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.
