CIRCULATION AND USE OF WORKS IN IVORY IN THE IMAGE OF BRAZIL COLONY

Case study of Pietá of Mestre Piranga

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the use of small ivory images for the manufacture of sculptures of polychrome wood in the 18th and 19th centuries. To this end, we sought to understand the details of a particular sculpture attributed to Mestre Piranga – a craftsman who worked in the 19th century and whose authorship of production was defined through stylistic patterns - under the guard of the Mineiro Museum, through the problems and solutions found by the author. The aesthetic formative of the work showed the methodological path for its analysis, considering the possibility of comparison on with other work, as well as bibliographic research on the sculptures, commerce and post mortem inventories of the period. The coincidences regarding the characteristics of the sculpture found, the studies on the trade of the period, the circulation and possession of sculpture in ivory from Piranga, consolidate the possibility that the works in  ivory serve as a model for other sculptures in wood, notably the representations of Our Lady of Piety by Mestre Piranga.