The painting of Father Bourel: paths of a painting

ABSTRACT This is a study on painting Fr. Filipe Bourel’s Death (A Morte do Padre Filipe Bourel), an anonymous oil painting that alludes to an organized Jesuit mission among the Paiacu nation natives at the end of the 17th century, belonging to the “18th Century Portuguese School”. Possibly the painting was part of a great liturgical and devotional commission to ornament the churches erected during the Jesuit missionary expansion by the Northern Captaincies. It refers to the Baroque tradition and follows the model of representation of Saint Francis Xavier’s death on the beaches of Goa. By applying the biographical method in the image analysis, the text shows the transit of this painting from its probable origin in a confessional workshop, its ornamental and devotional role in a peripheral church of the Portuguese empire, and from there to the circuits of collectors and art auctions until their forms reception in contemporary culture.