ILLUSTRATED CATALOGS

devotion, iconography and commercialization of sacred works in Brazilian Belle Epoque

Abstract

In the second half of the nineteenth century, small factories of sacred objects appeared throughout Europe, to be
implanted in the Americas in the following decades through European immigrants. These factories, led by a collaboratorassisted sculptor / carver master, in addition to offering unique carved, gilded and polychrome woodwork, sell reproductions of cast-and-plaster sculptures decorated with more accessible techniques and materials. Characterized by the presence of an Exhibition Hall, demonstrative Photo Albums and the distribution of Illustrated Catalogs of their
products, they reflect a “universalization” of sacred art, already begun with the Romanization of the expanding Catholic Church. In Brazil, the pioneerism in the manufacture of sacred art is through Italian immigrants in São Paulo and Germans and Italians in Rio Grande do Sul, major immigration centers at the turn of the 19th / 20th centuries, introducing new European devotions into Brazilian territory.