Entre Rio de Janeiro e Minas Gerais: o diálogo sobre a pintura ilusionista

Abstract

In the first half of the 18th century, illusionist ceiling painting in colonial Brazil had its first example in Rio de Janeiro, a city that already attracted growing interest due to its proximity to gold mines and its status as a port city, which facilitated communication with the metropolis and the diffusion of manners. Other pictorial examples appeared throughout this colony, mainly in Bahia, Pernambuco and Minas Gerais, generally following the Italian form in the treatment of false architecture painting. However, the link between Rio de Janeiro and the mining area was particularly special, as the pioneering painting by Caetano da Costa Coelho (currently the only remaining example in RJ), located on the ceilings of the chancel and nave of the temple of Franciscan Thirds, only finds similar pairs in terms of quadraturistic composition in Minas Gerais. In this way, the relationship between the two regions, the parallels between these paintings and the respective works, the trajectory of the artists and the possibilities of assimilating a “peculiar operational mode” that was practically restricted to these two regions deserve to be highlighted.