Between friction and serenity, the pathway to the countryside: the panels of Wasth Rodrigues in the peristyle of Museu Paulista

ABSTRACT

José Wasth Rodrigues (1891-1957) - a multifaceted artist, scholar and writer - enjoyed a long and fruitful career. With works in various museums, public offices and private collections, Wasth Rodrigues collaborated in the visual project of Afonso d’Escragnolle Taunay (1876-1958) for the Museu Paulista in various periods and exhibition spaces. Among other works, four panels authored by him present fundamental characters for the colonization of São Paulo in the sixteenth century: D. João III (1932), Martim Afonso de Souza (1932), João Ramalho e filho (1934) and Cacique Tibiriçá e neto (1934). These paintings - made in the 1930s - were motivated by the celebrations of the 4^th Centenary of the foundation of the village of São Vicente. Previous models of these characters, studies, reproductions, new versions and these very paintings thus began to circulate in different media and periods. The works produced in that period - visual and textual - come from a group of professionals engaged in a historical construction of Brazil, having the state of São Paulo as the center in its formational period, highlighting facts that contributed to the expansion of territory, movement toward the countryside, economic growth, uses and customs. Issues related to the architectural and cultural heritage also began to be outlined during the 1930s. How were these themes observed on the walls of Museu Paulista? How such works and narratives are received and communicated?

KEYWORDS:
Museu Paulista; Historical painting; Picture; José Wasth Rodrigues; Afonso d’Escragnolle Taunay