O olhar europeu através da tapeçaria das índias : a circulação de imagens do Brasil nos séculos XVII e XVIII

Abstract

In the seventeenth century, with the occupation of part of the Brazilian territory by the dutch’s West Indies Company, and the arrival of artists such as Albert Eckhout (1610-1665) and Frans Post (1612-1680) a planned process of artistic and ethnographic record began. Between the years of 1637 and 1644, a considerable collection of artifacts and artistic works was transported to Europe. This collection, was arranged during the rule of its sponsor Count Maurice of Nassau (1604-1679). Once the circulation of images of Brazil in Europe began, such works and other objects of the material collection were exhibited or distributed to the royal houses and the nobility. The transit of such images occurred within a permeable circuit to other image sources, including African. The images were reproduced, in engravings and travelers' books, thus gaining new supports and versions upon arrival in Europe. Tapestries produced in France received Brazilian (or Indian) motifs. The process of circulation of the images that came to be part of the Tapestry of the Indies is the central object of this thesis. These tapestries, produced by the Gobelins Manufacture, can be found in series: Anciennes Indes (1687) made with paintings attributed to Albert Eckhout and Nouvelles Indes (1735) with paintings by Alexandre-François Desportes (1661-1743) who carried out an adaptation of the original version. The tapestries, their antecedents and the contextualization of their production are the background for the analysis on the circulation of images, their functions and migrations. For that, a corpus of images was focused: those that preceded the representation of Brazil (or the Indies) in the Tapestry of the Indies; the cartons (models) of the Tapestry of the Indies and; the tapestries of the Indies as a final product. In theory, this was not only due to the fact that such images received adaptations, compilations (according to the interests of the aristocratic Europe, and directed by the French crown), but also because the original Dutch images themselves have historicity. They are connected in visual networks and undergone transformations. In order to develop the thesis, the research, was based in three guidelines, that were developed throughout all chapters: the european view on Brazil/Indies, the authorship of the images of the Tapestry of the Indies and the circulation of images.