Estudo para "Jesus em Cafarnaum" [Study for "Jesus in Capernaum"]

This is a small study for the final screen of the same title dated 1888, which gave Amoêdo the extension of its artistic boarding house in Paris. The final work, which is now part of the collection of the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes in Rio de Janeiro, earned the artist the following opinion from the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts: "back from these lands so well fated for art, a completely made artist and with the proofs that attest your study, your application and your knowledge."

Capernaum, on the north shore of the Sea of ​​Galilee, is the city where Jesus settled down after leaving Nazareth and where he performed many of his miracles. The Amoêdo canvas seems to refer to Christ's stay in the city, without being attached to a specific narrative or referring to some of the Gospels. The screen shows the figure of Christ descending the steps to the left, dressed in white robes and with a head surrounded by a halo. Two figures stand out in the study by Amoêdo. The first, who seems to kiss the hand of Jesus, could be the leper whom he healed and mentioned in the Gospel according to Matthew (Mt 8, 1-4). The second, represented later by an inert body reclining on a straw mat, could be the paralytic also cured by Jesus at Capernaum and reported by Matthew (Mt 9: 2-8).

A great connoisseur of the craft of art, Amoêdo demonstrates his technical fluency in this small study with its economy of effects, and the quality of the billing of his paintings, always solid, lyrical and, above all, correct. Gonzaga Duque wrote about the final painting: "The subject, as it is understood, was dislocated from time and in contradiction with the nature of the artist. If he had not painted a picture of faith, as he was not given, he sought to compose it according to his vague sympathies for comtemtism, considering the Christ a myth cultivated by the creed. "