Fragmentos
Percival Tirapelli
Exhibition of fragments from demolitions of colonial cathedrals, churches and Brazilian chapels with many inventory notes .They are valuable objects, pieces of dismantling of buildings, paintings, works of art and saints made by renowned masters. At the beginning of the modernist century, records show that the demolition of the colonial churches in the old center of São Paulo was almost routine, as well as in the interior and in states like Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. The Cathedral was demolished, churches of the Courtyard of the College, St. Peter of the Clergy, Mercy, besides the Carmelite convents, Benedictine of Santa Teresa and Remedios. Constituted from the end of the 1990s, Rafael Schunk's Collection of Sacred Art emphasizes artistic productions of the bandeirista period from the seventeenth century, from the emergence of Brazilian baroque art to its ramifications in country culture, with a permanence of archaisms until modernity . They are mostly fragments from cathedrals in the interior of São Paulo, such as Taubaté's old cathedral, Pindamonhangaba, Aparecida's Old Basilica, Queluz and Bananal. One of the highlights is the set of 60 tiles from Osirarte, a workshop that developed works for numerous public buildings, such as the MEC-Rio and represented the tradition of Brazilian tiles developed in the modern period. The tiles from the MAS / SP and Schunk collections present this important technique, so much appreciated by the Portuguese.Another highlight are the small terracotta sculptures of Friar Agostinho de Jesus (1600/1661) and the so-called Paulistinha saints. Schunk's collection conserves works of great national artists of the colonial and imperial period, such as Frei Agostinho de Jesus, Master of Itu, Master of the Cabelinho in Chess, Mestre Valentim da Fonseca e Silva, José Joaquim da Veiga Valle, Dito Pituba, Dito Luzia and popular santeiros of the Paraíba Valley. Add to this rich diversity a set of tocheiros, corbels, oratories and altar palms originating in the Vale do Paraíba and Tietê. The works, of collective and domestic worship, represent the diversity of sacred art produced in lands of bandeirantes, Indians and Jesuits. Some paintings of Cusco tradition emphasize the connection and interchange of São Paulo with the Castilians of Spanish America."The presence and recognition of a fragment comes from our cultural way of revering the past and finding a lost link within history, and also helps us understand the importance of ruins," explains curator Percival Tirapeli. In 1943, a masterpiece by Mestre Valentim, the church of São Francisco do Clérigos, in Rio de Janeiro, was destroyed for the opening of Avenida Presidente Vargas. The parts from that dismantling are points of departure for reflection on the fragments present in both private collections and museum collections. In Schunk's collection are the headboard and two angels. In MAS / SP, there were the two flying angels, Veronica and the carving of the face of Christ. "The dialogue between the fragments of both collections gives a sharper look at the parts of ornaments that, dismembered from their totality, generate new investigations on technique, style, and gilding, thus constituting a document that is an integral part of our sacred patrimony," says Percival Tirapeli.