Estudo para "A Tempestade", painel da Igreja da Candelária

He entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in 1857, in which he was awarded a prize to travel and study abroad. With the opportunity, Zeferino arrived in Rome and enrolled in the Academia de São Lucas. After 11 years studying and producing his works in Europe, he came back to the country with a great influence on local production, being one of the supporters of the modernization of artistic education and outdoor painting (long before George Grimm). The panels of the Virgin and the scenes of the central nave of the Igreja da Candelária were made by him, work that he was nominated to do by D. Pedro II.