I
don't remember when I was at the Congonhas
do Campo last, but I remember very well with
what objective and with whom I went up and
down old streets and hills peopled by magnificent
statues, and other sculpted art of Aleijadinho.
We know that sculpture work is his when you
discerne a sculpted rose in the piece, It
was his symbol.the symbol of his standing
in the Rosacruz Masonry. I know that Manoel
and Nair were cicerones and, as traveling
companions, Olimpia, Joao Wlader, and also
Danilo and Denilson, I think. It wasn't a
large caravan, but being mixed together with
other tourists, made for a lot of activity
and good times. We visited Congonhas after
passing through Ouro Preto and Mariana, all
important historic cities. By this time I
had long used up the meager two rolls of film
that I had brought for my camera, because
that I love to register my comings and goings
through this huge and fascinating Brazil,
my home. There I was, taking pictures of colonial
houses, centenarian churches and kids.
It was in Congonhas, passing and passing again,
by each and every one of the chapels, and
touring the courtyard in front of the church
of Bon Jesus de Matozinhos, seeing from the
distance and up close, the incredible sculptures
made by the lame hands of the greatest of
all geniuses of Baroque art, that I could
really feel the grandiose talent of Antonio
Francisco Lisboa. I can't describe the feeling
of ecstasy that I felt standing before works
of art never before tried and never after
repeated, with such true feeling and determination!
How marvelous, that inventive, creative intelligence,
how tremendously strong was the will to sculpt,
a moment of faith and desire to be free. How
wise is, the wheel of destiny in that puts
together in the right places and times, the
chisel of the noblest ideals!
Aleijadinho,
Aleijadinho.How is it possible that only one
man, isolated and alone, with his physical
ugliness without hands or fingers, only mere
stubs, cut the stone with so much knowledge
and spiritual beauty? How could a man so untiring
and restless so full of deficiencies be worth
more than a multitude of other artists? Which
invisible genius moved your arms, your stubs
of hands, dear Aleijadinho? Could the presence
of Gonzaga, of Marilia, of Claudio Manoel,
of Heliodora and of Alvarenga, or of even
his daughter in law, Joana, have been an incentive
to his power of creation? Could it have been
love, hate.or despair? What most profoundly
marks his work? It seems, Aleijadinho, that
in your frozen figures, you portray even now,
the most horrible part of the human personality.
In his work is shown the contrast of the serenity,
beauty and confidence of Jesus, in which the
harshness and cruelty of the torturers, symbol
of all enemies of liberty of all ages. The
contrasts that he made between good and evil
existent in the abyss between good and evil.
Today,
research tells us convincingly that you, Aleijadinho,
wanted only to eternalize the perplexity of
the revolutionary moment of the "Inconfidencia",
being that you were also the principal revolutionary
that dreamed of a free colonial Brazil. So
it seems logical to us today, that in his
superb set of statues of prophets at the church
of Matozinhos, Ozeas is Alvarenga, Daniel
is Gonzaga, Jonas is Tiradentes, Jeremy with
boots and wearing a pony tail, is the colonel
Francisco of Paulo Freire Andrade? How clear
it is, Aleijadinho, that Amos, exhibiting
Negro features and a barrette hat called a
frijio, represents the Brazilian people and
you as well. Well said Gilberto Freire, the
great sociologist in an interview on television:
Until today, Brazil has only had two genuine
geniuses; one, in Minas Gerais, the Great
Aleijadinho, and the other, in the northeast,
namely he, himself.
