As representações da cidade do Rio de Janeiro na obra de Eliseu D’Angelo Visconti (1866-1944)

Abstract

This work discusses the group of scenic productions by Eliseu D’Angelo Visconti (18661944), which focuses on the city of Rio de Janeiro between 1887 and 1944. These landscapes reveal innumerous changes that has taken place in the capital of the Republic during de XIX and XX centuries. Therefore, we think the present work speaks of the transformation, be it relative to the remodeling of the city at the beginning of the XX century, to the name change from Imperial School of Fine Arts to National School of Fine Arts, or in the national range, to the regime change from monarchy to republic. Thus, we consider Visconti to be a privileged artist/spectator, whose works register this metamorphosis, experiencing Rio de Janeiro and the pictorial craft in the city’s seek for modernization, a cherished word at the time. At first, the goal is to understand the thematic of the urban landscapes pictured by the artist and how he sees them. We intend to compare the representations made by the painter to the production from other artists, verifying, besides the common points among these works, the pictorial tradition present on them. We intend to reflect upon the purpose of the landscape presentation, going beyond the plastic experimentation, aiming to understand Visconti’s choices when painting canvases of themes that were so close to his experience. Secondly, we intend to ponder about the role of existing memory in the landscapes produced in the context at issue, as constructors of a visuality of the republican capital in its first years.