Veiga Valle (Pirenópolis GO 1806 - Goiás GO 1874)
Sculptor and gilder.
José Joaquim da Veiga Valle's artistic training is unknown. Some historians put forward hypotheses about who his master may have been; others suggest he was self-taught, which is disputed by the historian Heliana Angotti Salgueiro, author of the most comprehensive study of the artist. Veiga Valle began producing sacred images around 1830. It is certain that in 1841 he moved to the city of Goiás to gild the altars of the capital's parish church at the invitation of the president of the province, whose daughter he married that same year. There he continued working until about 1870. His most prolific period was the 1860s. He was a member of the Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament and became a city councilor, municipal judge, major of the National Guard and deputy. In 1940 the painter Rescála (1910 - 1986) rediscovered his work and began studying the craftsman and his output, holding an exhibition of 25 pieces in the city of Goiás. From then on, his images were included in exhibitions on the Brazilian Baroque. In 1972 an exhibition and a symposium on him were organized in Goiânia. In 1978 the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (Masp) and the Palácio das Esmeraldas, in Goiânia, held a retrospective. The largest collection of his works belongs to the Museu de Arte Sacra da Boa Morte, in the city of Goiás.
Critical Commentary
Veiga Valle's work raises several issues of art history. First, there is the problem of attribution. Because he worked in Goiás, in the interior of the country, after the gold cycle, his production was not studied directly after his death. Therefore, when he was rediscovered, it became necessary to establish the authorship of sacred images that, besides having codified general characteristics, are impersonal, unsigned and generally not documented. To give an idea of the difficulty, the historian Elder Camargo de Passos catalogued 200 images, while the historian Heliana Angotti Salgueiro accepts only 60.1
Another interesting point is that his production dates from the 19th century, the height of academicism in Rio de Janeiro, yet essentially displays the features of the Brazilian Baroque style. However, there are traits in Veiga Valle's pieces that can be considered neoclassical.
The Nossa Senhora da Conceição [Our Lady of the Conception], from the Matriz do Bom Jesus de Cuiabá, for example, shows as Baroque elements the pronounced, billowing drapery of the dress and cloak, the well-curved and defined curls of the hair, the richness of the patterns and the torsion. The same can be said of saints such as São José de Botas [Saint Joseph in Boots] and São Joaquim [Saint Joachim], at the Museu de Arte Sacra da Boa Morte, in the city of Goiás.
In these same sculptures, however, we can highlight the delicacy of the torsion and features, the sweetness of the facial expression and the softness of the lines, which avoid the tragic effect of the Brazilian Baroque common in the images of Aleijadinho (1730 - 1814). Moreover, the motifs decorating the garments include pearls, stylized fleurs-de-lis, shell-like elements and bouquets of flowers, typically Rococo or neoclassical.
In the words of Angotti Salgueiro: "Historically, however, Neoclassicism does not appear ready-made; it gradually overcomes the taste for Baroque-Rococo sinuosity, which, in isolated instances, persists throughout the century. Religious art changes more slowly than secular art: if in Rio Mestre Valentim (ca. 1745 - 1813) is already neoclassical at the turn of the century and the French Mission imposes the style shortly afterward, consolidating it at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, the Baroque image holds out. The Baroque still manifests itself in the image-makers of Bahia, Pernambuco and São Paulo: Veiga Valle's style is not anachronistic."2
Notes
1 SALGUEIRO, Heliana Angotti. A singularidade da obra de Veiga Valle. In: ÁVILA, Affonso (Org.). Barroco: teoria e análise. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1997, p. 308.
2 SALGUEIRO, Heliana Angotti. A singularidade da obra de Veiga Valle. Goiânia: Universidade Católica de Goiás, 1983, p. 25-26.
Collections
Museu de Arte Sacra da Boa Morte - Goiás GO
Posthumous Exhibitions
1940 - Goiânia GO - Solo, at Edifício do Liceu de Goiás
1954 - Goiânia GO - Solo, at Escola Goiana de Belas-Artes
1964 - Goiânia GO - Goiás Baroque Exhibition, at Universidade Católica de Goiás
1968 - Salvador BA - 1st Baroque Festival
1972 - Goiânia GO - Retrospective, at Colégio de Aplicação da Universidade Federal de Goiás
1974 - Goiás GO - Solo, at Museu de Arte Sacra da Boa Morte
1976 - Pirenópolis GO - Art Week
1978 - São Paulo SP - The City of Goiás and the Goiás Sculptor Veiga Valle, at Masp
2001 - Goiânia GO - Collection of the Museu de Arte Sacra da Boa Morte with the Largest Collection of Veiga Valle, at Galeria de Arte da Fundação Jaime Câmara
Source: Itaú Cultural
