Collection
The formation of the heritage
The process of acquiring works occurred mainly between 1947 and 1960. Bardi, former owner of galleries in Milan and Rome, had the task of selecting the works that should be purchased, while Chateubriand was responsible for finding potential donors and patrons who believed in his cause, that of providing Brazil with an international museum. Meanwhile, many spontaneous donations had been made, for which Chateubriand acquired a reputation for his use of daring methods of persuasion.
Backed by the influence of the Diários Associados, he negotiated with advertisers the leasing of resources. Then, he rewarded the donors with the title of patron, celebrating each new acquisition with banquets, speeches and student parades through the streets of Sao Paulo, as was recorded at the arrival of the work “The Schoolboy” by Vincent Van Gogh. In the process of obtaining funds, the efforts of Eduardo Monteiro, executive of the Diários Associados media group for the southern and southeastern regions of Brazil, were also important, regions where he would obtain other donors, in addition to those that Chateubriand himself was gathering.
The international art market was going through a favorable moment for those who had capital to acquire quality artistic works: there were many available after the end of the Second World War and Brazil was going through a moment of prosperity. MASP's acquisition plan was based, therefore, on the expectation of a price drop in the European market, in addition to its good relations with that market. The acquisitions were always made by the most traditional and reputable European and North American galleries such as Knoedler, Matthiesen, Marlborough, Seligman, Daber and Wildenstein. The owner of the latter, Georges Wildenstein, joined the MASP so much that both the gallery and the Museum are today dedicated to him, as well as to Chateubriand.
The unorthodox methods used to finance the formation of the collection, exercised by Chateubriand, had many critics. To these were added others related to the fact that the Museum acquired works without due verification of authenticity. This impression was supported, among other circumstances, by the fact that the Museum was one of the largest buyers in the international market at that time. Unlike other museums, whose acquisitions depended on the approval of a Council of Curators, the MASP decided on its acquisitions quickly, often through telegrams. Thanks to this agility, it managed to acquire important pieces, often in the face of bigger-name competitors and larger financial resources.
In the late 1960s, Chateubriand's journalistic empire was facing great difficulties, such as the growth of debts on its communication systems and the emergence of competition from Roberto Marinho. The financial difficulties of the Diários Associados were reflected in the reduction of the MASP acquisition plan. After Chateubriand's death, resources decreased much more markedly. Thus, after more than a decade of large acquisitions, the Museum began to increase its collection only with spontaneous donations from artists, companies and private collectors.
Characterization of the collection
The São Paulo Museum of Art has the largest and most complete collection of Western art in Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere.[1][6] Among the more than 8 thousand works in the collection, the section referring to paintings, sculptures, designs), engravings and European decorative arts stands out, from the century to the present. Along with the Italian works, the French works constitute the main core of the collection, followed by the Spanish, Portuguese, Flemish, Dutch, English and German. The Museum also maintains a significant collection of Brazilian art and art related to Brazil, witnessing the development of the arts in this country from the century to the present.
Already in the context of Western art, the groups of works referring to North America and Latin America are important. On a smaller scale, objects related to the artistic production of various periods of non-Western civilizations such as Africa and Asia are also present in the institution's collection, and others that stand out for their archaeological, artistic and historical importance, such as a select set of Egyptian, Etruscan and Greco-Roman antiquities, in addition to other artifacts from pre-Columbian cultures and medieval art from Europe.
Italian art
The collection of Italian art at the MASP covers a period that extends from the Middle Ages to the Fauvism of Filippo de Pissis. From the Byzantine period there are ivory figurines (“Figure of Anjo” of the 19th century) and works of goldsmithing with a sacred theme adorned with silver and precious stones. In the painting collection, late medieval art is represented, with the “Madonna” of the Master of Bigallo and the Italian Gothic (Maestro di San Martino alla Palma"), Paolo Serafini da Modena, Ottaviano Nelli and the Master of 1416).
In any case, the resemblance of the collection to Renaissance art can be observed, where such important names as Andrea Mantegna stand out - by whom the Museum has its oldest known work, “St. higher with the “Resurrection of Christ” by Raphael. The Renaissance iconography of the Madonna with Child is strongly represented with works by Piero di Cosimo, Giampietrino and Francesco Francia. The collection maintains its vigor in the Mannerism period, with representative works by Paris Bordone, Titian (Portrait of Cardinal Cristóforo Madruzzo), Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, Alessandro Allori, Girolamo Santacroce, Jacopo Bassano and Palma the Younger.
Later artistic movements are represented in a more modest way in the collection, although great exponents such as Carlo Saraceni, Panfilo Nuvolone, Guercino, Bartolomeo Bassante, Guido Reni, Ciro Ferri and Giuseppe Mazzuoli are present in what concerns the Baroque; Giambattista Pittoni ("Dioniso e Arianna"), Alessandro Magnasco, Michele Rocca"), Pellegrini, Pompeo Batoni, Francesco Zugno and Valério Villareale, as representatives of Rococo and Neoclassicism. Giovanni Boldini, Eduardo de Martino, Gaetano Previati and Eduardo Dalbono are the great names of Italian 18th century art, as well as Giuseppe Amisani, Amadeo Modigliani, who the Museum owns six oil paintings on canvas, is the greatest exponent of modernism#Modernist_painting "Modernism (art)").
Another important section of the Italian collection is an important set of 256 majolicas – porous and colorful ceramics, with a transparent or opaque coating decorated with metallic reflections – coming from the famous Imbert Collection, an important collection of majolicas that covers the period between the 14th and 17th centuries, covering various production centers such as Florence, Siena, Cafaggiolo), Venice, Faenza, Urbino, Gubbio, Deruta, etc. These are a collection of great historical and scientific relevance due to the number of pieces signed, dated or marked with coats of arms and blazons of important owners such as the Medici or the Piccolomini, among others.
French art and the Paris School
The French art collection represents the largest core of the collection, it is known for its density and homogeneity, especially with regard to the artistic movements located between the centuries and . The artistic production referring to the Gothic and Renaissance periods (10th century) is represented by statuettes and busts of sacred themes finely decorated with filigree and semi-precious stones. From the centuries and, the rarest in the collection, emerge the mannerism of François Clouet and the baroque compositions of Nicolas Poussin and Pierre Mignard. Of the first, The Sacrifice to Priapus stands out, which is paired with a Hunt of Meleager and Atalanta from the Prado Museum in Madrid. It also has some Gobelin tapestries. Among the notable works of the 17th century, of Rococo inspiration, are the four portraits of the daughters of Louis
Among the representatives of the various pictorial currents of the century, there are great works of Neoclassicism by Ingres and Romanticism by Delacroix (Allegory of the “Four Seasons”). Corot, Daumier, Courbet and Vollon exemplify Realism, just as Harpignies, Ziem and Defaux evidence the Barbizon School. The academicism of the century is present with the works of Edouard Detaille, Boyé and Chabas. From the Impressionist movement it is possible to appreciate a vast collection of works by Manet, Degas, Cézanne, Monet and Renoir. Of the post-impressionists there are paintings by Gauguin, Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Martin, Suzanne Valadon and Édouard Vuillard.
In the modern collection, Fauvism is present with the works of Matisse, Albert Marquet, Othon Friesz and Maurice de Vlaminck; Cubism has exponents such as Fernand Léger, Crotti, André Lhote and Pablo Picasso - the latter, present with works from various phases of his artistic career. Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall and Victor Brauner highlight Surrealism and Dadaism, while expressionist aesthetics make themselves felt with the compositions of Chaïm Soutine, Larionov and Wols. Artists such as Marie Laurencin, Maurice Utrillo, Benatov and Renefer also deserve to be highlighted.
In the collection of French sculptures, it is worth mentioning a large complete set of 73 bronzes by Edgar Degas - a rare collection that can only be appreciated in its entirety, in addition to the MASP, in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. Also found are a Houdon marble, a relief by Honoré Daumier, bronzes by Rodin and Renoir, and contemporary pieces by Jacques Lipchitz, César Baldaccini and Patrick Raynaud.
Iberian art
In the MASP collection, the section referring to Spanish art covers a space of more than eight centuries, being the "Virgin on the Throne", the oldest work of the Castilian School") (from the century). It is essential to mention "The Last Judgment", by the Master of the Artés Family"), the only representative of the Iberian Renaissance in the entire collection. Two works by El Greco can be seen, among them, an "Annunciation of Saint Francis." Among the exponents of the so-called Golden Age of Spanish painting are Francisco de Zurbarán, Juan Carreño de Miranda, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and Diego Velázquez ("Portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares"). Francisco de Goya is represented with four portraits of important ecclesiastical figures and aristocrats of the Spanish court as well as a set of engravings from the "Bullfighting" series. Salvador Dalí's "Dress of the Year 2045" is one of the most emblematic works in the modern collection. Among the Portuguese artists present in the collection, Sequeira, Malhoa, Souza Pinto and Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro deserve to be highlighted.
German, Dutch and Flemish art
This part of the collection, although modest in size, brings together some Renaissance and Mannerist jewels from Flanders and the Netherlands. Works by Hans Memling (Lamentation of the Virgin), Hieronymus Bosch (Temptations of Saint Anthony), Quentin Massys, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Younger deserve to be highlighted. From the 19th century, landscape works and portraits stand out; such as Archduke Albert by Rubens, Self-portrait by Rembrandt, and valuable works by Van Dyck, Jacob Ruysdael, and some views of Pernambuco painted by Frans Post, contemporaneous with the Dutch rule over that region of Brazil, of great historical and ethnographic interest. It also has flamenco tapestries. From the modern and contemporary era, works by Max Beckmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Paul Klee, Karel Appel, etc. deserve to be highlighted.
British and Northern European art
It focuses fundamentally on British portraiture of the 20th century, with artists such as Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Lawrence, George Romney "George Romney (painter)"), Henry Raeburn, etc. From the romantic period, Turner stands out, with The Castle of Carnavon. Of modernity and contemporaneity, the sculptor Henry Moore, Peter Blake "Peter Blake (artist)"), and as a curiosity, a painting by Winston Churchill stand out.
Brazilian art
Although it is a museum specialized in the history of universal art, the MASP collection preserves moments of great intensity in the arts of Brazil, from the pictorial records of Frans Post in the 19th century, through the baroque statuary of Aleijadinho, to the most recent contemporary artistic manifestations. From the 18th century period, notable ones are Facchinetti"), Vítor Meireles") (Moema), Pedro Américo, Almeida Júnior (Woman with a Book), João Batista Castagneto"), Benedito Calixto, Pedro Weingärtner, Rodolfo Amoedo, Henrique Bernardelli, Belmiro de Almeida"), Alfred Andersen"), Pedro Alexandrino"), Antônio Parreiras, João Batista da Costa, Eliseu Visconti, Oscar Pereira da Silva and Artur Timótheo da Costa"). From the modernist period the museum preserves important records of the main artists and periods such as Ernesto De Fiori, Vicente do Rego Monteiro"), John Graz"), Lasar Segall, Oswaldo Goeldi"), Guignard"), Anita Malfatti (The Student), Alfredo Volpi, Brecheret"), Bruno Giorgi, Di Cavalcanti ("Five Wenches of Guaratinguetá"), Flávio de Carvalho and a large set of works by Cândido Portinari (the series "Bíblica e Retirantes", "El Labrador de Café" and several portraits). Also present are Samson Flexor"), Pancetti"), Tomie Ohtake, Arcângelo Ianelli") and Manabu Mabe, among others.
Art of the Americas
In the section referring to the art of the Americas, it is worth mentioning the existence of a small nucleus of pre-Columbian pieces, some of the first order such as a "Female Bust" (c. 500 AD), from the Chone Culture) (Ecuador) and an "Animal Head", made in "Honduras" between 700 and 1100 AD. In addition, there are other representative works of the different Latin American currents such as a Madonna Ecuadorian painting of the century and the portrait of Mrs. Franck Rolleston, an academic painting by the renowned North American artist Gilbert Stuart. However, most of the collection allows us to glimpse important aspects of Latin American modernist production with works by the Uruguayan Joaquín Torres-García"), by the Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, and by the contemporary Mari Carmen Hernandéz (Meta). Other important artists in this core are the group of contemporary North American works made up of artists such as Andy Warhol, Charles Ephraim Burchfield, Alexander Calder, Lee Menichetti, Patrick Geraghty, David Traub, Christian Haub, Rinaldo Fratolillo, Thom Somervilles, among others.
Archeology
The MASP has a collection of Egyptian, Greek, Italic and Roman antiquities that stands out in Brazil for its quality and rarity. They are objects from the most important civilizations that flourished in the eastern and western Mediterranean. Most of these pieces come from the donation of Lina Bo" and Pietro María Bardi"), made to the Museum in 1976. The Egyptian collection is made up of pieces dating from the Old Empire (2575 BC) and the Roman Period (50 AD). The essential part of the group is made up of religious objects of various themes such as divine statuettes (Deus Thoth, Horus, Osiris, etc.), fragments of tumular paintings, amulets, ushabtis (mummiform figures) and votive steles. Particularly noteworthy is the piece Infant Isis with Horus, a bronze statuette from the Ptolemaic period (332 – 31 BC).
Among the representative objects of classical cultures, a set of 19 ceramic containers from Greece, Magna Grecia, Etruria and Rome, dating from the 7th century BC, stands out. C. and II a. C., in addition to terracotta statuettes (Tanagras), Italic and Roman bronzes (22 pieces including ornaments, weapons and everyday objects), enochoes and Roman crystals, all produced between the 8th century BC. C. and I d. C. In addition to the above, two exceptional examples of Greek Art are worthy of mention ("Statue of the Goddess Hygeia", 4th century BC) and Roman Art") (Sarcophagus, 140-200 AD).
African art
The MASP has an important collection of African pieces for ritual and daily use notable for their artistic quality. They are, for the most part, ceremonial objects used in the tribal societies of central-western Africa, located in countries such as Mali, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Nigeria (Yoruba Nation), Cameroon, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1995, the Museum's collection was notably enriched thanks to the donation of 35 pieces by the Bank of Boston. Another core of works of African art was incorporated by the donation to the Museum in the 1980s of the William Daghlian Collection, which increased the corpus of the collection with artisanal pieces and cult objects made by ethnic groups from the Congo and Ghana (Ashanti Nation).
Asian art
The MASP Asian art collection, although numerically small, covers a broad historical period ranging from the century BC. C. until . Chinese, Japanese and Hindu schools are mainly represented. Most of the pieces come from the donation of William Daghlian in the 1980s.
Regarding Chinese art, a beautiful statuette of a "Dancer" from the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) deserves to be highlighted, as well as four other pieces dating from the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD): two warriors and two small horses, all molded in terracotta. In the section referring to Japanese Art"), paintings and drawings on various supports predominate, such as a "Portrait of the poet Hitomaro" by a painter from the Kanō School (19th century), a drawing on paper and other paintings that represent the followers of the divinity Fudo Myo-o, dating from the 19th century. The Art of India is present with stone and stucco statuettes representing Buddhist and Hindu divinities. A "Buddha of Gandara" (1st century), a "Head of Bhairava" (10th century) and a magnificent representation of "Gada-Devi", from the Late Pala Period (17th century)
Photograph
The MASP preserves in its collection a collection of approximately 900 photographs by 245 established authors in the Brazilian artistic milieu. They come from a project developed since 1990, jointly by the Museum and Pirelli S.A.. It owes its relevance to the multiple historical-social, aesthetic and formal aspects. Among the photographers present in the collection, Sebastião Salgado, Pierre Verger, Araquém Alcântara, Nair Benedicto, Adenor Gondim, Flavya Mutran, Juca Martins, Klaus Mitteldorf and Arthur Omar, among others, deserve mention.
Fashion and clothing
On the initiative of Pietro María Bardi, there is a collection of 140 dresses presented in the Rhodia parades in the Museum. The project carried out between the late 60s and early 70s was pioneering and brought together artists, fashion designers and the textile industry for the first time. The parades took place in several cities in Brazil and were the final result of the interaction of artists such as Roberto Sambonet, Francisco Brenand, Aldemir Martins, Carlos Vergara, Manabu Mabe, Hercules Barsotti, Wyllis de Castro among others, who participated by creating fabric patterns with national and contemporary themes, as well as famous designers of the time such as Ugo Castellana, Alceu Penna and Dener Pamplona de Abreu.
Library
The purpose of the MASP Library and Documentation Center is to store, preserve, organize and disseminate all the bibliographic, iconographic and historical material existing in the Institution. The valuable collection specialized in plastic arts, architecture, art history, design, photography and related events is made up of approximately 60 thousand volumes including books (some rare), exhibition catalogues, theses and Museum bulletins. It is the main research source in São Paulo for the study of art history, and one of the largest libraries in the country specialized in art history. Among the rare books are gems such as Leonardo da Vinci's "Trattato della Pittura" (1792), Andrea Palladio's "Le Fabbriche e I Disegni" (1796), "Vita Del Cavaliere Gio. Lorenzo Bernino" (1682) and "Ragionamenti Del Sig. Cavaliere Giorgio Vasari" (1588), among others.