Antônio Francisco Lisboa ( or 1738 – 18 November 1814), better known as Aleijadinho (, ), was a sculptor, carver and architect of Colonial Brazil, noted for his works on and in various churches of Brazil. With a style related to Baroque and Rococo, Aleijadinho is considered almost by consensus as the greatest exponent of colonial art in Brazil by Brazilian critics and, surpassing Brazilian borders, for some foreign scholars he is the greatest name of Baroque in the Americas.
Little is known with certainty about his biography, which remains shrouded in legend and controversy to this day, making the research work on his life very arduous. The main documentary source on Aleijadinho is a biographical note written only about forty years after his death. His trajectory is reconstructed mainly through the works he left behind, although even in this context his contribution is controversial, since the attribution of authorship for most of the more than four hundred creations that exist today associated with his name was made without any documentary evidence, based only on stylistic similarity with documented pieces.
All of his work, including carvings, architectural projects, reliefs and statuary, was carried out in Minas Gerais, especially in the cities of Ouro Preto, Sabará, São João del-Rei and Congonhas. The main monuments that contain his works are the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Ouro Preto and the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus of Matosinhos.
He is the Patron of the 44th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Fine Arts.
Biography Little is known about the life of Antônio Francisco Lisboa. Practically all the data available today are derived from a biography written in 1858 by Rodrigo José Ferreira Bretas, 44 years after Aleijadinho's death, allegedly based on documents and testimonies of individuals who had known the artist personally. However, recent criticism has tended to consider this biography largely fanciful, part of a process of magnification and dramatization of his personality and work, in a romanticized manipulation of his figure whose aim was to elevate him to the status of an icon of Brazilianness, a mix of hero and artist, a "singular genius, sacred and consecrated", as Roger Chartier described it. Bretas' account, however, cannot be completely discarded, since being the oldest substantial biographical note on Aleijadinho, most of the later biographies were based on it, but the information it brings needs to be seen with some skepticism, being difficult to distinguish what is fact from what has been distorted by popular tradition and by the writer's interpretations. Biographies and critical studies carried out by Brazilian modernists in the first half of the 20th century also made biased interpretations of his life and work, increasing the amount of stereotypes around him, which are still perpetuated today in the popular imagination and in part of the critics, and are explored both by official cultural instances and by tourism agencies in the cities where he left his production.
The first official news about Aleijadinho appeared in 1790 in a memorandum written by captain Joaquim José da Silva, complying with the royal order of 20 July 1782, which determined that notable events, of which there was certain news, that had occurred since the foundation be recorded in an official book of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais. The memorandum, written while Aleijadinho was still alive, contained a description of the artist's most notable works and some biographical indications, and was partly based on it that Bretas wrote Traços biográficos relativos ao finado Antônio Francisco Lisboa, distinto escultor mineiro, mais conhecido pelo apelido de Aleijadinho, where he reproduced excerpts from the original document, which was later lost.
Early years
Antônio Francisco Lisboa was the son of a respected Portuguese master builder and architect, , and his African slave, Isabel. In the baptismal certificate, cited by Bretas, it appears that Antônio, born a slave, was baptized on 29 August 1730, in what was then the town of Vila Rica (currently Ouro Preto) in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Antônio Dias, with Antônio dos Reis as his godparent and being manumitted on the occasion by his father. The birth certificate does not contain the child's date of birth, which may have occurred a few days earlier. However, there are strong arguments that currently lead to considering it more likely that he was born in 1738, as his death certificate states the date of his death as 18 November 1814, adding that the artist was then 76 years old.Kato, Gisele. "Um Mistério Chamado Aleijadinho" . In Revista Bravo!, Editora Abril, s/d. p. 1 The 1738 date is accepted by the Aleijadinho Museum, located in Ouro Preto, and according to biographer Silvio de Vasconcelos, the original manuscript by Bretas, found in the archives of the Archdiocese of Mariana, refers the birth to 1738, warning that the date corresponds to that recorded on Aleijadinho's death certificate; the reason for the discrepancy between the dates in the manuscript and the booklet that was printed is unclear. In 1738 Aleijadinho's father married Maria Antônia de São Pedro, an Azorean, and with her he gave Aleijadinho four half-siblings, and it was in this family that the artist grew up.
According to Bretas, Aleijadinho's knowledge of drawing, architecture and sculpture was obtained from his father and perhaps from draftsman and painter João Gomes Batista. From 1750 to 1759, he would have attended the boarding school at the Seminary of the Franciscans Donatos of the Hospício da Terra Santa, in Ouro Preto, where he would have learned grammar, Latin, mathematics and religion. Meanwhile, he assisted his father in the work he carried out at the Church of Antônio Dias and the , also working with his uncle Antônio Francisco Pombal, a carver, and . He collaborated with José Coelho Noronha in the work of carving the altars of the Mother Church of Caeté, his father's project. His first individual project dates back to 1752, a design for the fountain in the courtyard of the in Ouro Preto.
Maturity In 1756 Aleijadinho may have gone to Rio de Janeiro accompanying Friar Lucas de Santa Clara, the transporter of gold and diamonds that were to be shipped to Lisbon, where he may have been influenced by local artists. Two years later, he would have created a soapstone fountain for the Terra Santa Hospice and soon after launched himself as a self-employed professional. However, being a mulatto, he was often forced to accept contracts as a day laborer and not as a master. From the 1760s until close to his death, Aleijadinho produced a large number of works, but in the absence of supporting documentation, several have a controversial authorship and are strictly considered only attributions, based on criteria of stylistic similarity with his authenticated production. With his father's death in 1767, Aleijadinho, as a bastard son, was not contemplated in the will. The following year, he enlisted in the Infantry Regiment of the Brown Men of Ouro Preto, where he remained for three years, without discontinuing his artistic activity. During this period, he received important commissions: the design of the façade of the , in Sabará, and the pulpits of the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, in Ouro Preto.
Around 1770 he organized his workshop, which was in full expansion, according to the model of craft guilds or medieval guilds, which in 1772 was regulated and recognized by the Chamber of Ouro Preto. Still in 1772, on 5 August, he was received as a brother in the Brotherhood of São José de Ouro Preto. On 4 March 1776, the governor of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais, Dom Antônio de Noronha, following the instructions of the viceroy, summoned masons, carpenters, locksmiths and blacksmiths to join a military battalion that would work on the reconstruction of a fort in Rio Grande do Sul. Aleijadinho would have been obliged to answer the call, even traveling to Rio de Janeiro, but then he would have been dismissed. In Rio, he arranged for the judicial record of the paternity of a son he had with Narcisa Rodrigues da Conceição, a mulatto, a son who was named, like his grandfather, Manuel Francisco Lisboa. She later abandoned him and took the child to Rio de Janeiro, where he later became an artisan.
Until then, according to Bretas, Aleijadinho had enjoyed good health and the pleasures of the popular parties and dances, but from 1777 onwards, signs of a serious illness began to appear. Over the years the illness deformed his body and hindered his work, causing him great suffering. To this day, as Bretas recognized, the exact nature of his illness is unknown, and several diagnostic proposals have been offered by various historians and physicians. Even with increasing difficulty, Aleijadinho continued to work intensively. On 9 December 1787, he formally assumed the role of judge of the Brotherhood of Saint Joseph. In 1790, captain Joaquim José da Silva wrote his important memorandum to the Chamber of Mariana, partially transcribed by Bretas, where he gave various data about the artist, and, witnessing the fame that accompanied him by then, greeted him as:
Final years and death In 1796 Aleijadinho received another commission of great importance, for the realization of sculptures of the Via Sacra and the Prophets for the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus of Matosinhos, in Congonhas, considered to be his masterpiece. In the 1804 census, his son appeared as one of his dependents, along with his daughter-in-law Joana and a grandson. Between 1807 and 1809, with his illness being at an advanced stage, he closed his workshop, but still carried out some work. From 1812 onwards, his health deteriorated further and he began to depend heavily on the people who cared for him. Aleijadinho moved to a house near the Church of Our Lady of Carmel in Ouro Preto, to supervise the works that were in charge of his disciple Justino de Almeida. By this time, he was nearly blind and his motor skills were greatly reduced. For a brief period he returned to his old home, but soon had to settle down at his daughter-in-law's house, who, according to Bretas, took care of him until his death on 18 November 1814. Aleijadinho was buried in the Mother Church of Antônio Dias, in a tomb next to the altar of Our Lady of the Good Death.
The man, the disease and the myth Aleijadinho was described by Bretas in the following terms:
Almost nothing is recorded about his personal life, except that he liked to entertain himself in "vulgar dances" and eat well, and that he fell in love with the mulatto Narcisa, with whom he had a son. Nothing was said about his artistic, social or political ideas. He always worked under the commission regime, earning half an eighth of gold a day, but he did not accumulate a fortune, rather, it is said that he was careless with money, being robbed several times. On the other hand, he would have made repeated donations to the poor. He kept three slaves: Maurício, his main helper with whom he shared his earnings, plus Agostinho, a carving assistant, and Januário, who guided the donkey he used to go around on.