Ouro Preto: Barroquism and urban, architectural and aesthetic representation of the language of affections

Abstract

The present article seeks to revisit the city of Ouro Preto, its construction, its imagination and its daily life, in order to understand the sociability bottom-up originated, synthesizing the past experience of Portuguese, indigenous, Africans, mestizos and people of all the empire and outside it, for the edification of an original city and society. In shedding light on Ouro Preto, this text aims to contribute to the recovery of the complexity and democratic potentialities of a three centuries baroque tradition, without hiding what in it was perverse and limiting as well. Thus, it also intends to demonstrate that the kind of modernization we have followed in Brazil was not the only possible alternative, but a choice with dire consequences. Hence, through the analysis of the urban, architectural and visual structure of Ouro Preto, it seeks to answer the question of how it was possible for a turbulent crowd, apparently surrendered to a disregarded language of interests, to embark on the construction of a city as a work of art. In addition, it was concluded that Ouro Preto is, and was, in fact, the urban, architectural and aesthetic equivalent of a characteristic version of the language of the affections: that of the Brazilian baroque and its special translation in Minas Gerais.