GLOBAL LUXURIES AT HOME: THE MATERIAL POSSESSIONS OF AN ELITE FAMILY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL by Rachel A. Zimmerman A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art History Spring 2017 © 2017 Rachel A. Zimmerman All Rights Reserved GLOBAL LUXURIES AT HOME: THE MATERIAL POSSESSIONS OF AN ELITE FAMILY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MINAS GERAIS, BRAZIL by Rachel A. Zimmerman Approved: __________________________________________________________ Lawrence Nees, Ph.D. Chair of the Department of Art History Approved: __________________________________________________________ George H. Watson, Ph.D. Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Approved: __________________________________________________________ Ann L. Ardis, Ph.D. Senior Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Mónica Domínguez Torres, Ph.D. Professor in charge of dissertation I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ H. Perry Chapman, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Lawrence Nees, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee I certify that I have read this dissertation and that in my opinion it meets the academic and professional standard required by the University as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Signed: __________________________________________________________ Dana Leibsohn, Ph.D. Member of dissertation committee ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I want first to thank my advisor Mónica Domínguez Torres for being the ideal mentor. The approaches, questions and discussions in her courses, the office hours that she spent with me, and the feedback that she provided on my writing have been fundamental to my development as a scholar. I would also like to thank the other members of my dissertation committee, Perry Chapman and Larry Nees, for their support, valuable advice, and mentorship, and Dana Leibsohn for inspiring my research with her own examinations of inventories and transoceanic exchange, and for challenging me to explore new avenues of inquiry in my conference papers and dissertation. I wish to thank my undergraduate advisor Elizabeth Zarur at New Mexico State University for prompting my fascination with the art and architecture of colonial Minas Gerais during a study abroad trip to the region in 2006. Several professors with whom I have taken seminars at the University of Delaware deserve special mention for cultivating the methodologies, visual and technical analysis skills, and research and writing skills that enabled this dissertation to come to fruition: Lawrence Nees, Perry Chapman, Ikem Okoye, David Stone, Lauren Petersen, and especially Eve Buckley, Monica Dominguez Torres, and Wendy Bellion whose courses directly led me to my dissertation topic. Feedback from the scholars that I met at conferences, symposia, and workshops has enriched my research. I owe special thanks to Louis Nelson, Jorge Rivas Pérez, Carlee Forbes, and Raphael Fonseca for many discussions about iv hammocks, and for pointing me to new resources and inspiring new approaches. Their insights and encouragement were fundamental to the success of my research on hammocks. I wish to thank my fellow art history graduate students at the University of Delaware, particularly Emily Casey, Kirstina Gray, Craig Lee, Sarah Leonard, Sabena Kull, Isabel Oleas, Alba Campo Rosillo, Emily Shartrand, and Amy Torbert, for motivating and supporting me, and for sharing their enthusiasm for transoceanic exchange. I wish to thank Rosemary Krill and everyone else at Winterthur for providing me with the most stimulating and collegial research environment imaginable. I would like to thank Leslie Grigsby not only for permitting me to attend her Ceramics and Glass course, but also for meeting with me on numerous occasions, showing me pieces of Portuguese ceramics, and helping me interpret descriptions in inventories. I also owe thanks to Tiernan Alexander and Claire Blakey for sharing their expertise of eighteenth-century ceramics with me. I wish to thank Linda Eaton for taking time to answer my many questions about textiles, and Jeanne Solensky for providing me with the pleasure of handling pattern books. Finally, I would like to thank my office mates and research lunch attendees, Kate Fama, Lydia Garver, and Sarah Parks in particular, for the friendships, advice about applications and research with inventories, and for listening to me talk about hammocks and the smell of sheep. The kindness and consideration of the residents of Minas Gerais were fundamental to my research in Brazil. I would especially like to thank José Geraldo Begname for assisting me with paleographic questions, sharing his transcriptions of documents, and for explaining eighteenth-century legal procedures. Likewise, I wish to thank Cássio Vinicius Sales, Lucas Samuel Quadros, and Vitor Nascimento Repolês v for their assistance during my research at the Casa Setecentista, as well as Monsenhor Flávio Carneiro Rodrigues, Luciana Viana Assunção, and the remaining staff at the Arquivo Eclesiástico da Arquidiocese de Mariana for providing me with access to essential documentation and the archive’s jewelry display. I thank Maria da Conceição Fernandes de Brito for allowing me to view the collection storage at the Museu Arquidiocesano de Arte Sacra de Mariana. Finally, I want to thank Clebson Cunha for behind-the-scenes information about the Museu Regional’s collections and exhibitions, Jeff Flores for guiding me through the Morro Santo Antonio archaeological site and for not falling down any of the ventilation shafts, and Carlos Magno Araujo for answering my miscellaneous questions throughout the years. My dissertation research was made possible with a fellowship from the Delaware Public Humanities Institute as well as from the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. Two grants from the Department of Art History and a Theodore E. D. Braun fellowship from the American Society of Eighteenth-Century Studies allowed me to embark on two trips to Brazil, to explore available archival and museum resources at the onset of my project, and to conduct the archival and field research that was fundamental for my dissertation. I was able to complete the writing and revision of my dissertation thanks to a Sewell C. Biggs Dissertation Writing Award. I want to thank my mother, father, and sister for helping to edit drafts of proposals and chapters. Lastly, I owe many thanks to my husband, João Felipe Braga de Carvalho, for teaching me Portuguese, checking my Portuguese spelling, chauffeuring me all over Brazil, performing technological magic to create maps and family trees, feeding me, and keeping our apartment relatively clean. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... ix ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ xiii INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 ISOLATION: A CRITICAL HISTORIOGRAPHY ........................................ 23 2 NETWORKS: TRADE, TRAVELS, AND INTELLECTUAL EXCHANGE.. .................................................................................................. 56 3 FAMILY: RELATIONSHIPS AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF POWER… ...................................................................................................... 109 4 POSSESSIONS: LUXURIES IN THE OLIVEIRA PINTO FAMILY HOMES .......................................................................................................... 166 5 PORCELAIN, DRESS, AND HAMMOCKS: LOCAL WEALTH AND GLOBAL ASPIRATIONS ............................................................................. 266 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................. 334 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................... 344 Appendix A MANUSCRIPT TRANSCRIPTIONS ............................................................ 387 B GLOSSARY ................................................................................................... 459 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Maritime Traffic in the Port of Lisbon in 1716. ......................................... 61 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Map of the official routes to the mining region. ......................................... 55 Figure 2 Mariana, João, and Manoel’s generation with their parents, grandparents and children. .........................................................................................