Manuel da Costa Ataíde, widely known as Mestre Ataíde, was a Brazilian painter, sculptor, as well as teacher. He was a significant artist of the baroque-rococo school.
Background
Ethnicity:
Both of Mestre Ataíde's parents were of Portugese origin.
Ataíde was born in Mariana, Minas Gerais, Brazil, on October 18, 1762, to a middle-class family. He was the son of the captain Luís da Costa Ataíde, and Maria Barbosa de Abreu. Ataíde had four brothers: Domingos, a lieutenant and also a painter, Sebastião, Antonio, who became a priest, and Izabel Gualdina.
Education
Mestre Athaíde is assumed to have been a student of João Batista de Figueiredo, and he may have also learned from other masters already established in the region of Minas, including João Nepomuceno Correia e Castro and Antônio Martins da Silveira. He learned many specialties, which he mastered in subsequent years. For, instance, he learned the art of panel painting, gilding, carving, drafting and illustrating. He must also have received training in architectural design and cartography.
Career
Escher in his works was inspired by prints of Bibles and religious books from Europe. It became a turning point for his transition to the style of Rococo. The artist made his first important work in 1781 when commissioned to produced Bom Jesus dos Matozinhos (Congonhas do Campo); the work was completed in 1818. Then he created artworks for the Church of San Antonio (1806), the College of Caraça in Santa Barbara (1828), the Church Matriz de San Antonio in Itaverava (1811).
But his most prominent works were the frescoes painted between 1801 and 1812 produced for the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Ouro Preto. These paintings, which represented scenes from the life of Abraham, demonstrated the main features of baroque painting, with its effect of illusion and movement and play of light and shadow. In 1806 he also designed the interior of the presbytery of the Church of St. Anthony in Santa Barbara.
In April 1818 Escher obtained from the City Hall of Mariana an attestation of professor of the Arts of Architecture and Painting. In May he addressed to D. João a petition to create an art school. However, he did not obtain an answer. He owned technical manuals and theoretical tracts such as Andrea Pozzo's Perspectivae Pictorum Architectorum from which he studied technique. His art was characterised by the use of bright colours, especially blue.
Among his other notable art pieces were the ceiling of the presbytery of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, in Mariana (1823), The Last Supper for the College and Sanctuary of Caraça (1828).
A Virgem entrega o Menino Jesus a Santo Antônio de Pádua (detail)
Deus promete a Abraão multiplicar sua descendência
Agonia e Morte de São Francisco
Abraão Adora os Três Anjos
Anjos músicos (detail)
Assunção da Virgem (detail)
A Coroação da Virgem pela Santíssima Trindade (detail)
Anjos (detail)
Crucifixion of Christ
Connections
In 1808 Ataíde got married to Maria do Carmo Raimunda da Silva. Together they parented six children: three daughters, Francisco Rosa de Jesus, Ana Umbelina do Espirito Santo, Maria do Carmo Neri da Natividade, and three sons, Sebastião, Justino, Francisco de Assis Pacífico da Conceição.