História, estética e ressignificação patrimonial da imaginária missioneira remanescente em Santa Bárbara do Sul/RS

Abstract

This present work analyzes the missionary imaginary remaining in Santa Bárbara do Sul - in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in the areas of history, aesthetics and heritage. These sculptural representations and their trajectories are allusive to historical processes which compose the dynamics of the dispersion of the remnants of the material culture coming from the Eastern Missions of Uruguay - known as Sete Povos - from the settlement of the region that covers Santa Bárbara do Sul and the appropriation of these ones by the new Portuguese-Brazilian settlers, in a process of long historical duration. The New Cultural History, the History of Mentalities heiress, has as one of its characteristics the analysis of cultural phenomena in the perspective of long duration. Considering that this research aims to analyze the appropriation and the redefinition of the missionary imaginary, the long duration was used to investigate how the images of Santa Barbara and São João Batista are witnesses to the process of settlement. The region of Santa Bárbara do Sul was a post of the great ranch of the People of São Lourenço during the Jesuit-Guarani period. In these places, it was common to have small villages with chapels dedicated to the saints that protected the places. The objective is to explore the hypothesis that the images of Santa Bárbara and São João Batista, remaining in Santa Bárbara do Sul, are representative of the material culture of the former missionary ranch and that may have been made in that place by indigenous craftsmen, out of the missionary workshops. Aesthetically, these images are representative of the indigenous intervention in the imaginary, introduced by the Jesuits, and of the cultural fusion that was the missionary experience, which resulted in original works of indigenous style, characteristic of a new artistic style: the missionary. Through the analysis of the aesthetic elements and attributes that accompany the images, its missionary origin was verified. Finally, there was a significant change in the meanings attributed to the images. Nowadays, they undergo a process of patrimonialization to the detriment of their religious value.