Tune In to Candido Portinari's Mestiço

This painting composition follows a typical pattern of Italian Renaissance portraits: nobleman figures in the foreground stand out against bright landscapes set in perspective.  

However, this time the subject isn’t an aristocrat, but a farm laborer! His muscles and big hands with slightly dirty nails hint at his job: a Brazilian plantation worker where the painter Candido Portinari spent his childhood.  

So who’s this Mestiço? This isn’t a particular person’s portrait; it’s rather the face of the Brazilian people, the symbol of a Brazil where several ethnicities coexist harmoniously and each person, even the humblest worker, is an integral part. Or better still, its emblem.