 | |
 | |
| Established | 2002 |
|---|---|
| Location | Recife,Brazil |
| Director | Ricardo Brennand |
| Website | institutoricardobrennand |
TheRicardo Brennand Institute (Portuguese:Instituto Ricardo Brennand,IRB) is a culturalinstitution located in the city ofRecife,Brazil. It is anot-for-profit private organization, inaugurated in 2002 by the Brazilian collector and businessmanRicardo Brennand. It comprises amuseum, anart gallery, alibrary and a largepark.[1][2]
The institute holds a permanent collection of historic and artistic objects of diversified provenience, ranging fromEarly Middle Ages to 20th century, with strong emphasis in objects, documents and artwork related toColonial andDutch Brazil, including the world's largest assemblage of paintings byFrans Post.[2][3]
The institute also houses one of the largest collections ofarmory in the world, with 3,000 pieces, the majority of which were produced inEurope andAsia between the 14th and 19th centuries.[1] The library has over 62 thousand volumes, ranging from 16th to 20th century, including a collection ofbrasiliana and other rare items.[4]
The institute was created byRicardo Brennand (Cabo de Santo Agostinho, 27 May 1927 — Recife, 25 April 2020), a Brazilian collector and businessman ofEnglish ancestry, born inCabo de Santo Agostinho in 1927. Brennand established several factories in theNortheast Region of the country, acting in the segments of cement, tiles, glass, porcelain and sugar production. He started collecting armory, specially melee weapons, in the 1940s. In the following decades, his collection would grow in size and importance, becoming one of the largest such ensembles in the world.[1]
In 1990, Brennand decided to sell some of his factories, gathering the financial resources needed to establish a museum with the aim of preserving and exhibiting his holdings.[1] Prior to the institute opening, he also became interested in acquiringworks of art, beside objects related toBrazilian history. He chose to focus his new acquisitions on the 17th century period of theDutch occupation of Brazilian Northeast. In five years, Brennand acquired a large group of canvases byFrans Post, as well as 17th-century Dutch landscape and portrait paintings, maps, tapestries, objects, coins, documents and rare books, all of which acquainted to the Dutch rule in Brazil.[5]
The Ricardo Brennand Institute was inaugurated in September 2002, with an exhibition devoted toAlbert Eckhout, displaying for the first time outside Europe all of his paintings done inBrazil, which belong to theNational Museum of Denmark.[6] In 2003, the institute opened the permanent exhibitionFrans Post and Dutch Brazil in the collection of Instituto Ricardo Brennand, inaugurated byQueen Beatrix of the Netherlands, on the occasion of her visit to Brazil.[7]
Beside permanent and temporary exhibitions, the institute offers courses onhistory of art,educational program devoted to students of public and private schools ofPernambuco,art education programs for teachers and cultural activities in general.
The institute is headquartered in a castle-like set of structures, named "Castelo de São João",[8] designed after theTudor style, with a total gross area of 77,000 square meters. It's a contemporary construction, blended with some original elements, such as adrawbridge, reliefs ofcoats of arms and aGothicaltarpiece brought from Europe.[9] The complex consists of the Museum of Armory, anart gallery, alibrary, anauditorium and areas for public services and technical/administrative rooms.[1][2]
The complex is surrounded by a 18,000 hectares (44,000 acres)garden,[1] endowed with artificial lakes and a number of large-sizesculptures, such asThe Thinker, byAuguste Rodin,The lady and the horse byFernando Botero, and other works bySonia Ebling,Leopoldo Martins, etc.[2][10]
The Ricardo Brennand Institute holdings comprise collections ofpainting,sculpture,armory,tapestry,decorative arts andfurniture, with objects ranging fromEarly Middle Ages to the 20th century, proceeding from Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa.[8]
The collection of armory, specialized in melee weapons, is among the largest of its kind in the world.[9] It comprises nearly 3,000 objects, the majority of which produced in England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, India and Japan. The collection includes weapons used forhunting, battling (offensive and defensive), exhibition and decoration. One of the highlights is the set of 27 fullplate armors (i.e., includingshields,helmets,gauntlets andchain mails) produced between the 14th and the 17th centuries, as well as armor for dogs and horses.[1][11]
The assemblage ofMedieval and melee weapons includesdaggers,stilettos, swords,maces,flails,halberds,crossbows, knives,pocket knives and other objects produced between the 15th and the 21st century. Among them, a large number of pieces richly decorated withsemi-precious stones,ivory,horns,nacre,oak,steel and other materials stand out. The collection also includes exhibition knives and pocketknives produced byJoseph Rodgers & Sons Ltd., a traditional British cutlery, established inSheffield in 1724.[11]
The collection of decorative arts includes objects from Europe, Asia and Africa, dating back to the 17th century, such ascandlesticks,candelabra,jugs,mosaics,stained glass windows, miniature caskets,Chinese ceramics,musical instruments, etc. Among the highlights, there is a pair of Frenchblackamoor torcheres, modeled byÉmile Guillemin and cast by Barbedienne in the 19th century, as well as a number of small-scale statuary by the traditional Parisian firmE. Granger. There is also an assemblage oflongcase clocks of Austrian and French origin, including aPlanchon clock with porcelain dial andequinox-inspired decoration. Among the most valuable works in this collection is also an ItalianBaroqueorgan produced byDomenico Mangino (ca. 1625).[12]
The collection offurniture is mostly composed of English and French examples, including storage and resting pieces, such aschests,sideboards,cupboards,bookcases, and chairs, made withoak,walnut and other types of wood. Outstanding among them are the pieces of Gothic trend, a 19th-centuryBonheur du jourwriting desk inBiedermeier style, and an 18th-century sacristychest of drawers, proceeding fromMinas Gerais.[13] The collection oftapestries includes French and Flemish examples, most of which from the 18th century, produced byAubusson tapestry,Gobelins Manufactory, etc.[14]
The Ricardo Brennand Institute houses one of the most comprehensive collections of historical and iconographic documentation related to the 17th century period ofDutch occupation of Brazilian Northeast. Outstanding among these objects is the world's largest ensemble of paintings byFrans Post, the first landscapist of theNew World. The institute holds 15 of Post's paintings, which is equivalent to 10% of the artist's known output. It is the only collection that covers every phase of Post'soeuvre.[3][15] Of particular importance is the canvasView of Fort Frederick Hendrik, painted by Post inRecife in 1640, which is the only of the seven remaining paintings produced by Post while he was still in Brazil that is currently housed in a Brazilian collection (the other six are distributed among theLouvre, theMauritshuis and the Cisneros collection).[3][16] Among the set of 17th-century Dutch paintings, there are also oil portraits ofJohn Maurice of Nassau by the workshops ofPieter Nason andJan de Baen.
The institute preserves a group of prints made between 1644 and 1645 by a group of engravers led byJan van Brosterhuisen, after detaileddrawings made by Frans Post to illustrateCaspar Barlaeus'sRerum per octennium in Brasilia et alibi nuper gestarum sub praefectura. Post's original drawings are currently housed in theBritish Museum. The prints depict the main sites and the topography of Brazilian lands under Dutch rule.[17] Also of cartographic importance is the ensemble of 17th-century Brazilianmaps made byHessel Gerritsz,Claes Visscher,Georg Marcgrave,Izaac Commelyn and others.[18]
.jpg)
_-_After_the_Bath_(1894).jpg)
Of great historical importance is the rare collection of Dutch emergencycoins (known asobsidionais), produced between 1645 and 1654 to overcome the lack of local currency caused by the Portuguese besieging.[19] The collection ofmanuscripts is composed by reports, directions, memoranda and other documents related to the historical events and figures of the time. It includes correspondences ofIsabella of Spain,Maurice of Nassau,Johan de Witt, etc. The centerpiece is a letter sent byJohn IV of Portugal, about the reinforcement of 200 men to assist in the expulsion of the Dutch, a key-document for the preparation of theBattle of Guararapes.[20]
The assemblage of artifacts includes objects produced in the Netherlands with Brazilian raw materials (such as the coconut cups), commemorative silverware, a rare example of the largest kind of terrestrial globes made byMateus Greuter (of which only 15 examples are known to exist), pipes of theWest India Company, etc.[21] Other objects show the influence that the iconographic and scientific material collected by Nassau in Brazil and distributed among European monarchs had in the production of artworks and in the imagination of his contemporaries, such as the famoustapestries ofAnciennes andNouvelles Indes, based onAlbert Eckhout's drawings and woven by theGobelins Manufactory, of which the institute owns four examples, as well as imaginary Brazilian landscapes executed by artists who never went to Brazil, such asJillis van Schendel.[22]
Thevisual arts collection comprisespaintings,sculptures,prints anddrawings dating back to the 15th century, executed by Brazilian and foreign authors, aside from those mentioned in the preceding topics. TheBrazilian art is mostly represented bylandscapes, as well as for a significant set ofbrasiliana (artistic–historic registers about Brazil produced by foreign artists), with predominance of iconography related to Pernambuco andRio de Janeiro.[23] It includes artworks byEmil Bauch,Louis Schlappriz,Franz Heinnrich Carls,Franz Hagedorn,Claude François Fortier,Johann Moritz Rugendas,Jean-Baptiste Debret,Nicolas-Antoine Taunay,Henri Nicolas Vinet,Nicola Antonio Facchinetti,Giovanni Battista Castagneto,Eliseu Visconti,Jerônimo José Telles Júnior,Benedito Calixto,Carlos Julião, etc.[24]
The collection of European painting is characterized by a strong emphasis ingenre works, specially palatial and armory-related scenes, ranging from 17th to 19th century, by artists asEnrique López Martínez,Tito Lessi andBlaise Alexandre Desgoffe. Outstanding among these[according to whom?] is a pair of Baroque still-life paintings of armors byFrancesco Noletti. Another trend in the collection of European paintings refers to the 19th centuryOrientalist artworks and nudes, by artists asEdouard Richter,Emmanuel de Dieudonne andDelphin Enjolras. The centerpiece isAfter the bath byWilliam-Adolphe Bouguereau (1894).[23]
A 15th-centuryVenetianwood carving representing a black slave is the main highlight in the collection of sculptures, which also includes works byGiovanni Maria Benzoni,Henri Louis Levasseur,Abelardo da Hora and others, as well as a number of replicas of classic pieces proceeding fromRomano Romanelli's workshop.[25]
The Ricardo Brennand Institute's Library focuses on history of Dutch Brazil and was projected to shelter more than 100,000 volumes. It currently houses over 62,000 items, such asbooks,pamphlets,magazines,newspapers,sheet music,phonograph records,photographs, iconographic albums and rare works.[9] The library collection was formed through acquisitions of private ensembles belonging to Brazilian academics and researchers, such asJosé Antônio Gonçalves de Mello Neto,Edson Nery da Fonseca andJaime Cavalcanti Diniz. The collection of rare books comprises items ranging from 16th to 20th century, with special emphasis in works about Brazil written by European travelers. Among the highlights, a 1586 edition ofJean de Léry'sHistory of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil, a 1593 edition ofTheodor de Bry'sDritte Buch Americae, a rare 1648 hand-coloured edition ofWillem Piso andGeorg Marcgrave'sHistoriae Naturalis Brasilae, a 1647 coloured edition ofCaspar Barlaeus'sRerum per Octennium in Brasilia, etc.[4]
.jpg)
.jpg)
8°4′7.49″S34°52′43.84″W / 8.0687472°S 34.8788444°W /-8.0687472; -34.8788444
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
