Aesthetic displacements in the Holly Land – Eça de Queirós and Paula Rego

Abstract

The work of Paula Rego develops an intense and constant dialogue with the arts, and in particular with literature. Among a large number of authors, it relates to the Portuguese classics of the 1800’s, Alexandre Herculano, Ca­milo Castelo Branco, and particularly Eça de Queirós. After revisiting The crime of Father Amaro, Paula Rego revisited the novel The relic and pro­duced eight subversive paintings that, while relating to the original narrative, propose alternative versions of the plot, in which the painter exercises her violent and iconoclastic view over contemporary society. This article analyses the three of the aforementioned paintings that refer to excerpts of The relic that take place in the Orient. Paula Rego interprets the oriental­ism of Queirós by resorting to parody, reinforcing a number of its features while subverting some others, in movements of aesthetic and ideological displacement. Such play of intermediality with Eça de Queirós sets the ground for the confirmation of Paula Rego’s body of work.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21881/abriluff.2016n16a353