Brazil unironically peaked when it LARPed like Ancient Greece.Back in the 19th century, during the days of the Brazilian Empire, foreign architects (from France, Italy, and other European countries) to build Neoclassical-style buildings, not unlike the ones you see in Paris, Milan, London, St. Petersburg, and Washington, D.C.The first great Neoclassical architect in Brazil was French émigré Grandjean de Montigny, who came up with the original designs for the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts (where he instructed the next generation of Brazilian architects for over two decades), the Imperial Library, and the Senate Palace.
In the decades after Brazil's independence from Portugal, many of de Montigny's former disciples became distinguished Neoclassical architects in their own right.One of them was José Maria Jacinto Rebelo, who designed the Itamaraty Palace (the seat of the first Republican Government of Brazil), the entrance gate to the Caju Cemetery, and the Imperial Palace of Petrópolis (built in the city of Petrópolis, named after and built as the summer residence of Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil).Another one was Joaquim Cândido Guilhobel, who designed the fountain at the Largo da Carioca, a space wich is considered by many to be the heart of the city of Rio de Janeiro, as well as other works, such as the National Hospice for Alienated People (an early psychiatric hospital also located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, nowadays the University Palace of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).
Neoclassical literature had already been in vogue prior to Brazil's independence, not surprisingly, since Portuguese literature was very heavily influenced by Greek and Roman models and Portuguese education heavily followed the footsteps of an education in the liberal arts during the Early Modern era and up until the days of the Industrial Revolution. One of the most prominent literary movements in colonial-era Brazil was "Arcadismo" (named after Arcadia, a region in Greece proverbially noted for its shepherds who lived calm, worry-free lives). This movement was founded by poet and Tomás António Gonzaga, who was born in Porto (Portugal) and died in Mozambique, but penned his long-form romantic poem "Marília de Dirceu" while being held in prison due to his involvement with the Minas Conspiracy, an early separatist movement in Brazil. Another noteworthy work from the Arcadismo movement was "O Uraguai", written by Basílio da Gama, which tells a romanticized version of the disputes between Jesuit missionaries, indigenous Brazilians, and Spanish and Portuguese settlers in what is nowadays the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, following a similar mold to that of Virgil's Æneid and Camões' Os Lusíadas.
Post-independence Brazil's literary movements were similar to those of other Western countries. The Romanticist movement begun in Europe by writers like Goethe and Walter Scott went down to Brazil to inspire many novels about the beauty of the country and its people. One of the great Romantic novels of 19th century Imperial Brazil was Iracema, which told the story of the eponymous daughter of an indigenous Brazilian tribal chief and her forbidden love encounter with a "white" (non-indigenous) man named Martim. Romantic poetry production also thrived in Brazil during the 19th century. Álvares de Azevedo's "Lira dos Vinte Anos" (Twenty Years' Lyre) stands out because of the stylistic influence of Romantic poets like Lord Byron, but also the explicit allusions to Shakespeare's The Tempest due to its treatment of the characters Ariel and Caliban, where they are used to explore different human emotions (love and sadness in the case of the former and morbosity and irony in the case of the latter).
What I believe is most interesting about this Neoclassical legacy in Brazil is the use of names of Greek origin.It is very common to find older men in Brazil who are named after famous men from Ancient Greece, such as Homer (Homero), Euclid (Euclides), Archimedes (Archimdes/Arquímedes), Demosthenes (Demóstenes), Lycurgus (Licurgo) and even lesser known men like Nicanor (Nicanor) and Hermogenes (Hermógenes).Unlike in America, where this trend died out by the beginning of the 20th century, in Brazil it still went on deep into the mid-20th century, as seen in the case of Brazilian actor Licurgo Spindola, born in 1966.
>>24901312>poet and*poet and ombudsman of the city of Ouro Preto
