ThefoundingoftheNationalSchoolofFineArts

The history of art institutions in Rio de Janeiro closely followed the country's political transformations. With the advent of the Republic in 1889, the establishment that began as Royal and became famous as Imperial lost the titles tied to the court and became National. Still located in Rio de Janeiro, capital of the new republican government, the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes would be the new civic face of a regime that was just beginning, one that needed to produce its symbols, its allegories, and its places of memory.

Image description: This is an old photograph of a building with classical architecture. On the left side, we see a column with a statue. In the center, there is a balcony with three large windows and two statues at the ends. On the right, there is another column with a statue. At the center of the image, there is a main entrance with a statue of a man in front of it. Above the entrance, it reads "ESCOLA NACIONAL DE BELAS-ARTES." The building has several windows and ornamental details. At the bottom, there is a small fountain with a central statue. The image is in black and white.

After a long period occupying facilities near Largo do Rocio (such as the building constructed from Grandjean de Montigny's design), the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes secured a privileged space on the new avenue laid out by Pereira Passos's urban reform – Avenida Central –, with its new building inaugurated in 1908. Designed by Spanish architect Adolfo Morales de Los Rios with interventions by sculptor and director Rodolfo Bernardelli, the eclectic-style construction was one of the main buildings representing the new moment of the republican federal capital. Starting in 1937, the building became the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, and the school came to occupy a small space within the institution.

Image description: This image is a colored postcard depicting the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (National School of Fine Arts) in Rio de Janeiro. From left to right, we see a series of decorative columns forming a portico. At the center, there is a building with a sloped roof and domes. To the right, the building continues with more sloped roofs and ornamental architectural details. A light blue sky with some clouds is in the background.

Not remaining indifferent to the modernizing impulses that were emerging in the country, the teaching at the Escola Nacional underwent a series of modifications and reforms to its curriculum. Contradictorily, the person responsible for guiding this new profile was the sculptor and draughtsman Rodolfo Bernardelli, one of the artists most closely linked to the court of D. Pedro II. Even after resigning from the position of professor of statuary at the Academia following the rise of the republic, Bernardelli was invited in 1890 by Benjamin Constant to take over as director – a position he held for twenty-five years. His presence as both artist and administrator produced a series of clashes with other strong names of his generation, such as Antônio Parreiras and Vitor Meirelles, but the mark of his era was definitive in shaping the city's artistic field.

Image description: This is a black-and-white photograph of an elderly man. He is wearing a simple shirt and appears to be holding something small in his hands. The background is dark, possibly a wooden wall.

Although Bernardelli's administration produced administrative and curricular reforms, from an aesthetic standpoint it did not achieve any major break with the classicist profile that had run through the Academia Imperial during its initial decades. Despite this, between 1888 and 1890, a controversy arose between the so-called "moderns" (with Bernardelli and Rodolfo Amoedo among their leaders) and the "positivists," both advocating for changes in the structure of the Academia Imperial, though with distinct perspectives. The first group even founded the Ateliê Livre, an establishment dissenting from the official perspective of the period. Located on Rua Sachet, near Largo de São Francisco, the group drew inspiration from the private model of the French Academie Julian. Even for a brief period, they managed to attract a significant number of students and held notable exhibitions. The impact of this work made possible Rodolfo Bernardelli's directorship and Rodolfo Amoedo's vice-directorship in the founding of the new Escola Nacional de Belas Artes.