This volume is a second edition (revised and enlarged) of the book, Tomás Ender, pintor austriaco na Corte D. João VI no Rio de Janeiro. Um episódio da formação da classe dirigente brasileiro (1817-1818). The latter was published as part of the Brasiliana, Grande Formate series, in 1961, and contains reproductions of Ender’s work. The present volume contains only a few drawings which are concentrated in the chapter on the Africans in Rio, although the author does describe many of the sketches made by Ender, in some detail.
Tomás Ender, a young (24) Austrian painter came to Rio in 1817 as cultural baggage when the Archduchess Leopoldina was married to young Prince Pedro, son of João VI. Although Ender was in Rio at the same time as the more famous French artistic mission, there is no hard evidence that he spent much time with them or even knew them. He accompanied J. B. von Spix and C. F. P. von Martius as far as São Paulo on the beginning of their trip to the interior, but then returned to Rio. Ender was apparently a very busy young man—sketching streets, houses, details of construction, people, costumes, paying careful attention to details of dress, tools, and tribal markings of Africans and Amerindians. Apparently little escaped his curious eye, so that the absence of the other drawings from this volume represents a real loss to the reader.
J. F. de Almeida Prado has read widely in the literature of the period and quotes freely from French, English, and German accounts of life in Rio at the time of Dom João. There is a much semi-gossipy description of court life and of the streets and people. More important, perhaps, are details about the daily life of the Portuguese “exiles” in Rio and the effects of opening the port to European trade after so many years of semiseclusion. While certain family names emerge, such as Carneiro Leão, the volume is hardly more than an introduction to a serious discussion of the “clase dirigente.” It is fascinating reading, however, jammed with unexpected bits of information and scandal. There is also quite a bit of name-dropping and a few rather labored efforts to relate the significance of these events to analogous events of our own day. The author also takes some pains to point out divergences between his own interpretations and those of Oliveira Lima, author of the older standard work on João and Brazil.
There are a table of contents and many footnotes, but no index or bibliography; these omissions were no doubt intended to keep down the price of the book.
