Jesuit Buildings in Brazil

Abstract

THE early art of Portuguese America is closely associated with the Society of Jesus. In many places along the Brazilian coast, from the Amazon delta in the north to the distant region of Rio Grande do Sul, members of the Company were the first builders, sculptors, and painters. Their activity continued from shortly after the arrival of the earliest missionaries at Salvador in 1549, the year the city was founded, until 1759, when the order was expelled from Brazil.1 Although their taste was more conservative than that of their rivals in the winning of souls, the Franciscans and the Carmelites, although they remained faithful almost until the end to the principles of Counter Reformation style which they had brought from Portugal to America, so profound was their influence that until recently all colonial Brazilian art has frequently been called the art of the Jesuits.2