Dismemberment of the orders and their reassembly across Portuguese overseas settlements

Abstract

Portuguese colonial builders adapted a loose classical language that persisted for over two centuries. This chapter explores how sixteenth century Indian craftsmen embraced and transformed European ideas and expectations making them their own, going way beyond military engineers and learned priests, who were inhibited from straying from rules. In Brazil, closer to Portugal, complete buildings were imported as ballast, while style lagged hopelessly behind. However, in mining districts, away from stifling conformity, highly skilled artisans, many of them African slaves and their descendants developed confident and original late baroque architecture. It is proposed that provincialism can provide a fertile soil.