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Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Ouro Preto, Vila Rica, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Religious Architecture
The Carmelite Order of Vila Rica was officially created in 1752. initially meeting in the modest Chapel of Saint Quiteria, located on the hill of the same name and belonging to the parish of Pilar de Ouro Preto. The following year, the brethren decided to replace the rammed earth (pau-a-pique) chapel with a church made of stone: in just a few months they had approved a design and awarded the construction contract. However, there were disagreements between the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and that of Saint Quiteria, which owned the lands, and the town hall and metropolitan authorities had to interfere so that they could reach a deal. In 1766, the Committee approved the new design presented by Manuel Francisco Lisboa and the construction contract was awarded to the Braga-born Master João Alves Viana, who did a large part of the masonry and stonework in the chancel (1767-1769). The construction of the nave lasted until 1779; the construction of the sacristy lavabo and the portal were contracted to Francisco de Lima Cerqueira in the following year. The ornamental sculptures of the portal (a cartouche with rocaille motifs and flying angels) bear the unmistakable “signature” of O Aleijadinho, who worked there as a subcontractor. For Myriam R. de Oliveira, this church was the “initial sign of a professional partnership between the two artists”. O Aleijadinho must also have participated in the changes to the initial design of the frontispiece, produced by his father. According to this same scholar, “we have here the compositional structure of the façade of Saint Iphigenia, converted into a rococo version”: the frontispiece is slightly undulating, the oculus is three-lobed and incorporated into the rocaille decoration of the portal, the towers are slim, slightly rounded and crowned with bell-shaped domes of German inspiration; the window frames are closer to the Portuguese-Brazilian tradition, without any adornments, in the Pombaline style”. Inside, the decoration began in 1784 with the construction of the side altars and pulpits by Manuel Francisco de Araújo (the latter being designed by João Gomes). A life-size plan of those altars can still be found on the inner wall of the consistory. The altars near the crossing arch were finished in 1795. The altars of Saint John and Our Lady of Mercy were made by O Aleijadinho’s workshop (1807-1809) and the others, along with the pulpits, by his disciple Justino Ferreira de Andrade (1812-1814). These altarpieces were painted and gilded by Manuel da Costa Ataíde, who also produced the design and carried out the respective gilding work on the high altar, carved by Vicente da Costa and Agostinho da Silva (1813). The lower part of the chancel walls bears the only genuine tile panels in the churches of the Minas region. The paintings on the ceilings of the nave and chancel are by the Italian Ângelo Clerici (1908/1909); the ceiling of the sacristy has been attributed by some to Master Ataíde.
Cláudia Damasceno Fonseca