Visual History of Translation

19th century iconography in Brazil

Abstract

The notion of written documents as the only valuable source is questioned and new methods to apprehend History take form. In this context iconography was born, as a branch of historiography as well as an analytical method of historic writing. The image is considered to be one of many cultural artifacts, and it may be used as a historical source because it has the power of representing, reproducing or making analogy to the collective imaginary or to the history of mentalities of a given time or society. In 19th century Brazil, many expeditions brought to the country a bunch of artists and scientists in order to catalog the land's richness. Painters, designers, lithographers, portraitists and landscapists had the mission of archiving the Brazilian memory of this century when photography was not yet available. Painters from both the beginning of the 19th century, like Johann Mortiz Rugendas (1802-1858), and the end, like Benedito Calixto (1853-1927), had produced some paintings in which we recognize acts of translation, translated works and translators. This paper aims to stablish the visual artifacts of 19th century having translation as their theme, as well as to unveil the discourse on translation that such images conduct.