Antônio Francisco Lisboa

Brazilian artist and architect

• Born: c. 1738
• Birthplace: Vila Rica (now Ouro Preto), Brazil
• Died: November 18, 1814
• Place of death: Vila Rica (now Ouro Preto), Brazil

Lisboa, noted for his skilled technique, his harmonizing aesthetic, and the singular sensitivity and expressiveness of his work, was a preeminent Brazilian High Baroque sculptor for and designer of churches and their interiors. At around age thirty, Lisboa began suffering from a disease—possibly leprosy—that severely limited his movements and then partially paralyzed him, but his pain and disability did not stop him from producing his most intense and expressive artwork.

Early Life

Antônio Francisco Lisboa (lees-BOH-ah) was the son of a Portuguese-born architect, Manuel Francisco da Costa Lisboa, and an African slave named Isabel. At baptism he received his father’s surname and was manumitted, which allowed him to become a free laborer. However, manumission did not allow him to inherit his father’s property.

Lisboa developed his style while obliquely aware of European techniques, adapting these to Brazilian materials and conditions. Of mixed race, typical for colonial artisans, Lisboa received his apprenticeship from his European-trained father, who was among the noted architects of the region. Like so many other skilled Portuguese artisans, his father had emigrated to wealthy provinces of Brazil to advance his career. Lisboa learned drawing and carving from artists who collaborated with his father.

Life’s Work

The life and work of Antônio Francisco Lisboa are often divided into two phases. The start of the first phase began with the appearance in 1777 of the symptoms of a disabling disease, which may have been leprosy. After 1777 his deformities and pain increased, together with the singularly expressive nature of his artistic work. The date also marks a transformation in his personality, from an effulgent, bohemian character to one that was ever more introverted and morose. His productivity, nonetheless, was intense and resolute. As his disease progressed, he lost the use of his extremities, so he had to be carried about by his slaves, who also secured sculpting instruments to his hands. His sobriquet, Aleijadinho, which came from this period, means “little cripple,” from the Portuguese word aleijado for “crippled” with the diminutive suffix inho.

Lisboa worked primarily and initially in Vila Rica, the capital of the captaincy of Minas Gerais. The name of the city changed to Ouro Preto after Brazil’s independence in 1822. As Lisboa’s fame grew, he and his staff were called to surrounding towns. He worked mainly in wood, principally cedar, and soapstone (pedra de sabão). He was sensitive to the unattractiveness of his deformities and to his status as someone of illegitimate birth and mixed race. However, his talent was frankly admitted and keenly sought by his contemporaries.

It is sometimes difficult to authenticate his works because others copied him as his fame spread. Moreover, Lisboa worked in teams with others artists, and the works were not individually signed. (Billing receipts are a common way of authenticating works.) As his physical disabilities increased, he trained his slaves to carve for him, following his instructions.

Of the hundreds of statues, altars, pulpits, fonts, communion rails, and choral balustrades that Lisboa produced, he is most noted for his work on the church of São Franciso de Assis in Ouro Preto and the pilgrimage complex in a neighboring town, Congonhas do Campo. His work at the former, an icon of the Brazilian Baroque, occurred in various stages from the late 1760’s until the early 1790’s. He carved the wooden ceiling vault and stone pulpits, designed the main entrance, and later carved the sanctuary backdrop. His work at Congonhas occurred in two stages. From 1795 to 1799, working in wood, he produced six sanctuaries or chapels with scenes of the Way of the Cross (Via Sacra). From 1800 to 1805, working in stone, he produced statues of twelve prophets. Virtually all his work can be found in places designated as world heritage sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

His church interiors possess a unity of composition and refinement of detail that convey the triumph and glory of faith and devotion. They hold a sense of robust and serene assurance. The arches and overhead sculpture of the main doorways are elaborate. However, they are contrasted and balanced by an immediate surrounding area that is bare and simple. This counterpoint of rich and spare produces a feeling of stark benevolence and dignified authority.

The stone and wooden statuary at the architectural complex at the basilica of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas do Campo are Lisboa masterworks and are expressive testaments to his acute suffering and austere spirituality. The basilica complex followed a pattern typical of similar pilgrimage sites in Catholic Europe. Entering the complex, pilgrims followed an ascending path, often on their knees, to the terrace of the church, as if accompanying Jesus on the path of his crucifixion on Mount Calvary. Along the path were six chapels holding life-size painted figures carved in cedar wood that portrayed the Way of the Cross.

The statues were extraordinarily natural and became increasingly moving as individuals progressed along the route. Lisboa absorbingly conveyed numerous details, such as the veins of a hand, the muscles of a leg, or the drape of a robe. The first chapel contained a scene of the Last Supper, with Christ and the twelve apostles. Later scenes showed the flagellation of Jesus and his crowning with thorns, his suffering borne with subdued dignity (flagellation was well known in slave societies). The climactic scene was the Crucifixion, mounted in the sanctuary of the church above.

Completing the Via Sacra and ascending the steps to the church terrace, a pilgrim encountered stone statues of twelve prophets. The statues rose on pedestals along the sidewalls of the steps. Nearing these figures individually and observing their distinct faces and gestures, stark against the arching sky, a pilgrim was struck by their power: The serene firmness of their eyes and mouths, and the steady urgency of their gestures. Their clothing presented a curious hybrid. They were dressed in boots, having come from afar with their messages, and wore Old Testament robes that hung like contemporary frocks, their heads crowned with imperious turbans. Each prophet declaimed with a charging intimacy. The head and all the body were forces behind a voice announcing the immediacy of God’s word, echoed through these human instruments from the heavens above. The veracity of their word could not to be doubted because the messiah and savior of whom they had foretold, the pilgrim had just witnessed in the preceding scenes.

Lisboa’s suffering in his later life is conveyed in his final works. He had only one son, whom he trained along with his slaves, to help him. In bed for the last two years of his life, he was nursed by his daughter-in-law, a midwife and the primary source of (oral) information about his life. Lisboa died on November 18, 1814, and is buried in one of the principal churches of Ouro Preto, which also houses the Aleijadinho Museum. The city itself is a still-living monument of his work.

Significance

Antônio Francisco Lisboa represents the culmination of Baroque artistic activity in Brazil. In Brazil this movement lasted throughout the colonial period, from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century. The height of the phenomenon occurred in the gold and diamond mining province of Minas Gerais (general mines) during the eighteenth century. The movement was essentially a “counter-reformation”; that is, the Brazilian Baroque sought to intensify Catholic devotion. Therefore, the intense cultural activity of Minas Gerais in music, poetry, architecture, painting, and sculpting occurred within a religious, though nonetheless quite worldly, environment. The building of richly decorated churches asserted social status. Moreover, it helped to expiate for sins committed in the libertine frontier environment.

Bibliography

Hogan, James. “Antônio Francisco Lisboa, ’O Aleijadinho’: An Annotated Bibliography.” Latin American Research Review 2, no. 2 (1974): 83-94. A review of the literature on Lisboa, with nine pages of entries preceded by a brief essay.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “The Contemporaries of Antônio Francisco Lisboa: An Annotated Bibliography.” Latin American Research Review 16, no. 3 (1981): 138-145. Six pages of entries on the background period to Lisboa’s work and the artists and craftsmen who collaborated with him; includes brief essays.

King, Catherine. Views of Difference: Different Views of Art. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. A collection of articles on masterpieces of world art that includes an essay on Lisboa, examining his production both as sculptor and as architect and offering astute observations on his techniques and aesthetics.

Lukas, Gabriel. “Antonio Francisco Lisboa (O Aleijadinho), 1783-1814.” Master’s thesis, Columbia University, 1961. This unpublished master’s thesis examines the later works of Lisboa as his art intensified because of his personal suffering.

Manguel, Alberto. Reading Pictures: What We Think About When We Look at Art. New York: Random House, 2002. Manguel examines the psychological aspects of various examples of narrative art, with one chapter focusing on “Aleijadinho: The Image as Subversion.”

Mann, Graciela. The Twelve Prophets of Aleijadinho. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967. A profusely illustrated publication with photographs, by Hans Mann, of Lisboa’s works. One of the earliest books to introduce Lisboa to readers of English.

Sullivan, Edward J. Brazil: Body and Soul. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001. A richly illustrated catalog of a monumental exhibition of Brazilian art held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, highlighting the Baroque and modernist periods, framing Lisboa within the totality of Brazilian cultural history.