San Francisco

The mid-1940s mark the beginning of Victor Brecheret’s second Brazilian phase, characterized by his interest in stones and religious motifs, particularly the figures of saints. The postwar years brought economic and political stability in Brazil and, with it, the commission of Brecheret’s most important sculptural complex: The Monument to the Pioneers in the city of São Paulo. This project led him into an exploration of Brazilian sculpture, encompassing religious, folk, and indigenous art, and he developed an approach to stone that respected its organic form and texture. In this bronze sculpture of Saint Francis, the patron saint of animals, the body’s elongated shape grants the figure a density and stability that contrast with the subtle incisions of anatomical details and the naturalistic modeling of the lamb. This visual synthesis of solidity and fragility, hardness and softness, celebrates the union of man and nature and emphasizes the drama of the figures’ blissful embrace.

Text credit: Produced in collaboration with the University of Maryland Department of Art History & Archaeology and Patricia Ortega-Miranda