Literature
Brazilian fiction, poetry, and drama account for about half the
literary output of Latin America, calculated by the number of titles
of individual books.
Literary
development in Brazil roughly follows the country’s main historical
periods – the Colonial period, from 1500 until independence
in 1822, characterized mostly by writings in the Baroque and Arcadian
styles, and the National Period since 1822. Important literary movements
during the National Period can be linked to the country'’
political and social development: The Romantic Movement in literature
coincided roughly with the 57 years of the Empire; the Parnassians
and the Realists flourished during the early decades of the Republic,
followed, around the turn of the century, by the Symbolists. In
the 20th century, the ascendance of the Vanguardist or Modernist
Movement, with ideas of na avant-garde aestheticism, was celebrated
during the famous São Paulo Week of Modern Art in 1922. This
movement profoundly influenced not only Brazil’s literature,
but also its painting, sculpture, music, and architecture.
Many
of the notable writers of the Colonial Period were Jesuits who were
mesmerized by the new land and ita native inhabitants. Among the
luminaries of this period were Father José de Anchieta (1534-1597),
a poet dedicated to the evagelization of the Indians, Gregório
de Matos (1623-1696), who composed poetry layered on lyricism and
mysticism but is best known for his satirical vein, and the famous
preacher Father Antônio Vieira (1608-1697). The Arcadians,
Cláudio Manoel da Costa (1729-1789), Basílio da Gama
(1740-1795), and Tomás Antônio Gonzaga (1744-1810),
wrote lyric and epic poems and were also known for their involvement
in the liberation movement called “Minas Conspiracy”
(“Conjuração Mineira”).
The
transfer, in 1808, of the Portuguese royal family to Brazil brought
with it the spirit of the incipient European Romantic Movement.
Brazilian writers began to emphasize individual freedom, subjectivism,
and a concern for social issues. Following Brazil’s independence
from Portugal, Romantic literature expanded to exalt the uniqueness
of Brazil’s tropics and its Indians, concern for the African
slaves, and to descriptions of urban activities. Some of the best
known literary figures of the Romantic Period were poets, such as
Castro Alves (1847-1871) who wrote about African slaves and Gonçalves
Dias (1823-1864) who wrote about Indians. Manuel Antônio de
Almeida (1831-1861) is credited with initiating picaresque literature
in Brazil. José de Alencar (1829-1877) wrote a number of
popular novels including Iracema about Indians, O Guarani, a historical
novel, and novels on regional, social, and urgan affairs. Amont
the novelists of the Romantic Period two are still widely read in
Brazil today: Joaquim Manuel de Macedo (1820-1882), who wrote A
Moreninha, a popular story, and Alfredo d’Escragnolle Taunay
(1843-1899), the author of Inocência.
The
Parnassian school of poetry was, in Brazil as in France, a reaction
to the excesses of the Romantics. The so-called “Parnassian
Triad” of Brazilian poets – Olavo Billac (1865-1918),
Raimundo Correa (1860-1911), and Alberto de Oliveira (1859-1937)
– wrote refined poetry in which the poet’s personality
and interest in social issues were obliterated.
Machado
de Assis (1839-1908), widely acclaimed as the greatest Brazilian
writer of the 19th century and beyond, was unique because of the
universality of his novels and essays. Today, Machado de Assis remains
one of the most important and influencial writers of fiction in
Brazil. His works encompassed both the Romantic style and Realism
as exemplified in Europe by Emile Zola and the Portuguese novelist,
Eça de Queiroz. The prose of Euclides da Cunha (1866-1908),
was committed to a Brazilian literature portraying social realities.
His famous works, Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands),
about a revolt in the northeast led by a religious fanatic, was
published in 1902.
At
the turn of the century the Brazilian literary imagination was drawn
to Symbolism, represented by poets Cruz e Souza (1861-1893) and
Alphonsus de Guimarãens (1870-1893). The Symbolists were
interested in mysticism and used metaphor and allegory to express
their ideas.
Beginning
in the 20th century, na innovative state of mind imbued Brazilian
artists, culminating in the celebration of the 1922 Week of Modern
Art held in São Paulo. This new way of thinking propelled
na artistic revolution that appealed to feelings of pride for national
folklore, history, and ancestry. Participants in the Week of Modern
Art resorted to experiments in writing and in fine arts known elsewhere
as Futurism, Cubism, and Dadaism. Poet Menotti del Pichia sumarized
the aims of the new artistic movement with these words: “We
want light, air, ventilators, airplanes, worker’s demands,
idealism, motors, factory smokestacks, blood, speed, dream in our
Art.” The most important leader of the literary plahse of
this movement was Mário de Andrade (1893-1945) who wrote
poetry, essays on literature, art, music, and Brazilian folklore,
and Macunaíma, which he called “a rapsody, not a novel”.
Oswald de Andrade (1890-1953) wrote a collection of poems entitled
Pau-Brasil (Brazilwood) which evaluated Brazilian culture, superstitions,
and, for the first time in Brazilian poetry, with humor.
The
transition to a more spontaneous literaty approach is represented
by poets Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987), who used irony
to dissect the customs of the time, and Manuel Bandeira (1886-1968),
who built language associations around proverbs and popular expressions.
Bandeira wanted his last poem “to be eternal, saying the simplest
and least intentional things”.
The
modern Brazilian novel took on a new shape and social content after
José Américo de Almeida (1887-1969) wrote A Bagaceira,
a pioneer story about the harsh conditions of life in the backward
northeast. He was followed by Jorge Amado (1902 - ), Graciliano
Ramos (1892-1953), José Lins do Rego (1901-1957), and Rachel
de Queiroz (1910- ), all noted for the power of their images in
evoking the problems and hardships of life in the northeast region
where they were born.
Jorge
Amado’s first novels, translated into 33 languages, were heavily
influenced by his belief in Marxist ideas and concentrated on the
sufferings of workers on the cocoa plantations of his home state
of Bahia, producing a succession of books which have received worldwide
acclaim. Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon)
is perhaps the best known of Amado’s books. Dona Flor e seus
Dois Maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands) has provided the scripts
for films, plays, and television.
Arguably
the most innovative Brazilian writer of his century was João
Guimarães Rosa (1908-1967). A career diplomat, he first captured
the attention of the public and critics alike with a volume of short
stories, Sagarana, soon followed by his best known work Grande Sertão:
Veredas, translated into English as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands.
Delving deep into speech mannerisms from the hinterland region of
the eastern seaboard, Guimarães Rosa started something of
a semantic revolution. He dared to present his readers with coined
word combinations and syntax so unrestrained as to constitute almost
a new language.
There
are many other noteworthy Brazilian writers. Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987),
a master of style and a pioneer of the new school of Brazilian sociologists,
is the author of Casa Grande Senzala (The Masters and The Slaves)
a perceptive study of Brazilian society. One of the best known Brazilian
poets is João Cabral de Melo Neto (1918- ). His poetry is
sober and he uses words with the accuracy with which and engineer
would use his building materials. Special mention must be made of
Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980). His poetry became part and parcel
of the bossa nova musical movement which produced a new style of
samba, tha typically Brazilian rhythm. Vinicius (as he is known
worldwide) also wrote a play, Orfeu da Conceição,
which became internationally famous as the film Black Orpheus.
Among
the living or recently deceased novelists, mention should be made
of: Orígenes Lessa, Adonias Filho, Érico Veríssimo,
Dinah Silveira de Queiroz, Lygia Fagundes Telles, Herberto Sales,
Rubem Fonseca, Clarice Lispector, Dalton Trevisan, Nélida
Piñon, Osman Lins, Paulo Coelho, and Moacir Scliar; and among
the poets: Raul Bopp, Murilo Mendes, Augusto Frederico Schmidt,
Mário Quintana, Cassiano Ricardo, Jorge de Lima, Ferreira
Gullar, Cecília Meireles, Augusto de Campos, and Haroldo
de Campos.
TOP
Music
Brazil's origins - the Indians with their reed flutes, the Portuguese
with their singers and viola players, and the Africans with their
many thrilling rhythms - make it a musical country. From the classical
compositions of Villa-Lobos, to the soft sounds of bossa nova to
the driving beat of samba, Brazil has developed music of striking
sophistication, quality, and diversity.
When
the Jesuit fathers first arrived in Brazil they found that the Indians
performed ritual songs and dances accompanied by rudimentary wind
and percussion instruments. The Jesuits made use of the music to
catechize the Indians by replacing the original words with religious
ones using the Tupi language. They also introduced the Gregorian
chant and taught the flute, bow instruments, and the clavichord.
Music accompanied the sacramental ceremonies which were performed
in village and church plazas. African music was introduced during
the colony's first century and was enriched by its contact with
Iberian music. One of the most important types of music used by
the Negro slaves was the comic song - dance called lundu. For a
long time it was one of the typical popular musical forms and it
was even sung in the Portuguese Court during the 19th century. In
the second half of the l8th century and during the 19th century,
the sentimental love song called the modinha was popular and it
was sung both in Brazil's salons and at the Portuguese Court. No
one knows if the modinha was born in Brazil or in Portugal.
Schools
of music existed in Bahia in the early 17th century and religious
music was played in churches throughout the colony. As with other
art forms, musical activity intensified with the arrival of the
Royal Family in 1808. King João VI, a music lover, sent to
Europe for the composer Marcos Portugal, and for Sigismund von Neukomm,
an Austrian pianist, a pupil of Haydn. Local musicians also attracted
the King's attention, such as José Nunes Garcia (1767-1830)
who was a notable improviser on the organ and clavichord. João
VI appointed him Inspector to the Royal Chapel, a body which had
more than 100 instrumentalists and singers, many of whom were foreigners.
By
the end of the century, Carlos Gomes (1836-1896), born in the town
of Campinas in the state of São Paulo, produced a number
of operas in the prevailing Italian style, especially Il Guarany,
an opera eased on a famous Brazilian novel by José de Alencar
about a colonial villain who incites an Indian attack in order to
gain a Portuguese nobleman's treasure and his daughter as a bride.
Brasílio Itiberê (1848-1913) was the first Brazilian
composer to use a popular national motif in erudite music. His 1869
composition, A Sertaneja (The Country Maiden) was played by Franz
Liszt and has remained active in the piano repertoire.
As
in literature and painting, the Week of Modern Art in 1922 revolutionized
Brazilian music and brought acceptance to a crop of new composers.
Led by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), they brought avant-garde
techniques from Europe and undertook the challenge of transplanting
Brazilian folkloric melodies and rhythms to symphonic compositions.
Their music often incorporated many popular musical instruments
into classical orchestras.
After
a time, two principal trends in Brazilian music became identifiable.
Writer Mário de Andrade had advocated that composers should
seek inspiration in national life with special emphasis on Brazil's
musical folklore. Composer Camargo Guarnieri, an adherent of Andrade,
heads the musical school known as Nationalist . Other composers
in this group include: Luciano Gallet (1893-1931), Oscar Lorenzo
Fernandez {1897-1948), Francisco Mignone (1897-1986), Radamés
Gnatalli (1906-), and Guerra Peixe (1914-). In widely differing
compositions, these composers searched for a national language which
would not lose the universal character of musical language. After
1939, another musical school began to assert itself principally
as a result of the work carried out by Hans Joachim Koellreutter,
the creator of the Live Music Group. This group made up of Cláudio
Santoro (l9l9-1990), Eunice Catunda (1926-), Edino Krieger (1928-),
and others based their music on the universality of musical language.
They defended the use of atonalism and dodecaphonism as composition
resources.
Brazil's
popular music developed parallel to its classical music and it also
united traditional European instruments - guitar, piano, and flute
- with a whole rhythm section of sounds produced by frying pans,
small barrels with a membrane and a stick inside (cuícas)
that make wheezing sounds, and tambourines. During the 1930's Brazilian
popular music played on the radio became a powerful means of mass
communication. Three of the best known composers of this period
are Noel Rosa, Lamartine Babo, and Ary Barroso (1903-1963). Barroso's
principal singer, Carmen Miranda, went on to achieve an international
reputation when she appeared in a series of Hollywood films.
In
the mid 1960's, the haunting, story-telling lyric of The Girl From
Ipanema, carried by a rich melodic line, was the first big international
hit to emerge from the bossa nova movement of Brazilian singers
and composers. It put Brazilian popular music on the map and brought
instant fame to composer Antonio Carlos Tom Jobim (1927-1994) and
lyricist-poet Vinicius de Moraes, (1913-1979).
The
bossa nova appeared in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950's. At first
it was played as an intimate music in the apartments of Rio's middle
and upper-middle classes. The music mingled the Brazilian samba
beat with American jazz. Later on bossa nova became a trademark
of a new concept of music - a little sad, sometimes sung off-key,
and where the lyrics have great importance. For that reason, in
Brazil, the association of modern poets with pop composers (Vinícius
de Moraes, Chico Buarque, Tom Jobim, Luiz Bonfá, and Baden
Powell) was an enormous success.
In
1968, in a period of dictatorship, urban guerrillas, and anxiety
about how to change the political system, the Tropicalists appeared
Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Gal Costa. Tropicalism can be
described as a blending of international music (such as Latin beats
and rock'n'roll) with national rhythms. It is very much its own
creation: lyrical, intelligent, with faster tempos and fuller rhythms
than bossa nova.
Popular
regional music in Brazil includes the forró from the northeast
where the accordion and the flute join guitars and percussion in
a foot-stomping country dance; the frevo, also from the northeast,
which has an energetic, simple style; the chorinho (literally little
tears) from Rio which combines various types and sizes of guitars,
flutes, percussions, and an occasional clarinet or saxophone in
a tender form of instrumental music; and the internationally successful
lambada. When danced, lambada is sensual and fast-paced; it got
its name from the Portuguese verb to whip or flog referring to the
smacking of thigh against thigh. But the most typical of Brazilian
popular music is the seductive rhythm of the samba. No one is sure
of the exact origin of the samba. Some people believe that samba
was born in the streets of Rio de Janeiro with contributions from
three different cultures - Portuguese courtry songs, African rhythms,
and native Indian fast footwork. Others believe samba is simply
African in origin and that it evolved from the batuque, a music
based on percussion instruments and hand clapping.
Today
in Brazil, popular music continues toexplore new rhythms and new
melodies. Its interpreters and composers make use of all music's
resources to compete for and please the world's many music audiences.
Some of the well-known performers are: Maria Bethania, Alcione,
Roberto Carlos, Cazuza, Ney Matogrosso, Rita Lee, Milton Nascimento,
Hermeto Pascoal, Fafá de Belém, Chitãozinho
and Chororó, Elba Ramalho, Alceu Valença, Luiz Gonzaga,
Luiz Gonzaga Jr., João Bosco, Djavan, Ivan Lins, Marisa Monte,
and Elis Regina.
TOP
Cinema
Within a year of the Lumière brothers' first experiment in
Paris in 1896, the cinematograph machine appeared in Rio de Janeiro.
Ten years later, the capital boasted 22 cinema houses and the first
Brazilian feature film, The Stranglers by Antônio Leal, had
been screened. From then on Brazil's film industry made steady progress
and, although it has never been large, its output over the years
has attracted international attention.
In
1930, still the era of the silent movie in Brazil, Mario Peixoto's
film Limit (Limite) was made. Limite is a surrealistic work dealing
with the conflicts raised by the human condition and how life conspires
to prevent total fulfillment. It is considered a landmark film in
Brazilian cinema history. In 1933 Cinédia produced The Voice
of Carnaval, the first film with Carmen Miranda. This film ushered
in the chanchada which dominated Brazilian cinema for many years.
Chanchadas are slapstick comedies, generally filled with musical
numbers, and thoroughly appreciated by the public.
By
the end of the 1940's Brazilian film making was becoming an industry.
The Vera Cruz Film Company was created in São Paulo with
the goal of producing films of international quality. It hired technicians
from abroad and brought back from Europe Alberto Cavalcanti, a Brazilian
filmmaker with an international reputation, to head the company.
Vera Cruz produced some important films before it closed in 1954,
among them the epic The Brigand (O Cangaceiro) which won the Best
Adventure Film award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953.
In
the 1950's, Brazilian cinema radically changed the way it made films.
In his 1955 film, Rio 40 Degrees (Rio 40 Graus), director Nelson
Pereira dos Santos employed the filmmaking techniques of Italian
neorealism by using ordinary people as his actors and by going to
the streets to shoot his low budget film. Nelson Pereira dos Santos
would become one of the most important Brazilian filmmakers of all
time, and it is he who set the stage for the Brazilian cinema novo
movement. Other directors went outdoors to shoot, and production
of films increased. In 1962, The Payer of Vows (O Pagador de Promessas)
by Anselmo Duarte won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.
By this time cinema novo had established a new concept in Brazilian
filmmaking - an idea in mind and a camera in the hands. The cinema
novo films dealt with themes related to acute national problems,
from conflicts in rural areas to human problems in the large cities,
as well as film versions of important Brazilian novels. Barren Lives
(Vidas Secas), directed by Pereira dos Santos, is based on a novel
by Graciliano Ramos. It tells the story of a northeastern family
chased from their home by drought. God and The Devil in the Land
of the Sun (Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol) by director Glauber
Rocha deals in an allegorical way with religious and political fanaticism
in Brazil's northeast. Empty Night (Noite Vazia), goes back to urban,
intimate themes depicting the anguish of lonely people living in
industrial São Paulo.
At
the end of the 1960's, the Tropicalist movement had taken hold of
the music, theatre, and art scenes in Brazil. It emphasized the
need to transform all foreign influences into a national product.
Cinema also came under its spell; allegory was its means of expression.
The most representative film of the Tropicalist movement is Macunaíma,
by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, a metaphorical analysis of the Brazilian
character as expressed in the tale of a native Indian who leaves
the Amazon jungle and goes to the big city. The film is based on
Mario de Andrade's 1922 novel of the same name.
Working
at the same time as the Tropicalists, another group of directors
emerged in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro who also made low
cost films. This movement - cinema marginal - produced films with
themes that refer to a marginal society. Their films were considered
difficult. Noteworthy among these films are Rio Babylon (Rio Babilônia)
by Neville d'Almeida, He Killed the Family and Went to the Movies
(Matou a Família e foi ao Cimema) by Júlio Bressane,
and The Red Light Bandit (O Bandido da Luz Vermelha) by Rogério
Sganzerla.
The
Government film agency, EMBRAFILME, created in 1969, was responsible
for the co-production, financing, and distribution of a large percentage
of films in the 1970's and 1980's. (EMBRAFILME ceased operations
in 1990.) EMBRAFILME added a commercial dimension to the film industry
and made it possible for it to move on to more ambitious projects.
Among the acclaimed films of the mid 1970's were Pereira do Santos's
Ogum's Amulet (Amuleto de Ogum) about candomblé and Joaquim
Pedro de Andrade's Connubial War (Guerra Conjugal). In a series
of sketches, Connubial War, based on a short story by Dalton Trevisan,
relates the humor and travails of married life. Dona Flor and Her
Two Husbands (Dona Flor e seus Dois Maridos), directed by Bruno
Barreto, was an international success. Based on the novel by Jorge
Amado, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands is a delightful story about
a widow living a triangular affair with her second husband and her
deceased husband's spirit.
In
the 1980's movies were not well attended. This was due in part to
the popularity of television. Many theatres closed their doors,
especially in the interior of the country. Nevertheless, some important
films were made. Many were concerned with political questions: They
Don't Wear Black-Tie (Eles não Usam Black-Tie), 1981, directed
by Leon Hirzman, tells the story of a strike in the industrial area
of São Paulo; Memories of Prison (Memórias do Cárcere),
1984, by Nelson Pereira dos Santos and based on a book by Graciliano
Ramos, portrays the life of political prisoners. One of the most
outstanding films of the 1980's was The Hour of the Star (A Hora
da Estrela), 1985, directed by Susana Amaral and based on a novel
by Clarice Lispector. It relates the poignant story of an immigrant
girl from the northeast in a big metropolis. The other outstanding
films of the 1980's were Bye Bye Brasil about a circus caravan dealing
with the inescapable fact that its audience is declining, directed
by Carlos Diegues and Pixote, the realistic and disturbing tale
of juvenile delinquents in São Paulo, performed by non-professionals,
directed by Hector Babenco.
As
a result of a 1993 law giving financial incentives to Brazilian
film production, the number of films currently being produced in
Brazil has increased dramatically and many Brazilian films are being
shown in movie theaters all over the world. O Quatrilho, a tale
of two married immigrant couples set in Rio Grande do Sul, where
the husbands are partners and end up exchanging wives, directed
by Fábio Barreto (1996) and Four Days in September (1998),
the true story of the 1969 kidnaping of the American Ambassador
to Brazil, directed by Bruno Barreto were both Oscar nominees for
Best Film in a Foreign Language. Central do Brasil (Central Station),
directed by Walter Salles, won the Golden Bear Grand Prix at the
Berlin International Film Festival in 1998, and in January 1999
captured the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe
award for foreign language film.
TOP
Fine
Arts
From the 16th century, Roman Catholic churches and convents in Brazil
were decorated in the European style, often by Brazilian craftsmen
who had been trained in European methods. During the 17th and 18th
centuries, baroque and rococo patterns imported from Portugal dominated
Brazil's religious architecture and its interior decor. Many of
these churches can be seen today.
The
most impressive artist of the whole colonial period was the architect
and sculptor Antônio Francisco Lisboa (1738-1814), better
known as Aleijadinho (the Little Cripple). The self-taught son of
a Portuguese settler and a slave mother, he was a master of sophisticated
rococo decoration and his painted wood sculpture and stone statuary
have a timeless grandeur of feeling. In mid-life Aleijadinho contracted
a crippling disease, but he continued to work for another 30 years
with chisel and mallet strapped to his wrists. His artistry is seen
in many of the baroque churches in his home state of Minas Gerais,
especially in the town of Ouro Preto and the surrounding area. In
the neighbouring town of Congonhas do Campo, at the Church of Bom
Jesus de Matosinhos, Aleijadinho sculpted 12 life-sized soapstone
statues of the Prophets and placed them on the terrace and staircase
outside the entrance. In front of the church's terraced stairs,
in six small devotional chapels, he created the Stations of the
Cross with 66 poignant statues in cedar wood.
During
the last four decades of the 18th century, new art appeared (especially
in Rio de Janeiro) in which religious themes were no longer predominant.
Works with temporal themes, such as portraits of exalted personages,
became part of Rio's artistic production.
At
the beginning of the 19th century there was a process of Europeanization
with the coming of the Portuguese Court to Brazil as the result
of the invasion of Portugal by Napoleon Bonaparte's troops. Dom
João VI, the refugee Portuguese monarch, encouraged Rio de
Janeiro's intellectual activity, founding cultural institutions
such as the Royal Press and the National Library. In addition, he
brought a group of French masters to Brazil to establish an Academy
of Arts and Crafts after the style of European art academies and
to implement the neoclassic style in the modernization plan for
the royal capital of Rio de Janeiro. Artists such as the Taunay
brothers, architect Auguste Grandjean de Montigny (1776-1850), and
painter Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768-1848) were part of the group.
Debret, the most important of the French artists, systematically
documented landscapes, people, and rural and urban customs. The
tradition established by Debret and his colleagues was so strong
that neoclassicism and participation in academies ruled Brazilian
visual arts well into the Republican era.
At
the Week of Modern Art held in São Paulo in 1922, artists
discussed their dissatisfactions with the academic world in all
fields of the Brazilian arts. The modernists wished to shock the
academicians. It is not clear if the 1922 movement caused or coincided
with some changes in outlook. It certainly opened broad new avenues
such as the critical pursuit of quality, the search for new values,
and the rejection of the old European stereotypes. There was no
precursor of genius in Brazilian painting: in the 1920's painting
simply emerged out of the shadows of the academy and joined the
wave of innovation then sweeping Europe. The techniques were imported,
but the moods and themes were clearly Brazilian. Lasar Segall (1891-1957),
in 1913, was the first artist to exhibit modern art. One of the
most important participants in the Week of Modern Art was Emiliano
Di Cavalcanti (1897-1976), a true Bohemian from a family of poets
and generals who liked to carouse in the underworld of Rio and paint
seductive, mulatto women.
Cândido
Portinari (1903-1962) was one of the first Brazilian artists to
paint his way to international fame. Coming from a small coffee
plantation in the interior of São Paulo, he experimented
with Brazilian themes and colors. Once he sent for 60 pounds of
earth from different areas and mixed the black, purple, reddish,
and yellow dirt with his paints. Portinari captured in his canvases
the way of life of ordinary people, conveying their joys and sufferings
in a dramatic way. The universality of his work led to invitations
and commissions from many sources, among them the monumental murals
at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and murals on the theme
of war and peace at the United Nations in New York.
World
War II brought about an interruption in the contact of Brazilian
artists with the international art world, even though many foreign
artists lived in Brazil. With the end of the War, financial sponsorship
began to stimulate artistic production. In the late 1940's the Modern
Art Museum was founded in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo got
two museums - the Art Museum of São Paulo founded by Assis
Chateaubriand and the Museum of Modern Art. With the numerous courses
given in these museums, art exhibitions and other museum activities
were stimulated throughout Brazil. The São Paulo Biennial,
founded in 1951 by Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho, helped to call
Brazilian artists to the attention of an international audience,
and to introduce foreign artistic innovations to Brazil. During
the 1950s. the Biennials were the most important artistic events
in Latin America making São Paulo the centre of great exhibitions
of contemporary art and of flashbacks of international movements.
Today,
the art scene in Brazil is self-assured. Brazil's painters, sculptors,
engravers and lithographers show their works both within Brazil
and in museums and galleries throughout the world. Current artists
include: Lygia Pape, Amélia Toledo, Cildo Meireles, Jac Leirner,
Regina Silveira, José Rezende, Waltércio Caldas Jr.,
Anna Bella Geiger, Rubem Valentim, Glauco Rodrigues, and Itélio
Oiticica.
TOP
Folk
Arts
The Portuguese who first landed on Brazilian soil in the 16th century
began the transplantation of European culture to Brazil. While the
Portuguese were still forming small, cautious groups to explore
the unknown beaches, native Indian potters were at work. Indigenous
craftsmen were polishing ceremonial axes of flint. Musicians and
dancers decked out in fibre masks, plaited straw, and fantastic,
feather helmets were retelling the legends of the flood and the
creation. Brazilian Culture is more than the simple result of specific
contributions by Europeans, Africans and Indians. Miscegenation
among them has been taking place ever since their very first contacts.
These three cultures have insinuated themselves into the way Brazilians
feel and act. Today it is difficult to trace their dividing lines.
Brazilian folk arts are among the richest and most varied in the
hemisphere.
Folk
Dance
Brazilian
folk dance and folk drama are rich forms of popular artistic expression.
Subject, rhythm, costume, and choreography reveal the three principal
components of the nation's culture in a complex interaction.
There
are dozens of Brazilian folk dances - everything from dramatizations
of the early wars between the Portuguese and the Indians (Caboclinhos
and Caiapós performed in the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas),
to the Cavalhada of Pirenópolis in the state of Goiás,
a theatrical pageant, lasting three days, which depicts the fight
between the Christians and the Moors on the Iberian Peninsula. The
Cavalhada survives from the tradition of medieval tournaments.
Folk
Drama
In
addition to the folk dances, there are many dance dramas (really
theatrical productions) popular in Brazil that trace their histories
directly to the Middle Ages. Portuguese in origin, these dance dramas
have been modified considerably by centuries of exposure to Brazil's
diverse cultures. Mario de Andrade, the great authority on national
folklore, has classified these dance dramas into four principal
groups: reisados, cheganças, pastoris, and ranchos.
Reisados:
The Reisados consist of a series of 24 folk plays of which the most
popular is the Bumba-Meu-Boi.The plot of the Boi drama centers around
the misfortunes of the prize bull which a wealthy cattle rancher
has arduously searched for to improve his herd.
Cheganças:
Cheganças (arrival) is a folk play performed during the Christmas
season. It tells of the arrival by sea of the Moors, their defeat,
and their eventual baptism by the Christians.
Pastoris:
Pastoris (shepherds) started as a performance of Christmas carols
in front of the Nativity scene in preparation for midnight mass.
Today pastoris is a secular event. Female street revelers parade
in parallel lines called the red and blue lines. Each line has the
same characters: the teacher; Diana, the pretty angel; the gypsy;
the old man (a comedian); the Northern Star; and the Southern Cross;
among others. The girl shepherds sing and rattle tambourines accompanied
by guitars and a solo wind instrument.
Ranchos:
Among the most primitive forms of carnival, as celebrated in Rio
de Janeiro, were the ranchos, solemn and romantic love stories acted
out by dancers to the beat of a marching rhythm. New ranchos were
written every year and groups of dancers representing various districts
of Rio performed them. They competed for recognition and prizes
thus becoming the forerunners of today's samba schools.
Capoeira
Capoeira,
a ritualised, stylized, combat-dance, having its own music, and
practiced primarily in the city of Salvador, Bahia, is a characteristically
Brazilian expression of both dance and martial arts. It evolved
from a fighting style that originated in Angola. During the early
days of slavery there was a lot fighting between the slaves. The
slave masters considered fighting a dangerous activity and would
punish those involved. In order to avoid this, the slaves developed,
capoeira, a martial art which they desguised as dance moves during
music. Over the years this was refined into a highly athletic sport
in which two contestants try to deliver blows using only their legs,
feet, heels, and heads - hands are not allowed.
The
combatants move in a series of swift cartwheels and whirling handstands
on the floor. The musical ensemble that accompanies capoeira includes
the berimbau, a bow-shaped piece of wood with a metal wire running
from one end to the other. A painted gourd which acts like a sounding
box is attached at the bottom of the berimbau. The player shakes
the bow. While the seeds in the gourd rattle he strikes the taut
wire with a copper coin which gives off a unique, moaning sound.
Ceramics
and Sculpture
In
the northeast of Brazil, the most popular sections of the large
markets are the displays of potters and vendors of artistic clay
objects, many of which are true sculptures. A number of these local
artisans are known not only to Brazilian folklorists, but also to
artistic circles outside Brazil. Familiar names are Severino, whose
characteristic work is in unglazed clay, Mestre Vitalino (Master),
the most famous of the folk potters, perhaps because he signed his
creations, and Zé Caboclo, from the town of Caruarú,
the principal centre of folk sculpture in the State of Pernambuco.
The ceramics portray complete scenes of daily activity, induding
animals (the horse, the cock, and the Zebu bull), and religious
characters (priests and saints).
Today's
potters follow traditions laid down by Indian cultures that existed
in the Amazon region well before the arrival of the Portuguese in
the 16th century. At least four of these cultures are noteworthy
for their ceramics: on the vast island of Marajó in the mouth
of the Amazon River potters melded vases that were later decorated
with labyrinthine patterns. The last of five archaeological periods
on the island, the Marajoara, is the most famous. In the Santarém
region, Indian potters made urns and igaçabas (funeral urns)
embellished with an amazing panoply of animals. They transtormed
the fauna of the Amazon into intricate and baroque fantasies of
men and animals. The cultures of Cunani and Maracá (in the
present-day state of Pará) also produced remarkable pottery.
Carnival
Carnival's
roots go back to the ancient Romans and Greeks who celebrated the
rites of Spring. In the Middle Ages, when the Catholic Church tried
to suppress all pagan ideas, it failed when it came to this celebration.
The Church incorporated the rite into its own calendar as a period
of thanksgiving. The nations of Europe, especially France, Spain,
and Portugal, gave thanks by throwing parties, wearing masks, and
dancing in the streets. All three colonizing powers carried the
tradition with them to the New World, but in Brazil it landed with
a difference. The Portuguese had a taste for abandoned merriment,
they brought the entrudo, a prank where merry-makers throw water,
flour, face powder, and many other things at each other's faces.
Prior
to 1840, the streets of Brazilian towns ran riot during the three-day
period leading up to Ash Wednesday with people in masks hurling
stink bombs and squirting each other with flour and strong-smelling
liquids; even arson was a form of entertainment. In 1840, the Italian
wife of a Rio de Janeiro hotel owner changed the carnival celebration
forever by sending out invitations, hiring musicians, importing
streamers and confetti, and giving a lavish masked ball. In a few
years the masked ball became the fashion and the wild pranks played
on the streets disappeared.
Today
Rio de Janeiro has the biggest and best known pre-Lenten carnival
in the world - its most colorful event is the Samba School Parade.
The samba schools taking part in the parade - each roughly having
three to five thousand participants - are composed overwhelmingly
of poor people from the city's sprawling suburbs. Every carnival
Rio's samba schools compete with each other and are judged on every
aspect of their presentation by a jury. Each samba school must base
its effort around a central theme. Sometimes the theme is an historical
event or personality. Other times, it is a story or legend from
Brazilian literature. The costumes must reflect the theme's historical
time and place. The samba song must recount or develop it, and the
huge floats must detail the theme in depth.
TOP
|
Beaches
Brazil
