Imagem
Associação
-
[i] -
[i] -
[i] -
[i] -
[i] -
[i]
Reflexão
Heisting of the Cross in Porto Seguro
Painting depicting the moment when the cross was raised and set up at the first mass held in Brazil in 1500. Like the painting of the ‘First Mass’ by Victor Meirelles, the emphasis of the image, both in composition and in the light and colours used, is on the cross and the Portuguese who erect it, with the indigenous Brazilians in the background, always characterised with looks of curiosity and interest.
Both paintings serve the purpose of highlighting the evangelist ‘mission’ of the Portuguese, placing faith at the centre of colonial motivation and putting expansionist, colonial and economic interests in the background. Faith is used as the basis for a romanticisation of the colonial invasion, thus constructing the argument of colonisation as something benevolent, since it is the work of and for God
The representation of these religious scenes between indigenous people and colonisers tells a story of peaceful and even authorised evangelisation, thus hiding the real violence of religious conversion and the forced loss of indigenous cultures and spiritualities.