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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
No city of south america has been more frequently or more carefully depicted in views of all kinds than Recife, the capital of Pernambuco, a port on the northern coast of Brazil, which this year is celebrating the 300th anniversary of one of the great events in its history. The iconography of Recife begins with the Dutch, who are responsible for its growth as a town. Before their conquest of Pernambuco in 1630, Recife had been only a village of fishermen dependent upon the old Portuguese town of Olinda, located a short distance to the north. Olinda, however, lacked port facilities, for it was built on hills dominating an open beach. Recife, on the other hand, is located at the confluence of the rivers Beberibe and Capibaribe, where there is a deep harbor protected from the sea by reefs of sandstone, which gives the place its name. The situation was, therefore, ideal for the needs of the Dutch West Indies Company, which for commercial purposes had brought about the conquest of the rich sugar and dye-wood-producing Portuguese colony of Pernambuco.
1 He is the author of the basic monograph Frans Post(São Paulo, 1948)Google Scholar and of “Frans Post en Albert Eckhout,” Maurits de Brazilaan (The Hague, 1953), pp. 19–25 Google Scholar. See also Thomsen, Thomas, Albert Eckhout (Copenhagen, 1938).Google Scholar
2 “Panorama do Recife de 1820–1832,” Tribuna de Petrópolis, Arte e literatura, no. 22, May, 1951; “A iconografia do Recife no século XIX,” Diàrio de Pernambuco, (Recife), April 26, 1953; “Três gravuras do Recife de 1847–48,” ibid., Oct. 18, 1953.
3 Koster’s, Henry, Travels in Brazil (London, 1816)Google Scholar and Graham, Maria, Journal of a voyage to Brazil and residence there during part of the years 1821, 1822, 1823 (London, 1824) are typical.Google Scholar
4 “Idea da população da capitania de Pernambuco, e das suas annexas, extenção de suas costas, rios, e povoações notáveis … desde o anno de 1774,” Annaes da Biblioteca nacional do Rio de Janeiro, XL (1918), 40–42.Google Scholar
5 Pita, Sebastião da Rocha, História da América portugueza (3rd ed., Bahia, 1950), p. 79.Google Scholar
6 Vilhena, Luiz dos Santos, Recopilação de notícias soteropolitanas e brasílicas contidas em XX cartas (Bahia, 1921), II, 815 Google Scholar. In 1757 D. Domingos do Loreto Couto had found more than 20,000 people living in the districts of Recife and Sto. Antonio. Cf. “Desaggravos do Brasil e glórias de Pernambuco,” Annaes da Bibliotheca nacional do Rio de Janeiro, XXIV (1902), 156.Google Scholar
7 Wanderings in South America (London, 1925), p. 71.Google ScholarPubMed
8 For complete title and legend, see Figure I, Legend, p. 404.
9 Entitled Elevação e Faxada que mostra em Prospeto pela marinha a Cidade do Salvador Bahia de todos os Santos, Metrópole do Brazil … [7½ by 48 inches], it is dated April 13, 1758. Since its accompanying description is dated 1759, the latter date is used in reference to the entire manuscript. For an account of the life of Caldas, a native of Bahia, who died in 1782, see R. C. Smith, “Jesuit Buildings in Brazil,” Art Bulletin, XXX, no. 3 (September, 1948), 187–213.Google Scholar
10 Notícia geral de toda esta capitania da Bahia desde o seu descobrimento até o presente ano de 1759 (edição facsimilar, Salvador, 1951).Google Scholar
11 The date 1922 appears on the covers. See note 6.
12 Leite, Serafim S. J., História da Companhia de Jesus no Brasil (10 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1938–1950), VII, 427, 439.Google Scholar
13 lbid., V, 216–226.
14 Artes e oficios dos Jesuitas no Brasil (Lisboa, 1953).Google Scholar
15 Leite, op. cit., V, 486.
16 No one knows who made the unsigned copies of views, maps, elevations of buildings and designs of uniforms for the Santos manuscript. It may have been the author himself.
17 For complete title and legend see Figure II, Legend, p. 405.
18 Couto, op. cit., 155.
19 Loc. cit.
20 Ibid.
21 A lighthouse began to function at this point in 1822 (Ferrez, loc. cit.).
22 Op. cit., II, 815.
23 Smith, “The Wood-Beach at Recife,” THE AMERICAS, VI (October, 1949), 215–233. See also “More About the Wood-Beach at Recife”, ibid., X (July, 1953) 75–78 Google Scholar, by the same writer, where an attempt is made to identify the author of the painting with that José de Oliveira Barbosa (1753–1844), who became a marshal in the Portuguese Army, governor of Angola, and, in the Brazilian Empire, Baron of Passeio Público and Viscount of Rio Comprido.
24 Op. cit., II, 815–816.
25 Ibid., p. 816.
26 Sousa, Gabriel Soares de, Tratado descriptivo do Brasil em 1587 (3rd ed., São Paulo, 1938), p. 26.Google Scholar
27 Costa, Francisco Augusto Pereira da, Anais pernambucanos, 1701–1739, V (1953), 45–51.Google Scholar
28 Built in 1667, it was razed in 1850 ( Costa, , “As portas da cidade do Recife e o arco da capela do Bom Jesus,” Revista do Instituto arqueológico, histórico e geográfico pernambucano, XLII (1891), 285–299.Google Scholar
29 For a discussion of the architecture and function of this building see “The Wood-Beach at Recife,” p. 227.
30 The first stone was laid on March 24, 1706, and the church was first used on March 24, 1720. At this time the frontispiece was finished. Cf.Lima, Augusto de Jr., “A congregação do Oratório e suas igrejas em Pernambuco,” Revista do Serviço do Patrimônio histórico e artístico nacional, IX (1945), 331–346.Google Scholar
31 In Brazil, as in most other places, the eighteenth-century names of streets have been severely altered. Recently the old street names of two colonial centers have been brought together. A street map of São Luiz with the original nomenclature has been made and is on exhibition at the headquarters of the Diretoria do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional in the Solar dos Sete Candieiros at Salvador. Sylvio de Vasconcelos has listed the old names of many of the streets of Ouro Preto in his Arquitetura particular em Ouro Preto (Belo Horizonte, 1951), pp. 74–83 Google Scholar. Some of the names of these streets are similar to those of Salvador and Recife and closely related to the street names of the cities of Portugal.
32 Because of the objections of the people of Olinda, who opposed the removal of Recife from the authority of the old city, the pelourinho was erected secretly at night. It soon was torn down by invaders from Olinda, thus precipitating a struggle which continued until in 1714 Recife emerged the winner ( Leite, , op. cit., V, 454–459 Google Scholar). Never, however, during the colonial period did it become a city. It was always known officially as the “Muita nobre e sempre leal vila do Recife.”
33 This custom of describing the circuit of the street in its name produced also in Recife the Rua do Rosário para o Carmo, which appears as no. 23 on the map. In Salvador the last part of the Rua Direita do Palácio became the Rua Direita que vai da Praça para a Sé (Rio de Janeiro, Bibliotheca Nacional, MS No. 11–33–23, 19).
34 For the most complete account of the construction see Mello, José Antonio Gonsalves de, Neto, , Tempo dos flamengos. Influência da Ocupação Holandesa na vida e na cultura do Norte do Brasil (Rio, 1947), pp. 106–113.Google Scholar
35 Op. cit., II, 816. He was repeating a statement made by Sebastião da Rocha Pita, op. cit., p. 78.
36 Fr. João da A presentação Campeli, O.F.M., in his manuscript Epitome histórico da vida e ações do exmo. e revdo. snr. dom José Fialho, now at the Torre do Tombo in Lisbon. Cited by Mário Melo, “A vila do Recife, na primeira metade do século xviii, através de um documento inédito,” Jornal do Comércio, November 6, 1939.
37 Governor of Pernambuco, 1737–1746.Google Scholar
38 Frei Antônio de Sta. Maria Jaboatam, writing just before 1761, observed that there were four banks of sixteen shops each and more benches with wooden railings for the use of the guard at both approaches to the bridge (Novo orbe seràfico, [Part II, Rio, 1859–1862], II, 457–458). Dom Domingos do Loreto Couto, on the other hand, found not sixty-four but sixty shops upon the bridge (op. cit., p. 155). These were still in existence in, Vilhena’s time (op. cit., II, 816). They had, however, disappeared when Johann Steinmann made his lithograph panorama of the island of Sto. Antonio, between 1826 and 1832. According to Pereira da Costa, the old stone and wood bridge, by then 122 years old, was replaced by a structure of iron in 1862, which in turn gave way to one of concrete in 1917. In this year the arch of Sto. Antonio was torn down, that of N. S. da Conceição having disappeared four years before (op. cit., V, 383).
39 Ferdinand Denis first made the comparison with a medieval bridge (Brésil [Paris, 1839], p. 254)Google ScholarPubMed. He stated that the bridge in Recife was 280 feet long.
40 Op. cit., p. 79.
41 Leite, op. cit., V, 464.
42 He constructed in 1684 at his own cost a fort near the Oratorian church (Costa, op. cit., IV, 235). Dedicated to the Mother of God, it was referred to as the Forte de Matos. The Rua do Matos nearby appears on the map of 1773 as no. 80.
43 In 1855 it was reinaugurated as the church of Espírito Santo and is now the headquarters of the Santa Casa da Misericòrdia of Recife and Olinda.
44 Like that of the old church of S. João in Olinda, which is believed by some to antedate the attack on the city by the Dutch in 1630, when almost all the buildings then standing were destroyed.
45 “… e ainda que a architectura faltou em elgua coiza às regras da arte soube o engenho ensinado da necessidade emendar o defeyto com valentia” (op. cit.). 4« Costa, op. cit., V, 388–390.
47 Couto found the towers “in course of completion” in 1757 (op. cit., p. 157).
48 Pedro, Dom II, Viagem a Pernambuco em 1859, ed. by Auler, Guilherme (Recife, 1952), pp. 57–58.Google Scholar
49 Op. cit., II, 480.
50 Smith, , “The Golden Chapel of Recife,” Brazil, XXII, no. 4 (New York, April, 1948), 2–7.Google Scholar
51 The church was long in construction. It was begun in 1663 but in 1743 John V had to make a generous grant to enable the Order to complete the work ( Prat, André, Convento e basílica do Carmo do Recife [Recife, 1939], pp. 19, 25).Google Scholar
52 Smith, , “Santo Antônio do Recife,” Anuàrio do Museu imperial, VII (1946), 141–176.Google Scholar
53 Bishop of Pernambuco, 1738–1754.
54 Governor of Pernambuco, 1749–1756.
55 Rodrigo Melo Franco de Andrade, in citing this incident, calls it the first instance of the protection of a national monument because of its historical significance (Brasil: Monumentos históricos e arqueológicos [Mexico, 1952], pp. 12–14). D. André de Melo e Castro, Count of Galveias, was viceroy of Brazil from 1735 to 1749.
56 Gemidos seráficos, demonstrações sentidas e obséquios dolorosos nas exéquias funerais, que pela morte do fidelíssimo, e augustíssimo rey o senhor D. João fez celebrar nos conventos da província de Santo Antônio do Brasil, entre Bahia e Pernambuco (Lisbon, 1755).Google Scholar
57 The year in which this took place is not known.
58 Governor of Pernambuco, 1774–1787. Pereira da Costa, on the other hand, says that the palace was torn down in 1770 by Manuel da Cunha e Meneses, governor from 1769–1774, in search of buried gold (op. cit., IV, 187). The spacious lower part of the residence was remodeled for use as a treasury. It was mentioned by Denis in 1839 (op. cit., p. 255) and still appears as late as 1907 on the Planta da Cidade do Recife of Sir Douglas Fox and H. Michell Whitley.
59 Op. cit., II, 817.
60 The Benedictine D. Frei José Fialho, 1672–1741, was Bishop of Pernambuco, 1722–1738, Archbishop of Bahia, 1738–1739, Bishop of Guarda in Portugal, 1739–1741.
61 Op. cit., II, 819. This bridge is thought to have been originally constructed by the Dutch (Melo, op. cit., p. 113).
62 L. F. de Tollenare, “Notas dominicais tomadas durante uma viagem em Portugal e no Brasil em 1816, 1817 e 1818, Rev. Inst. arq. Hist. geog. pern., XI, no. 61 (March, 1904), 341–443 Google Scholar; XI, no. 62 (June, 1904), 445–558.
63 Vauthier, L. L., Diário íntimo do engenheiro Vauthier, 1840–1846, ed. by Freyre, Gilberto (Rio, 1940).Google Scholar
64 Op. cit., II, 819.
65 This church was apparently still in construction at the time (Smith, “Décadas do Rosário dos Pretos, documentos da Irmandade,” Arquivos, anos IV-X, 1945–1951 [1 vol.], 143–170).Google Scholar
66 This was the old church, which is known to have been completed by 1722. The present structure was begun in 1830 (Costa, op. cit., IV, 414).
67 This building was consecrated on March 7, 1734, by Bishop Fialho (ibid., V, 129). It is represented as it appeared about that time in a drawing now at the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino in Lisbon.
68 According to the Compromisso da Venerável irmandade de S. José de Riba-mar (Recife, 1897), p. 3 Google Scholar, the existing church was begun in 1752 and occupied in 1754. It seems not to have been completed until about 1787.
69 Couto, op. cit., p. 155.
70 Denis, op. cit., pp. 245–255.
71 Casparis Barlaei, rerum per octennivm in Brasilia et alibi nuper gestarum, sub praefectura Illustrissimi comitis I, Mavritii, Nassoviae, etc.… (Amsterdam, 1647)Google Scholar. This was translated and annotated by Brandão, Claudio as História dos feitos recentemente praticados durante oito anos no Brasil e noutras partes sob o govêrno do ilustríssimo João Maurício conde de Nassau etc.… (Rio, 1940).Google Scholar