Created by the Liceu de Artes e Ofícios do Recife (Recife School of Arts and Crafts), this collection began from an art gallery inaugurated at the School in 1887, which was later transformed into the institution’s art museum. This museum existed until the late 1920s, when part of its collection was transferred, on January 4, 1930, to the Museu Histórico e de Arte Antiga de Pernambuco (Pernambuco Historical and Ancient Art Museum), currently known as Museu do Estado de Pernambuco (Pernambuco State Museum).
Laura Bezerra, a former employee of the State Museum, states that among the objects that constituted the art collection of the museum,
“the beautiful collection of antique furniture made of jacaranda, and sculptures in marble, wood, and plaster, some bronzes, porcelains from China and Japan, and many other European manufacturing objects made of porcelain, crystal, and terracotta” stand out.
Although it had a significant assemblage of paintings, one of the most important sets in the the School’s collection concerns decorative arts, especially furniture. Besides a golden palanquin with sacred paintings dating to the late 18th century that belonged to the Igreja do Corpo Santo (Church of the Holy Body), which was demolished in 1913, the School had many pieces in the Dom John V style dating to the 18th century. This type of furniture, mostly made of jacaranda (a type of wood), was also called Portuguese-Brazilian furniture and is a small variation of the Portuguese furniture of the period. It was influenced by the French Rocaille, the Italian Baroque, and the Spanish Churrigueresque.
European crystals and mostly Eastern porcelains complete the group of decorative arts. Porcelain emerged in China between the 7th and 10th centuries and became popular in Europe in the late Middle Ages. In Brazil, evidence show its presence only in the 16th century, increasing considerably from the 18th century. The transfer of the Portuguese court and royal family to Brazil, combined with import facilities, contributed to the rapid popularization of the crockery of the Indies in the daily life of bourgeois families. Emblazoned dishes, coatracks, spittoons, vases, and other decorative items spread throughout Brazil. Besides crystal pieces, the School’s collection included German jugs, Portuguese dishes, and English porcelain basins, as well as many other 19th-century pieces of Japanese and Chinese porcelain.
This art collection, which is currently housed in the Museu do Estado de Pernambuco, is very similar to the decoration of urban residences in Recife in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which reflects the taste for luxury and ostentation of the bourgeoisie of that period, who tried to reproduce European lifestyles in Brazil.
Recife, February 4, 2014.
sources consulted
BEZERRA, Laura Josefa. Ligeiros apontamentos para o levantamento histórico do “Liceu de Artes e Ofícios”. [S. l. : s.n., 19--?]. Documento encontrado no Arquivo do Departamento de Museologia do Museu do Estado de Pernambuco.
CANTARELLI, Rodrigo. Contra a conspiração da ignorância com a maldade: a Inspetoria de Monumentos de Pernambuco. Recife: Fundaj, Editora Massagana, 2013.
FERNANDES, Anníbal. Relatório da Inspetoria Estadual dos Monumentos Nacionais apresentado a 28 de Abril de 1928 ao Sr. Secretario da Justiça e Negócios Interiores. Recife: Imprensa Oficial, 1929. 62 p.
O MUSEU do Estado de Pernambuco (catálogo). São Paulo: Banco Safra, 2003.
how to quote this text
CANTARELLI, Rodrigo. Coleção Liceu de Artes e Ofícios. In: Pesquisa Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2014. Available at:https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/en/artigo/school-arts-and-crafts-collection/. Access on: month day year. (Ex.: Aug. 6, 2020.)