José Teófilo de Jesus (Salvador BA 1758 - idem 1847)
Painter, gilder and flesh-tint painter (encarnador).
Of mixed race and a freedman, he became a disciple of José Joaquim da Rocha (1737 - 1807) in the mid-18th century, helping him paint and gild secondary figures on ceilings and panels. With his master's support, he traveled to Portugal in 1794, where he attended the Academia do Desenho, or do Nu [Academy of Drawing, or of the Nude], in Lisbon, under the painter Pedro Alexandrino de Carvalho (1729 - 1810). During his stay in that city, Teófilo de Jesus had the opportunity to observe the paintings Pompeo Batoni (1708 - 1787) produced between 1781 and 1784 to decorate the chancel of the Basílica e Convento da Estrela. The date of his return to Brazil is uncertain and may be placed between 1797 and 1801. The first records of his activity in the country after the trip date from 1802, when he executed a series of four panels for the Igreja da Ordem Terceira de São Francisco in Salvador. Throughout his career, he produced numerous paintings in that city, among them the nave ceilings of the Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do Carmo (1817) and of the Igreja dos Órfãos de São Joaquim (ca.1823); the side altar panels of the Igreja da Ordem Terceira de São Francisco (1845); and twenty-three portraits for the Convento da Piedade, now in the Casa dos Sete Candeeiros. He also worked in Sergipe, in the towns of Maroim, Divina Pastora and Itaporanga d'Ajuda, and in Itaparica, Bahia.
Critical Commentary
One of the leading painters of the Bahian school of painting, José Teófilo de Jesus belongs to the group of artists surviving from the colonial period whose work in the first half of the 19th century is hybrid, combining elements of the previous century's Baroque and of the Rococo with classical components. The favorite disciple of the painter José Joaquim da Rocha (1737 - 1807), he began his artistic training by helping his master with commissions. Besides painting, he learned the flesh-tinting of figures and the gilding of carved woodwork.
According to historian Carlos Ott, it is difficult to attribute any work to Teófilo de Jesus before 1794. In that year, the artist left for Portugal, sponsored by his master. He entered the School of Fine Arts in Lisbon and attended the course of Pedro Alexandrino de Carvalho (1729 - 1810), one of the most sought-after painters in Portugal in the second half of the 18th century, famous for his large-scale decorations and luminous color. He stayed in that country for about four years without traveling elsewhere. He came into contact with the work of the famous Italian artist Pompeo Batoni (1708 - 1787) at the Basílica da Estrela in Lisbon.
Teófilo de Jesus's stay in Europe broadened his artistic references, which in the Bahian milieu of the 18th and 19th centuries were limited to prints and illustrations and to José Joaquim da Rocha's sumptuous Baroque model. In this sense, the trip helped the artist distinguish himself from his master: although he never surpassed him in his specialty - illusionistic decorative painting - he stands out as an accomplished painter of canvases and panels.
Back in Brazil in 1801, he received his first commission from the Ordem Terceira de São Francisco da Bahia (four panels, now lost, completed in 1802), probably recommended by his master, who was by then elderly and no longer able to work as before. In 1803, he painted a picture of the Senhor do Bonfim (lost) for the Santa Casa de Misericórdia of Salvador. Between 1804 and 1812 there is no documentation of any work by Teófilo de Jesus. But he was certainly not idle, since he depended on painting for a living. He most likely painted and gilded private chapels and oratories during this period. As researcher Jailson B. Trindade notes, after José Joaquim da Rocha's death in 1807, the artist inherited most of his clientele. But since he could not match his master in architectural painting, he began proposing large central medallions, whose correct drawing, color and classical treatment of the figures' faces pleased the limited public of the time.
His first major work was for the new Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do Carmo, where he was in charge of gilding all the carved woodwork and painting the ceiling (1815 - 1817). He hired assistants to do the gilding and devoted himself almost exclusively to painting the ceiling as a medallion, with Our Lady of Mount Carmel handing the scapular to Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint John of the Cross. The figures are well painted and the composition suggests gentle movement, yet he fails to achieve perspective, so all the figures seem to be on the same plane. The artist knew his limitations but went on accepting commissions to decorate church ceilings until the end of his life. Notable among them are the nave ceilings of the Igreja do Recolhimento dos Perdões (1819), in Salvador, of the new Matriz do Santíssimo Sacramento on the island of Itaparica (1823), and of the Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Pilar (1837), in the Bahian capital. There are reports that the artist worked in churches in Sergipe.
In 1823 he reached the height of his fame when he was invited by the mayor of Salvador to portray Emperor Dom Pedro I (1798 - 1834). Among his best religious works are the six panels for the side altars of the Igreja da Piedade, which show the influence of Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640); the six large panels for the sacristy of the Igreja do Bonfim (1836 - 1837), notably Cristo e a Adúltera [Christ and the Adulteress] (ca.1837); and the 34 small paintings for the corridors of the same church (1838 - 1839). As an octogenarian, Teófilo's quality is uneven, especially in the smaller canvases. Even so, he managed to paint one of his best works, Cristo com as Mães e Seus Filhos [Christ with the Mothers and Their Children] (ca.1839), in which precise drawing and delicate color are in perfect harmony. He also introduced a landscape into the background of the scene, something unusual in Bahian sacred painting, perhaps revealing French influence.
Besides portraits and religious paintings, Teófilo de Jesus painted historical and allegorical scenes such as Judith e Holofernes [Judith and Holofernes] (ca.1835), O Rapto de Helena [The Abduction of Helen] and the set of allegories of the four continents (America, Africa, Asia and Europe). It is not possible to establish the exact dates or circumstances in which these works were made (they belong to the Museu de Arte da Bahia; some are dated to the early 19th century). In these canvases, the wealth of compositional detail and the quality of drawing and color show the extent of the artist's technical ability, by no means insignificant for the cultural and economic milieu of Bahia in the first half of the 19th century, as historian Carlos Ott notes.
Critiques
"Teófilo learned to draw correctly from two masters, José Joaquim da Rocha, in Bahia, and Pedro Alexandrino de Carvalho, in Portugal; and although the influence of these two masters is evident in several of his works, he cannot be accused of ever having copied their panels. That he drew inspiration from paintings by these two masters and others is characteristic of the painting of his time, when the concept of intellectual property had not yet taken shape (...) José Teófilo de Jesus never managed to render depth well in his pictures, for he never learned, either in Bahia or in Portugal, to paint in perspective. (...) Teófilo was unable to give bodily form to his figures; he could not represent the volume of bodies because he did not know how to present their spatial depth; his figures have no life, representing only the imagination of his fancy."
Carlos Ott
OTT, Carlos. A escola bahiana de pintura: 1764-1850. Rio de Janeiro: MWM, 1982.
Collections
Igreja da Divina Pastora - Sergipe
Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do Carmo - Cachoeira BA
Igreja da Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do Carmo - Salvador BA
Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Pilar - Salvador BA
Igreja de Nosso Senhor do Bonfim - Salvador BA
Igreja do Recolhimento dos Perdões - Salvador BA
Igreja Matriz do Santíssimo Sacramento - Ilha de Itaparica BA
Museu de Arte da Bahia - Salvador BA
Museu de Arte Sacra - Salvador BA
Posthumous Exhibitions
1970 - Salvador BA - Coleção Arte da Bahia [Art of Bahia Collection], at Museu de Arte da Bahia
1983 - São Paulo SP - História da Pintura Brasileira no Século XIX [History of 19th-Century Brazilian Painting], at Paço das Artes
1988 - São Paulo SP - A Mão Afro-Brasileira [The Afro-Brazilian Hand], at MAM/SP
1994 - São Paulo SP - Um Olhar Crítico sobre o Acervo do Século XIX [A Critical Look at the 19th-Century Collection], at Pesp
1998 - São Paulo SP - 24th São Paulo International Biennial, at Fundação Bienal
2001 - New York (United States) - Brazil: Body and Soul, at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Source: Itaú Cultural
