{"id":569461,"date":"2025-11-21T19:27:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T22:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=569461"},"modified":"2025-11-21T19:27:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T22:27:23","slug":"the-challenge-of-preserving-tile-azulejos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/the-challenge-of-preserving-tile-azulejos\/","title":{"rendered":"The challenge of preserving tile azulejos<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat\u2019s it called? Raio que o parta<\/em>?! Good Lord… Heaven forbid!\u201d That was the reaction of a resident of Santar\u00e9m (Par\u00e1) upon learning that the colorful mosaic on the facades of some neighborhood houses had such an unexpected nickname\u2014one that translates literally to \u201cmay lightning strike him\/it,\u201d and more loosely to \u201cto hell with him\/it.\u201d The statement was collected by researchers who compiled the book Raio que o parta: Uma arquitetura marcante no Par\u00e1 <\/em><\/a>(Raio que o parta: A striking architectural style in Par\u00e1; Editora Blucher), published last year and available for free download.<\/p>\n

Between the 1950s and 1960s, facades covered in mosaics made from tile shards first spread through Bel\u00e9m, and later across the rest of the state of Par\u00e1. \u201cThe murals with their motifs of geometric patterns, lightning bolts, and representations of Amazonian fauna, symbolize a popular assimilation of modernism,\u201d says architect Cybelle Salvador Miranda, coordinator of the Laboratory of Memory and Cultural Heritage of the Federal University of Par\u00e1 (UFPA) and one of the authors of the book.<\/p>\n

According to the researcher, the expression is attributed to historian and art critic Donato Mello J\u00fanior (1915\u20131995). During the graduation ceremony of the first architecture class of what was then the University of Par\u00e1, in 1966, for which he was guest speaker, Mello J\u00fanior said in his speech: \u201cMany people from Par\u00e1 [lacking guidance] covered facades with aggressive shapes and multicolored tile-shard mosaics, in a \u2018raio que os parta<\/em>\u2019 style [sic<\/em>]. Where did such bad taste come from?\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2009, Miranda and architect Ronaldo Nonato Marques de Carvalho, also from UFPA, revived the expression cited by Mello J\u00fanior to transform it\u2014now without irony\u2014into the official name of the typology. Many other studies followed this one, culminating in the book published last year by the duo along with architect Laura de Carvalho da Costa, author of the PhD thesis on the topic defended in 2023 at the same institution.<\/p>\n

In the work, the authors analyze the characteristics of this architectural language, its complex relationship with public perception over time, and its future prospects. According to Carvalho, the colorful ornamentation is not just an artistic detail, but rather an integral part of this architecture. Among other things, it highlights the shape of the homes, since on most of them the roof slopes from the front facade toward the back of the lot\u2014enhancing the imposing nature of the street-facing side.<\/p>\n

Although the Raio que o parta<\/em> architectural style first emerged in Bel\u00e9m, it can even be found in neighborhoods on Maraj\u00f3 Island, around 90 kilometers from the state capital of Par\u00e1. According to the researchers, the spread across the state is probably due to the thousands of visitors to Bel\u00e9m for the C\u00edrio de Nazar\u00e9\u2014a Catholic festival held in the state capital since 1793, on the second Sunday of October.<\/p>\n

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Irene Almeida<\/span>The mural Milagre do Monte Carmelo<\/em>, from the eighteenth century, in Para\u00edba Irene Almeida<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The mosaics were initially found on the houses of Par\u00e1\u2019s elite and, with time, the style became popular. \u201cAt a certain point, some less wealthy families renovated only the facade to add mosaics as a form of ostentation and to increase the property\u2019s value,\u201d observes Carvalho. \u201cThe Raio que o parta<\/em> style became a status symbol.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the researchers, this did not happen by chance. \u201cTile murals act as vehicles of symbolic communication,\u201d says historian Andr\u00e9 Cabral Honor, from the University of Bras\u00edlia (UnB), organizer of the book Estudos de azulejaria na monarquia pluricontinental lusitana <\/em><\/a>(Studies of tilework in the pluricontinental Portuguese monarchy; Roma Tre-Press, 2024), available for free download. The collection brings together nine articles by Brazilian and Portuguese researchers who analyze the iconography, meanings, and preservation of Portuguese tile panels, especially from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in both countries.<\/p>\n

According to Honor, the Catholic Church was one of the institutions that best understood how to take advantage of this demand for imagery. \u201cTo inspire the faithful, tile murals were more effective than paintings on the ceiling. They could be installed at eye level and within hand\u2019s reach,\u201d he emphasizes. The lives of martyrs were often depicted on them, for example. Additionally, the medium democratized the aesthetic experience, \u201cThe general public had little or no access to art at that time. The tile murals expanded access to a visual repertoire previously restricted to few.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the production of tiles was prohibited in the colonies, Lisbon\u2019s tile producers received orders accompanied by illustrations to be replicated and shipped overseas. These artisans could even add elements that demonstrated their technical and artistic prowess, but had little freedom to change the content without risking upsetting their clients\u2014especially considering that returning a panel made on the other side of the ocean would have been a complicated task at that time. \u201cFrom the plan with measurements of the installation site, to the choice of the reference image, through scale adaptation, calculating the number of ceramic pieces, production, packaging, transport, and installation, many hands contributed to the final product,\u201d says Honor.<\/p>\n

Discussing the originality and uncovering the authorship of the tile panels can be challenging, precisely because of the vast number of procedures involved. As Brazilian architect and researcher Felipe Eug\u00eanio da Silva points out in one of the texts from the collection, the mural Milagre do Monte Carmelo<\/em> (Miracle of Mount Carmel), installed in the eighteenth century in the Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Carmo church, in Jo\u00e3o Pessoa (Para\u00edba), used the anonymous print Sacrificio de Elias<\/em> (Sacrifice of Elijah), published in a 1671 edition of the Royaumont Bible<\/em>, as its reference.<\/p>\n

Even in contemporary and well-documented works, the authors of tile murals can remain unidentified. It is the case with some examples at the Gustavo Capanema Palace, in downtown Rio de Janeiro. The architectural complex, inaugurated in 1945, was built by a team led by architect Lucio Costa (1902\u20131998) to house the then Ministry of Education and Health. After being closed for a decade and six years of renovation, the building was reopened in May 2025.<\/p>\n

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Irene Almeida<\/span>A detail of a panel made with shards of broken tiles Irene Almeida<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In an article published in 2023, art historian Iaci d\u2019Assun\u00e7\u00e3o Santos, from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and Santa \u00darsula University, discusses the authorship of the nine panels installed at the site. Two of them are by painter C\u00e2ndido Portinari (1903\u20131962) and even include the finishing tiles\u2014or signature pieces. Another panel is by visual artist Paulo Rossi Osir (1890\u20131959), who produced all the tiles for the Gustavo Capanema Palace in his workshop, Ateli\u00ea Osirarte, in S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n

However, the authorship of the others is unclear. For Santos, this uncertainty allows the set to be understood as the result of a shared effort, woven together by the names Portinari, Osir, and Osirarte itself. \u201cWhen we talk about the tile-making process, even when the author is clearly identified, the work continues to be defined and marked by the actions and names of all those who contributed to its creation,\u201d says the researcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question of authorship is just one of the aspects that define the history of tiles,\u201d comments art historian Ant\u00f4nio Celso Mangucci. Based in Portugal since the 1980s, the Brazilian researcher studies Portuguese tilework. In his PhD thesis defended in 2020 at the University of \u00c9vora, he studied an eighteenth-century tile ensemble designed by Jesuits to decorate 12 classrooms within the institution. \u201cThe designs allude to subjects such as physics and chemistry,\u201d says Mangucci, who runs the website Portuguese Tiles, in Portuguese, Spanish, and English.<\/p>\n

His most recent work is the book Jo\u00e3o Burnay: A cole\u00e7\u00e3o de azulejos e a arquitetura neorrenascentista da Quinta da Trindade no Seixal <\/em>(Jo\u00e3o Burnay: The tile collection and the Neo-Renaissance architecture of Quinta da Trindade in Seixal; C\u00e2mara Municipal do Seixal, 2024). In the book, which has not yet been published in Brazil, the researcher describes the history of the Portuguese building that housed a religious order from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.<\/p>\n

After 1834, the building was secularized. Upon becoming the property of Portuguese industrialist Jo\u00e3o Burnay, the building underwent renovation and received a vast collection of tiles. \u201cThis collection responds to the yearnings of that historical moment: to establish tilework as a symbol of Portuguese identity. That\u2019s because, although the volume of ceramic production in the country was substantial, turning it into artistic heritage was a cultural construct of the nineteenth century,\u201d explains Mangucci.<\/p>\n

According to the researcher, the collection of tiles at Quinta da Trindade is composed of many pieces transferred from demolished palaces and convents, removed from their original context to become part of a new narrative. In 1971, Portuguese engineer Santos Sim\u00f4es (1907\u20131972) made an inventory of the site and recognized it as a small museum, contributing towards it being listed, and thus protecting the building and its tiles from disappearing.<\/p>\n

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Alessandro Potter \/ RIOTUR<\/span>A panel by Portinari in the Gustavo Capanema PalaceAlessandro Potter \/ RIOTUR<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The preservation is among the points covered by architect Renata Monezzi in her PhD thesis \u201cAzulejos na arquitetura paulista: Das artes decorativas \u00e0s artes industriais\u201d (Tiles in S\u00e3o Paulo architecture: From decorative arts to industrial arts), which she defended in 2024 at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). In her thesis, the researcher analyzes, for example, the tile decoration of four buildings that make up the architectural ensemble built along the Caminho do Mar, literally the road to the sea, as the old road to Santos, the current highway SP-148, used to be known.<\/p>\n

The idea of making these interventions along the road came from Washington Lu\u00eds (1869\u20131957), who was the president of the State of S\u00e3o Paulo at the time, with the aim of celebrating the Centenary of Independence, in 1922. To execute them, architect Victor Dubugras (1868\u20131933) was invited, who designed the monuments and buildings, along with visual artist Jos\u00e9 Wasth Rodrigues (1891\u20131957), author of the tile panels. \u201cThe panels are grounded in nationalist references and reinforced historical narratives about the glories of S\u00e3o Paulo, whether by constructing the idea of the bandeirantes as heroes, or by using other political figures who emphasized the supremacy of S\u00e3o Paulo,\u201d explains Monezzi.<\/p>\n

By comparing photographs from the time of the inauguration with the current pieces, the researcher noticed that interventions carried out in the 1960s and 1980s resulted in significant alterations to the original designs. On the panel Rancho da maioridade<\/em>, for example, Dom Pedro II (1825\u20131891) and his army were erased. In the new version, the emperor is transformed into a farmer with a short-brimmed hat, and the group of soldiers is replaced by a group of Brazilian backcountry men (sertanejos<\/em>) on horseback. \u201cThe ideas defended in the 1920s were modified to make room for another memory, which celebrated the agricultural elite,\u201d he states. According to Monezzi, these changes compromised the symbolic and artistic integrity of the works.<\/p>\n

In Par\u00e1, constructions in the Raio que o parta<\/em> style are at risk. According to Miranda, from UFPA, it is estimated that of around 300 houses in Bel\u00e9m featuring tile shard mosaics, only about 100 remain today. \u201cThe proposal to list them has not been well received by the residents,\u201d reports the architect. \u201cAs ownership of the houses changes, the emotional attachment to the original designs diminishes. Many mosaics have been painted over and several facades have been redone.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the assessment of the researchers from UFPA, preservation of this identity depends on a process of heritage education. In 2024, the university began developing outreach activities, such as cataloging examples and creating a booklet distributed free of charge. \u201cOur aim is to restore pride in such a unique architectural style, but it\u2019s also necessary to provide residents with practical solutions for restoring, cleaning, and reinstalling broken or loose pieces,\u201d concludes Miranda.<\/p>\n

The above interview was published with the title “Permanent, but vulnerable<\/strong>” in issue 353 of July\/2025.<\/p>\n

Scientific article<\/strong>
\nSANTOS, I. d\u00b4A. Feito a muitas m\u00e3os: Reflex\u00f5es sobre a autoria dos pain\u00e9is de azulejos do Pal\u00e1cio Gustavo Capanema<\/a>. Revista de Hist\u00f3ria da Arte e da Cultura<\/strong>. no. 2, July\u2013Dec. 2023.<\/p>\n

Books<\/strong>
\nHONOR, A. C. (ed.). Estudos de azulejaria na monarquia pluricontinental lusitana<\/strong><\/a>. Roma: Roma Tre-Press, 2024.
\nMIRANDA, C. S. et al<\/em>. Raio que o parta: Uma arquitetura marcante no Par\u00e1<\/strong><\/a>. S\u00e3o Paulo: Blucher, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ceramic murals are found in buildings of different styles and periods, such as in Raio Que o Parta<\/em>\u2013style houses in Par\u00e1","protected":false},"author":793,"featured_media":569462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[165],"tags":[203,241,204],"coauthors":[5687],"class_list":["post-569461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanities","tag-architecture","tag-history","tag-visual-arts"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/793"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569482,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569461\/revisions\/569482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569461"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=569461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}