Arthur Valle, Transnational Dialogues in the Images of a Ilustração, 1884-1892, RIHA Journal 0015
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RIHA Journal 0115 | 19 January 2015 Transnational Dialogues in the Images of A Ilustração, 1884-1892 Arthur Valle Instituto de História da Arte, FCSH, Universidade Nova de Lisboa Editing and peer revie( managed by* +e&oña Farr- .orras, Instituto de História da Arte, FCSH, Universidade Nova de Lisboa Revie(ers: Joana Cunha Leal, Mar&arida Medeiros Abstra0t A Ilustração, dire0ted by the Portuguese Mariano Pina (1860-1899) and published bet(een May 1884 and January 1892, was a Luso-+ra8ilian illustrated ma&a8ine that for most of its existence was edited and printed in 1aris be9ore being sent to its main tar&et markets in Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro. .he location of the ma&a8ine of9i0e in a city at the centre of =estern intelle0tual li9e of that ti)e enabled it to be0ome a pla0e of conver&ence and dialogue bet(een agents and ideas from diverse nationalities. .hrough the analysis of some i)a&es published by A Ilustração, this arti0le tries to shed li&ht on the editorial and aestheti0 poli0ies of the ma&a8ine, 0hara0teri8ed si)ultaneously by the assi)ilation of ideas coming from cultural centres like Paris and by the proposition of ne( ideas appropriate to the cultural realities of 1ortugal and Bra8il< Contents Introdu0tion I)a&es in A Ilustra>?o The canon of A Ilustra>?o #uso-+ra8ilian artists in the pa&es of A Ilustra>?o The Bra8ilian Republi0 in i)a&es Final considerations Introdu0tion [1] "othing is more appropriate for this paper than to start with an i)a&e< In the seventh edition of the ma&a8ine A Ilustração 2The Illustration6, dated August 5, 1884, the vie( of the Flower Market of Paris that can be seen in Fi&< 1 was published. Dominated by shades of gray and punctuated by a00ents of white and bla0; judi0iously arran&ed, the i)a&e evokes a "pi0turesqueB corner of the city along the river Seine and near the fa)ous Notre5 @a)e Cathedral, on a market morning with the a0tivity of its anony)ous citi8ens. =ithout further parti0ularities, besides its documentary value or the competence with whi0h it has been e:e0uted, the i)a&e gains more interest (hen we analyse the net(or; of transnational relations that made its e:istence possible* it was produced from a dra(ing made by a Bra8ilian artist, Rodolpo A)oêdo, and printed in an illustrated ma&a8ine whose of9i0e was located in Paris, but was ai)ed at a Portuguese5speaking publi0 and had a Portuguese writer, Mariano Pina, as its editor5in-0hie9< [2] I9 we wanted to sum)arise in one word the editorial poli0y of A Ilustração, 0osmopolitan would be the best ter)< A Ilustração (as a se)i)onthly ma&a8ine whi0h totalled 184 issues, published bet(een May 1884 and January 1892, and belonged to the genre of other fa)ed European ma&a8ines, as The Illustrated London News, L'Illustration, Le Monde Illustré or the Illustrirte Zeitung. Until Nove)ber 1890, A Ilustração was edited and printed in Paris, from where it was sent to Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro. In a00ordance with its main tar&et markets, the maga8ine used, for most of its e:istence, subtitles as "Se)i)onthly Ma&a8ine for Portugal and Bra8ilB or, si)'ly, "Ma&a8ine for Portugal and Bra8il<B However, the subtitle that it displayed during al)ost the entire year #i0ense* .he te:t of this arti0le is provided under the ter)s of the Creative Com)ons Li0ense CC5+E5"C5"@ 3.0< RIHA Journal 0115 | 19 January 2015 of 1885 – " niversal Maga8ine Printed in Paris" – see)s e)ble)ati0 of the a)bitions whi0h the periodi0al pursued more or less suc0essfully during its nearly ei&ht years of cir0ulation. 1 1ARIS PI.HRESCH* O Mer0ado das flores. – Desenho ori&inal de R. A)oedo (1IC. RESI % PARIS* .he Flower Market< - Ori&inal @ra(ing by R. A)oedo)< Engraving from* A Ilustração, 5 August 1884, 41. Lisbon, Museu Bordalo Pinheiro, #ibrary [3] A Ilustração (as not the first nor the last illustrated ma&a8ine published in Paris for cir0ulation in Portugal and +ra8il,1 although it was the broadest in ter)s of cir0ulation ti)e and distribution. It must be re)e)bered that during the 19th-0entury Paris had be0ome a centre for this kind of publi0ation, lar&ely due to pra0ti0al reasons. In Paris, the forei&n publishers could bene9it from the latest te0hnologies to obtain a better quality of printing than they would obtain in their ho)e countries – and with production costs low enough to compensate those involved in the transportation of the printed material< It is also notable that, for various reasons, the forei&n publishers were often already in Paris when engaged in this type of venture< .hat was e:a0tly the case of Mariano Pina, who had worked in that city since 1882 as a correspondent for Gazeta de Notícias 2News Gazette6, a daily ne(spaper based in Rio de Janeiro, whi0h in the 1880s featured i)portant Portuguese writers such as Eça de Queiroz and Ra)alho Orti&?o as their European correspondents.2 1 Hne mi&ht mention here such ma&a8ines as: Os Dois Mundos 2The Two Worlds, 1887-1881), founded by the 1ortuguese Salom?o Sara&gaK A Re#ista (The Re#iew, 1893), dire0ted by the Portuguese José Barbosa and Jor&e Cola>o; or Re#ista Moderna 2Modern Re#iew, 1897), founded by the Bra8ilian Manuel de Arruda Monteiro. 2 Gazeta de Notícias (as founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1875, by the Bra8ilian José Ferreira de Souza AraLAo and the Portuguese Henrique Chaves, Manuel Rodri&ues Carneiro Jr< and ElMsio Mendes. In the early 1880s, the European correspondents of the ne(spaper were Eça de Queiroz, in England; Ra)alho Orti&?o, in PortugalK and Nuilher)e de A8evedo, in France< =hen A8evedo died in April 1882, Mariano Pina repla0ed hi) in Paris. .he letter na)ing Pina as correspondent for Gazeta de Notícias (as dated April 8, 1882 and si&ned by Henrique Chaves; see Letter from Henrique Chaves to Mariano Pina, April 8, 1882. Lisboa, Bibliote0a Na0ional< Estate of Mariano and Augusto Pina, N17/35. #i0ense* .he te:t of this arti0le is provided under the ter)s of the Creative Com)ons Li0ense CC5+E5"C5"@ 3.0< RIHA Journal 0115 | 19 January 2015 [4] However, besides the power9ul French printing industry, Paris of9ered other attra0tions for artists and intelle0tuals of the so-0alled "peripheralB countries, such as Portugal and Bra8il< .o settle there was to be in the B0entreB par e%cellence of =estern cultural li9e and to take part in the tumultuous move)ent of the city that =alter Benja)in would call the "Capital of the Nineteenth Century<BF Indeed, as I will try to de)onstrate below, Fren0h culture was often taken as a model for those who parti0ipated in A Ilustração, espe0ially Mariano Pina< [5] At the sa)e ti)e, it is i)portant not to reduce the editorial poli0y of A Ilustração to the passive repetition of (hat Paris disse)inated. As is well known, in situations where cultural conta0ts are marked by hierar0hi0al di99erences or even by e:'li0it domination, the cir0ulation of meanings does not usually lead to homogeni8ation, but to a dyna)i0 process of borrowings, reinventions and resi&ni9i0ations, often in the for) of parody<7 In this sense, it is worth quoting the words of .ania Re&ina de Luca, in a re0ent paper dedi0ated to A Ilustração* The notions of passive re0eption and influence, the metaphors associated with the mirror and the re9le0tion and even the ideas of models see) unable to a00ount for intera0tions that made up t(o-(ay roads. [<<<Q .he very e:istence of a publi0ation printed and with its of9i0e in Paris, dire0ted by a 1ortuguese, that was there in the servi0e of a Bra8ilian ne(spaper, and had espe0ially in vie( readers in #isbon and Rio de Janeiro, proves the degree of internationali8ation a0hieved by the press and invites one to think in ter)s of trade and e:0hange in di99erent dire0tions and senses.5 [6] I9 this "t(o-(ay roads" tra99i0 was certainly more intense in one dire0tion, this should not prevent the per0eption of other si&ni9i0ant dire0tions. .his is what I will strive to do here, discussing the dialogues that were interla0ed (ith the =estern visual culture of the late 19th-0entury in the pa&es of A Ilustração, considering its assi)ilative aspe0ts as well as those marked by the e99ort to propose ne( meanings. .o do so, I will focus my discussion on some i)a&es printed in the ma&a8ine, in conjunction with the written texts that re9er to the). I will start with &eneral considerations on the set of i)ages of A Ilustração, espe0ially the boundaries of the spe0i9i0 canon of artisti0 values proposed by itK then I will treat the reproductions of Luso-+ra8ilian artists' works that were published; and finally I will discuss a series of i)ages related to the procla)ation of the Bra8ilian Republi0 published in the passage from 1889 to 1890, at whi0h ti)e the idea of a dialogue bet(een the of9i0e of A Ilustração and those of other European ma&a8ines gained the most obvious outlines. In doing so, I deliberately 0hoose not to dwell on other topi0s, such as the more general aspe0ts of A IlustraçãoRs publishing venture or the 0entral position oc0upied by literature in the ma&a8ine< In this sense, I li)it mysel9 to re9er to its criti0al fortune, (hi0h, although still s)all, includes i)portant studies4 that also address so)e key contributors to the ma&a8ine, espe0ially Mariano Pina who had al(ays been its head, first as editor5in-0hie9 then also as owner<J Stop> F =alter Benja)in.