Manuel Dias de Oliveira (1763/4,

Cachoeiras de Macacu Cachoeiras de Macacu (; means "Macacu Waterfalls" in Portuguese) is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro. Its population was 59,303 (2020) and its area is 956 km². Next to neighboring Rio Bonito municipality, it c ...

- 25 April 1837,

Campos dos Goytacazes Campos dos Goytacazes () is a municipality located in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, with a population of 471,737 inhabitants. Location Campos dos Goytacazes has an area of 4,032 km2 (1,557 sq mi), which makes it the ...

) was a Brazilian painter, decorator and art professor.

Biography

When he was a young man, he moved to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, where he studied

toreutics The term ''toreutics'', relatively rarely used in English, refers to artistic metalworking – hammering gold or silver (or other materials), engraving, or using repoussé and chasing to form minute detailed reliefs or small engraved patterns. To ...

, which suggests that he may have worked as a goldsmith.Brief biography
@ the Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural. A Portuguese merchant provided funds for further studies in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, but the merchant died, leaving Dias stranded there.Brief biography
by Roberto Pontual @ Arte Data. He made his way to

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, where he found refuge at the

Casa Pia :''This article refers to the institution. For the child abuse scandal, see Casa Pia child sexual abuse scandal.'' The Casa Pia is a Portuguese institution founded by Maria I, known as ''A Pia'' ("Mary the Pious"), and organized by Police Intendan ...

; an educational institution for young vagabonds, founded by

Pina Manique Dr. Diogo Inácio de Pina Manique (3 October 1733 – 1 July 1805) was a Portuguese magistrate. Early life He was the son and heir of Pedro Damião de Pina Manique (Baptised Lisbon, Sé, 12 October 1704 - Lisbon, Santa Engrácia, 13 December 175 ...

in 1780. The residents were taught skills such as mathematics and drawing, while doing manual labor to pay their way. He proved to be an outstanding student and was sent to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

to further improve his talents. Thanks to Manique's personal support, he was able to enter the

Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca (the "Academy of Saint Luke") is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its fir ...

, where he was one of

Pompeo Batoni Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous allegorical and mythological pictures. The high number of foreign visitors tra ...

's last students. He remained in Italy until 1800, when he returned to Portugal. Once there, he was immediately approached with a proposal to establish a new art school in Brazil. He accepted and the "Aula Régia de Desenho e Figura" was opened in

later that year. It was the first formal art school in the colony. He followed the European style of teaching, which included the use of nude models; a controversial innovation at that time. His best known student is

Francisco Pedro do Amaral Francisco Pedro do Amaral (c. 1790, Rio de Janeiro - 10 November 1831, Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian painter, designer, scenographer and Gilding, gilder. Biography It is believed that he took his first lessons with José Leandro de Carvalho ...

a fellow Brazilian painter. He also worked as a decorator for special events; notably the visit of the Portuguese Royal Family in 1808. After the arrival of the French Artistic Mission in 1816, his prestige declined. In 1822, Emperor Pedro I withdrew his support, in favor of the new

Academia Imperial de Belas Artes The Imperial Academy of Fine Arts ('' pt, Academia Imperial de Belas Artes'') was an institution of higher learning in the arts in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, established by King João VI. Despite facing many initial difficulties, the Academy was es ...

. Dias was not offered a position there so, after almost a decade of being a free-lance artist, he moved to Campos de Goytacazes and operated a regular elementary school until his death. The majority of his works were of an ephemeral nature and have not survived.

References

External links

1760s births 1837 deaths Portrait painters People from Rio de Janeiro (state) 19th-century Brazilian painters 19th-century Brazilian male artists {{Brazil-painter-stub