old São Paulo downtown was going through, at that moment. Within its long history, one takes interest in comprehending the set of fourteen paintings, constituted by ten Fathers of the Church and four Evangelists, besides a huge eighteenth-century polychromed wooden crucifix, which belonged to the Old Retreat and now integrate the Sacred Art Museum of São Paulo collection. Regarding the three above mentioned sets of paintings, the documentation of the Sacred Art Museum of São Paulo attributes ten paintings to Friar and Ituano artist Jesuíno do Monte Carmelo and four to Jorge José Eduardo Vedras. The present study intends to analyze both sets of paintings and the crucifix considering their belonging to the Old Retreat, in order to comprehend its history, as well as the reconstruction of its historic narrative, in its route and usages. One also aims at deepening discussion about the dispersed patrimony and establishing interlocution with other researchers.

KEYWORDS: Retreat of Saint Teresa; narrative route; Sacred Art Museum of São Paulo