DOS Considerations about the Indigenous Representations in Benedito Calixto’s Anchietana Paintings

Abstract

Benedito Calixto (1853-1927) dedicated himself to indigenist iconography of a historical and religious nature, still at the end of the 19th century, marking a set of paintings in oil on canvas, which extends through the first decade of the 20th century, reaching the year 1920 .In his production, the series on José de Anchieta stands out, whose sanctification took place very recently. Represented among indigenous people, the 16th-century Jesuit assumes a key role in the construction of a narrative aimed at dominating the original inhabitant. In that same period, the colonizing and expansionist coffee and railway project in western São Paulo stands out, a project marked by a discourse linked to the elimination of indigenous people, considered obstacles to the development of the nation even during the Second Reign. In this speech, the speech given by the director of the Museu Paulista between 1895 and 1916, Hermann von Ihering (1850-1930), stands out, who preaches the extermination of the Caingangues in the article published in 1907, in the Revista do Museu. The aim is, therefore, to analyze and problematize this Calixtian iconographic set from a decolonizing perspective, revealing and unveiling the role hidden by the implicit violence in the aforementioned paintings by the artist, in which the indigenous people always occupy the place of submission and peaceful acceptance of imposed dictates. by the Church and the State. It also aims to understand the place of indigenous people in this long-term process, observing their narrative and historiographical fragments present in Benedito Calixto's images.