FRANCISCAN CONVENTS AS HOUSES OF THE WORLD

CULTURAL EXCHANGES EXPRESSED IN CARVING AND PICTURE IN HISTORICAL EXAMPLES IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The historical Franciscan convents in Brazil, generally speaking, are recognized by
their iconic Baroque oeuvres. However, its believed that it is possible to submit them
a other extractions that are able to revel aspects of conviviality among different cultures
that rase from the architecture and works of art of those convents along the years. Is
was considered, in the analysis, a major attention to the iconographic details, where it
was possible to see those mixtures and exchanges expressed in the fecund field of lines,
colours, figurations, lights and shadows. Methodologically, the research was based in primary sources and in dense fieldworks. It is a consequence of a major investigation collectively produced by a research group during about 20 years, trying to deal with
unusual aspects of Brazilian historical Franciscan architecture and art. As a result, it is
presented the necessity of amplify the debates concerning the cultural exchanges,
revisited from the demands brought by the Decolonial critique.