{"id":455608,"date":"2022-10-17T17:06:42","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T20:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=455608"},"modified":"2022-10-17T17:06:42","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T20:06:42","slug":"selective-memory-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/selective-memory-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Selective memory"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of September, anyone entering the Noble Room of the University of S\u00e3o Paulo’s Paulista Museum (MP-USP) will find two recently restored paintings alongside the monumental work of art Independ\u00eancia ou morte! <\/em>(Independence or death!), by the artist Pedro Am\u00e9rico de Figueiredo e Melo (1843\u20131905), from Para\u00edba. The two paintings were created by Italian artist Domenico Failutti (1872\u20131923). To the right will be a portrait of Empress Leopoldina (1727\u20131826) surrounded by her children and to the left a portrait of Maria Quit\u00e9ria de Jesus Medeiros (1792\u20131853), who fought in the Brazilian War of Independence.<\/p>\n

However, it wasn’t always this way. Since the museum opened its doors in 1895, until 1905, these spaces were occupied by, on one side, Caipira picando fumo<\/em> (Caipira<\/em> cutting tobacco), and on the other side, Amola\u00e7\u00e3o interrompida<\/em> (Interrupted whetting), both by painter Jos\u00e9 Ferraz de Almeida J\u00fanior (1850\u201399), from Itu, Brazil. They were later transferred to the Pinacoteca de S\u00e3o Paulo Museum. Engineer and historian Afonso d\u2019Escragnolle Taunay (1876\u20131958), of Santa Catarina, Brazil, became the museum’s director in 1917. He was responsible for deciding to fill the then empty spaces with the women’s portraits while preparing the Paulista Museum for the Independence Centennial celebrations, to begin five years later.<\/p>\n

With state funding and private donations, he commissioned painter Oscar Pereira da Silva (1867\u20131939), a Rio de Janeiro native, to produce additional works for the Noble Room. These included portraits of Dom Pedro I, Jos\u00e9 Bonif\u00e1cio de Andrada e Silva (1736\u20131838), Joaquim Gon\u00e7alves Ledo (1781\u20131847), Diogo Ant\u00f4nio Feij\u00f3 (1784\u20131843) and two genre paintings depicting the expulsion of Portuguese troops from Rio de Janeiro and Brazilian deputies in a Lisbon Court.<\/p>\n

Son of a viscount and grandson of a baron, Taunay previously worked as a professor at the Escola Polit\u00e9cnica, one of the nuclei that would later form the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP). He closely monitored Oscar Pereira da Silva’s progress and did not hesitate to request changes that he deemed necessary. The director’s approach provoked discussions among artists, as described by historians Pedro Nery and Carlos Lima J\u00fanior in an article published in 2019 in the magazine Anais do Museu Paulista<\/em> (Annals of the Paulista Museum). In the article, they discuss Taunay\u2019s changes, which included removing another one of Almeida J\u00fanior\u2019s paintings from the Noble Room’s anteroom and moving it to an inner room. The painting in question was Partida da mon\u00e7\u00e3o<\/em> (Departure of the river expedition), which depicts the beginning of a pioneering expedition.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n