Desenhando o Brasil colonial

Abstract

In 2018, the LaMIE group of researchers intensified their meetings and came to the conclusion that the project Culture and Opulence: Rereading and Illustration should be continued by means of an online publication containing Group collections of the architectural research, mill installations, customs and costumes. Based on these assets, illustrations were produced by student/illustrator Adherbal Artigiani Neto. They believe an illustrated visit to Antonil’s book “Culture and Opulence, for its drugs and mines” is extremely important to underline the historiography of economic cycles in Colonial Brazil. After an appropriate decoupage of the book and experimentation with some graphic techniques, the illustrative quill pen was the technique of choice to provide a strong outline for the water color shapes. They also decided that the illustrations would follow the reference of original book chapter titles. The iconographic research for the drawings was based on theoretical grounds from other historical references of the 17th and 18th centuries. Lastly, the remarkable work by illustrator Aderbhal Neto, a storyteller who uses images instead of words, surfaces the virtuosity of an artistic drawing technique with poetic power.