José Maria Oscar Rodolfo Bernardelli (Guadalajara, Mexico 1852 - Rio de Janeiro RJ 1931)
Sculptor and teacher.
Brother of the painters Henrique Bernardelli (1858-1936) and Felix Bernardelli (1862-1905), he leaves Mexico with his family to settle in Rio Grande do Sul around 1866. He moves to Rio de Janeiro with his parents, who become tutors to the princesses Isabel (1846-1921) and Leopoldina (1847-1871) at the invitation of Emperor Dom Pedro II (1825-1891). Between 1870 and 1876, he attends Chaves Pinheiro's (1822-1884) statuary sculpture classes and life drawing classes at the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes - Aiba. As a scholarship student, he stays in Rome from 1877 to 1884, studying with the masters Achille d'Orsi (1845-1929) and Giulio Monteverde (1837-1917). Back in Brazil, he teaches sculpture at the Aiba, replacing Chaves Pinheiro. Considered one of the reformers of art education in Brazil, Rodolfo Bernardelli is, from 1890 to 1915, the first director of the newly established Escola Nacional de Belas Artes - Enba. During his tenure, he creates the category of non-enrolled student and the Conselho Superior de Belas Artes, and proposes the construction of the new building on Avenida Rio Branco. In 1919, in Madrid, he is made an honorary academician of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. In 1931, in Rio de Janeiro, the Núcleo Bernardelli is founded in honor of the brothers Rodolfo and Henrique.
Critical Commentary
Rodolfo Bernardelli comes to Brazil in 1866 with his family, passing through Chile and Argentina and settling in Rio Grande do Sul. At the invitation of Emperor Dom Pedro II (1825 - 1891), his parents move to Rio de Janeiro to become tutors to the princesses Isabel and Leopoldina. From 1877 to 1885, he stays in Rome on a scholarship from the Academia Imperial de Belas Artes - Aiba in Rio de Janeiro. In Italy, he studies with Giulio Monteverde (1837 - 1917). During this period he makes several works, such as the relief Fabíola, 1878, and the sculpture Santo Estêvão [Saint Stephen], 1879, aligned with the verism of contemporary European sculpture.
On his return from Italy, the sculptor achieves such a prominent position in republican circles that he comes to hold the highest office at the country's main art institution - the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes - Enba -, where he remains until 1915. Among the reasons for this are the attention and publicity the press gave to the sculptor's works, especially Angelo Agostini (1843 - 1910) in the Revista Illustrada.
Bernardelli leaves an extensive body of work, which includes numerous busts of public figures, funerary works and several commemorative monuments, made mainly for the city of Rio de Janeiro, such as those dedicated to General Osório, 1894, the Duque de Caxias, 1899, and José de Alencar, 1897, and the sculptural group Descobrimento do Brasil [Discovery of Brazil], 1900. The artist also makes the statues that adorn the Theatro Municipal building, ca. 1905, the Monument to Carlos Gomes, 1905, in Campinas, and the statue of Dom Pedro I, 1921, for the Museu Paulista of the Universidade de São Paulo - MP/USP, in São Paulo.
Critiques
"The Academy's statutes imposed precisely defined obligations on artists studying abroad. Each year they were to send works to Brazil, which could be copies of famous works or their own compositions, moving through a whole range of studies of increasing difficulty. The relief Adão e Eva [Adam and Eve] and the copies of the Medici Venus and the Venus Callipyge are works that showed the extraordinary effort demanded by the Congregation. They indeed reveal knowledge of the specific handling of marble.
Other Italian works by the artist are among his best creations. In the busts, Bernardelli achieved full conceptual and technical mastery, especially in Checa, Dr. Montenovesi, Visconde de Araguaia, Cristo and Criado do Artista [The Artist's Servant], in which he expressed, beyond figurative representation, a certain pleasure in the execution itself, which we will notice in other portraits made in Brazil with the same pleasant simplicity. Among these, we mention the bust of the painter Oscar Pereira da Silva.
Trained under neoclassical guidance, Bernardelli absorbed that spirit, and his early works are typical of it. In Santo Estêvão we find a figure in the style of the 15th-century Florentine Renaissance, with elongated limbs and a refined finish.
The artist was fond of this work, which he chose to crown his tomb.
On his return, his sculptures were very well received, precisely at a time of profound change in Brazilian society, with the abolition of slavery and the Proclamation of the Republic. The new ruling class called for an artist who would match and represent the progressive exaltation of the moment. Bernardelli, in sculpture, met those aspirations.
Rodolfo Bernardelli, in his teaching, would be one of the reformers of art education in our milieu and the first director, under the Republic, of the newly renamed Escola Nacional de Belas Artes.
His leadership is especially noticeable in the construction of the school's new building on Avenida Central, in a prime location, designed by Adolfo Morales de Los Rios, and its transfer there."
Luiz Rafael Vieira Souto
Souto, Luiz Rafael Viera. Texto transcrito do Boletim do MNBA, jul./ago./set. 1980.
"If the works of Bernardelli and Chaves Pinheiro were actually compared, it would seem obvious that the Revista was right to regard the former as the benchmark for Brazilian sculpture. Take, for example, Bernardelli's Faceira [Coquette] and Pinheiro's Índio, Figura Alegórica do Império Brasileiro [Indian, Allegorical Figure of the Brazilian Empire]. The explicitly allegorical character of the latter in no way justifies the hieratic quality of the figure of the Indian, which ends up reinforcing Chaves Pinheiro's excessive ties to the most conservative European statuary. Faceira, on the other hand, with its structural sinuosity that further enhances the sensuality of the figure, a naturalistic depiction of an indigenous woman, clearly shows Bernardelli's freedom to temper the cold repertoire of Rio statuary of the Second Empire with his own individuality.
Even in the sculptural group Cristo e a Adúltera [Christ and the Adulteress], of 1885, Bernardelli managed to give the work individuality, despite all the conventionality the subject itself required. The fundamental contrast between the plain, vigorous treatment of the figure of Christ - evidenced by the near absence of drapery in his garments, which gives him even more strength - and the refined dramatic sense achieved in the pose and surface treatment of the figure of the adulteress gives Bernardelli a quality as a sculptor that indeed placed him well above his Brazilian peers.
The Revista's admiration for Bernardelli's works gradually turned into unconditional support. It became the artist's great champion, both in the constant praise it lavished on him and in its persistent aim of showing that Bernardelli was the best Brazilian sculptor."
Tadeu Chiarelli
Chiarelli, Tadeu. Rodolfo Bernardelli. Skultura, São Paulo, n. 31, inverno de 1990.
"Bernardelli's Christ is a Jewish, human, real type; in no way does it recall the old creations of sculpture; it is not an inspiration of Catholic faith according to the imposition of dogma; it is not a transcendent mystical type, such as Leonardo da Vinci created or the blessed Fiesole imagined. Therein lies the value of his statue. To make it as the masters of the past and of the Renaissance conceived it, the present milieu in which the artist lives would have had to decline to the fervent faith of the age of the martyrs, and Bernardelli would therefore have had to be a most original stagnant. But neither is it properly his own creation, a type unearthed from the thick layers of time and brought back before our eyes by the creative fiat of extraordinary talent. Just as we see it there, many masters had already conceived it, the most notable of all being the famous Delacroix.
The composition of this group is beautiful and modern. The figure of Christ, presented larger than life, has considerable majesty and serenity; the expression of his face and the gestures of his arms are true to life and show great observation.
The carving is sure, delicate, meticulous; in the smallest contours, in the most difficult and subtle lines, in the thinnest masses, not a flaw can be found, and for this reason detail is one of the defining features of his work.
The chlamys Christ wears was so minutely carved and so scrupulously observed that the illusion is complete; the flesh reaches the highest degree of modeling that sculpture can attain.
From this we conclude that Bernardelli is a realist, whose sole concern is truth, a quality that shows itself in the same way in the plaster sketch for Santo Estêvão."
Gonzaga Duque
Duque, Gonzaga. A arte brasileira. Campinas: Mercado de Letras, 1995. p. 244-245.
Group Exhibitions
n.d. - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Galeria Irmãos Bernardelli, at MNBA
1870 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 21st General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Aiba
1872 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 22nd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Aiba - silver medal
1875 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 23rd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Aiba - gold medal
1876 - Philadelphia (United States) - Philadelphia International Exhibition - prizes for the works Saudade da Tribo [Longing for the Tribe] and À Espreita [On the Lookout]
1876 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 24th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Aiba - foreign travel prize and 1st gold medal
1878 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio de Janeiro Industrial Exhibition, showing the work David, Vencedor de Golias [David, Victor over Goliath]
1879 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 25th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Aiba
1883 - Rome (Italy) - Esposizione Artistica Internazionale di Roma
1884 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 26th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Aiba
1884 - Turin (Italy) - Turin Exhibition
1890 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1893 - Chicago (United States) - Chicago Exposition - Palm of Laurel, with the work Cristo e a Adúltera [Christ and the Adulteress]
1894 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 1st General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1895 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 2nd General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1897 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 4th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1898 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 5th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1901 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 8th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1903 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 10th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1904 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 11th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1908 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 15th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1909 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 16th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1919 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Rio Exhibition of Printmaking and Etching
1927 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 34th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba - medal of honor
1928 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - 35th General Exhibition of Fine Arts, at Enba
1928 - São Paulo SP - Almeida Júnior Group, at Palácio das Arcadas
Posthumous Exhibitions
1952 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Retrospective exhibition of the Bernardelli brothers celebrating the centenary of the birth of the sculptor Rodolfo Bernardelli
1970 - São Paulo SP - Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo 1970
1978 - São Paulo SP - Art and Its Processes: Paper as Support, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1982 - São Paulo SP - A Century of Sculpture in Brazil, at Masp
1986 - São Paulo SP - Dezenovevinte: A Turn of the Century, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1990 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Exhibition, at Sala Dorival do Prado Valladares, MNBA
1991 - São Paulo SP - Desire in the Academy: 1847-1916, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1994 - São Paulo SP - A Critical Look at the 19th-Century Collection, at Pinacoteca do Estado
1998 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Negotiated Images: Portraits of the Brazilian Elite, at CCBB
2000 - São Paulo SP - Brazilian Sculpture: From the Pinacoteca to the Jardim da Luz, at Pinacoteca do Estado
2002 - Brasília DF - Barão do Rio Branco: His Work and His Time, at Ministério das Relações Exteriores. Palácio do Itamaraty
2002 - São Paulo SP - Image and Identity: A Look at History in the Museu de Belas Artes Collection, at Instituto Cultural Banco Santos
Source: Itaú Cultural
