14/03/2007

Founder of Bahian Art History

According to Brazilian art historian Luiz Alberto Freire:
Manuel Querino, the founder of Bahian Art History, based his work on the system of artists’ biographies whose prototype for Western Art History is Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori (1550) by the Italian artist Giorgio Vasari. In his most important book [Artistas Bahianos], Querino set down the knowledge handed down by oral tradition, accounts of day-to-day events, his personal experience and artists he knew and knew of, as well as using documents such as laws and decrees to discuss the institutionalization of artistic education. I found extremely valuable “ballast” in his writings, particularly information that is not found in documents and that only narratives of daily life can offer. (Neoclassical Carvings in Bahia, 2007, Odebrecht)

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