The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes (MNBA; Portuguese for National Museum of Fine Arts) is a national art museum located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The museum, officially established in 1937 by the initiative of education minister Gustavo Capanema, was inaugurated in 1938 by President Getúlio Vargas. The museum collection, on the other hand, takes its rise in the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil in the early 19th century, when King John VI brought along with him part of the Portuguese Royal Collection. This art collection stayed in Brazil after the King's return to Europe and became the core collection of the National School of Fine Arts. When the museum was created in 1937, it became the heir not only the National School collection, but also of its headquarters, a 1908 eclectic style building projected by Spanish architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos.
The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is one of the most important cultural institutions of the country, as well as the most important museum of Brazilian art, particularly rich in 19th-century paintings and sculptures. The collection includes more than 20,000 pieces, among paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, of Brazilian and international artists, ranging from High Middle Ages to contemporary art. It also includes smaller assemblages of decorative arts, folk and African art. The museum library has a collection of about 19,000 titles. The building was listed as Brazilian national heritage in 1973.
History
Although the museum was officially established on 13 January 1937 and inaugurated on 19 August 1938, its history is much older, ranging back to the transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil in 1808. Fleeing the invasion of Portugal by French troops, King John VI established himself in Rio de Janeiro, bringing with him an assemblage of works of art which originally belonged to the Portuguese Royal Collection. After the king's return to Europe, a major part of this collection stayed in Brazil and is identified as the main core of European art in the museum. The collection was later enlarged by Joachim Lebreton, a French artist who led the French Artistic Mission that came to Brazil in 1816 to help organise the arts in the country. Paternostro, Zuzana. "Origem da Coleção Italiana no acervo do Museu Nacional de Belas Artes do Rio de Janeiro. In: Marques, Luiz (org.). A arte italiana no Museu Nacional de Belas Artes. São Paulo: Berlendis & Vertecchia Editores, 1996.
The French Artistic Mission was charged by John VI to organise the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts in Rio de Janeiro. Its first building – designed by French Neoclassical architect Grandjean de Montigny — was inaugurated in 1826, by Brazilian Emperor Peter I. On the occasion of the building's inauguration, the Royal School was renamed Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In the following decades, the Imperial Academy, heir of John VI's holdings, was able to expand this collection, gathering an important assemblage of paintings and forming a glyptotheque. Souza, Alcidio Mafra de (ed.). O Museu Nacional de Belas Artes. São Paulo: Banco Safra, 1985. CDD 708.981
After the proclamation of the Republic in 1889, the Imperial Academy was renamed Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (National School of Fine Arts). The school remained in its original building in the following years. But in the 1900s (decade), the center of Rio de Janeiro was extensively remodeled following the models of Parisian urbanisation. Between 1906 and 1908, a new building was constructed for the National School of Fine Arts in the Central Avenue (now Avenida Rio Branco), very close to the new main square of the city (the Cinelândia).
The style of the new building, designed by Spanish architect Adolfo Morales de los Ríos, is clearly inspired by the Louvre Museum in Paris. But during the construction the project was modified, possibly by Rodolfo Bernardelli and, later, by Archimedes Memoria. As a result, the building presents an eclectic design, with facades modeled after different styles. The main façade toward Avenida Rio Branco is inspired by French Renaissance, with pediment, colonnade and terracotta reliefs representing Ancient civilizations, as well as medallions painted by Henrique Bernardelli, portraying members of the French Artistic Mission and renowned Brazilian artists. The side façades are plainer and make reference to Italian Renaissance. They are adorned with Parisian mosaics with figures of architects, painters and art theorists, such as Vasari, Vitruvius and da Vinci. The back façade is strictly Neoclassical, decorated with reliefs executed by Edward Cadwell Spruce. The interior decoration is based in the use of noble materials, such as marble, mosaics, stucco, crystal, French ceramic and statuary. Souza, op. cit., pp. 8–15. The building was listed as a national heritage work on 24 May 1973.
The construction was finished in 1908. This same year, the school and its art collection started being transferred to the new headquarters. The painting collection was installed on the third floor. The collection of plaster copies of ancient statues, used in art classes, was installed on the second floor, with a museographic project specially developed for them. The fourth floor was conceived to house the administrative offices and studios for practical classes. In 1931, the school was incorporated by the University of Rio de Janeiro.
When the museum was created in 1937 by the education minister Gustavo Capanema, it inherited the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes' holdings and was installed in its headquarters; the school's administrative offices, studios and most of the courses stayed in the building. During the 1940s and 1950s, some courses were transferred to other locations. In 1975, the remaining courses were transferred to a modern building on the university main campus (Ilha do Fundão), projected by Jorge Moreira. On the occasion of this transfer, the collection, until then shared by both the museum and the school, was dismembered. Most of the art collection stayed with the museum, and an assemblage of documents, "didactic" works of art or artworks produced in pedagogic activities, as well as the Jeronymo Ferreira das Neves collection (donated to the art school in 1947) was transferred to the Ilha do Fundão campus, serving as core collection of the university's Museu Dom João VI. After the transfer, the Fundação Nacional de Artes (National Arts Foundation) was installed in the school's former rooms.
In the 1980s some serious structural problems were detected in the building. Since they represented a major threat to the preservation of the collection, the museum passed through a series of reforms, with the aim of modernizing the exhibition areas and reformulating the museographic project and, at the same time, preserving the building original style and decoration. In the mid-1990s, the Fundação Nacional de Artes was transferred to another location and the museum was finally able to occupy the whole building. Currently, the museum counts with 6,733.84 square meters of exhibition area and a deposit of 1,797.32 square meters. In addition to the exhibition areas and technical/administrative rooms, the museum possesses laboratories of conservation and restoration and studios for plaster molding.
The museum library specializes in 19th- and 20th-century art. Besides the collection of about 19,000 titles, it comprises more than 12,000 audiovisual items, iconographic and textual documents, rare books, newspapers, magazines, catalogues, and other materials related to the institution's history, from the Imperial Academy to nowadays. In addition to permanent and temporary exhibitions, the museum organises educational activities for the general public and art education programs for teachers, with the aim of diffusing and granting a better understanding of the Brazilian cultural heritage.
Collections
Since its beginning in 1808, the collection of works of art has been enormously expanded and now has around 20,000 items. The collections include painting, sculpture, drawing as well as decorative arts, furniture, folk art and African art.
Brazilian art
Paintings The Museu Nacional de Belas Artes is the heir of the collections gathered since the early 19th century by the Royal School of Sciences, Arts and Crafts and its successors (the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and the National School of Fine Arts), i.e., the national institution responsible for the register of Brazilian pictorial output. Therefore, it is widely accepted that no other collection, public or private, is able to present such a wide and comprehensive panorama of Brazilian painting concerning to the French Artistic Mission, 19th and early 20th centuries painting, even in analogous conditions. The collection includes several works by Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, Jean-Baptiste Debret, Félix Taunay, Victor Meirelles (more than 150 works, including The First Mass in Brazil and Battle of Guararapes), Pedro Américo (Battle of Avaí, Moses and Jochebed, etc.), Almeida Júnior (Countrymen stalking, The Brazilian lumberjack, etc.), Manuel de Araújo Porto-alegre, Pedro Weingärtner, Rodolfo Amoedo, João Zeferino da Costa, Henrique Bernardelli, Eliseu Visconti, Castagneto, Hipólito Caron, Antônio Parreiras, and many others.
Although the painting collection is particularly strong concerning the 19th century, it also includes representative paintings of the Colonial period, such as works by Manuel da Cunha, Leandro Joaquim and Manuel Dias de Oliveira. The modern section includes a modest assemblage of paintings by artists closely related to the Modern Art Week (Anita Malfatti, Tarsila do Amaral, Di Cavalcanti, Lasar Segall, Vicente do Rego Monteiro, etc.) and a more representative collection of modernist painters active in the 1930s and on (Cândido Portinari, Djanira, Guignard, Cícero Dias, Alfredo Volpi, Maria Leontina, Ivan Serpa, Iberê Camargo, etc.). Among the contemporary names, the collection includes Hélio Oiticica, Paulo Pasta and Eduardo Sued.
Sculptures
The Brazilian sculpture section is the smallest among the museum's departments of Brazilian art and also has its origins in the holdings of the former National Academy. Several artworks in the collection were acquired through the transfer of works produced by artists who were granted a subvention by the government to study in Europe. The sculptor Rodolfo Bernardelli, who was appointed as director of the academy in the late 19th century, was the responsible for starting the systematic gathering of sculptures. He is also the best represented sculptor in the collection, with more than 250 works donated by his brother after his death. The Brazilian academic sculpture is also represented by Marc Ferrez, Chaves Pinheiro, Almeida Reis, and Correia Lima, among others.
The collection of modern and contemporary sculpture include names such as Celso Antônio de Menezes, Franz Weissmann, Amílcar de Castro, Rubem Valentim, Sergio de Camargo, Farnese de Andrade, etc. In recent years, the museum has expanded its collection of colonial sculpture of the 17th and 18th centuries, most of which are of unrecorded authorship.
Prints