Leopoldo Castedo, the Chilean art historian, has issued a beautiful album of photographs to prove a thesis: The Baroque Prevalence in Brazilian Art. He has furnished it with a text which discusses the aesthetic and philosophical nature of the national character as well as informative notes and a bibliography. Gilberto Freyre, the eminent sociologist, has contributed a foreword in which he suggests that the Brazilian affinity for the Baroque has followed intuitive, non-academic solutions and that the same phenomenon may be observed in medicine and music. The theme on which Señor Castedo develops his variations is enunciated at the beginning of the book by the brilliant architect, Oscar Niemeyer. Brazilians, the latter declares, have an “instinctive love for the curve—a real affinity with the Baroque of our colonial times” which allows “unfettered forms of a new and amazing plastic vocabulary.” According to the author, there are four essential qualities of Brazilian Baroque expression: universality, intimacy, sensuality, and audacity.
The author-photographer illustrates his study with examples of architecture and sculpture (painting is omitted), selecting his samples almost entirely from the work of Antonio Francisco Lisboa, “o Aleijadinho” or Little Cripple, and Oscar Niemeyer. The photographs are excellent and there are numerous close ups and unusual shots, dramatized at times by special lighting. The reader-viewer recognizes the power of both artists and can understand the affinity which the younger creator feels with his eighteenth-century predecessor. A desire for plasticity, curves, sculptural forms, or what is sometimes called “lyricism,” is basic to modern Brazilian building. The analytical camera of the sensitive Chilean emphasizes certain elements which are unexpected and even startling, and it is a pleasure to see some of the country’s best known works through “new eyes.” As Professor Freyre puts it, Señor Castedo’s camera has “surprised details” which usually escape us.
No one questions the fact that Central and Southern Europe and the Spanish and Portuguese regions of the new world have had a greater affinity to the Baroque than France or England and their overseas colonies. Reflections of “barroquismo” have continued on in many Latin countries. To speak of a Baroque prevalence in Brazil, however, overstates the ease. Why not simply: Baroque Elements in Brazilian Art? Señor Castedo writes of “the virtual paralysis [sic] of architecture during the 19th century” and the French neoclassic style which was superimposed on the “native” and popular Portuguese tradition. Many would consider the spirit of the palace of Itamaraty, the Teatro Isabel in Recife, and the pink and blue stucco sobrados with their stone pilasters and doorways, white terracotta pinecone roof ornaments, and tiled courtyards as brasileiríssimo. To dismiss the architecture affectionately described by Machado de Assis, the buildings, gardens, and sculpture characteristic of the Empire, is to reject a major section of Brazilian art. In short this is a book to be studied and read, but the thesis is pushed too far. Brazil’s artistic styles cannot be limited to one particular current, great as it may be.
