The Master of Batatais

It was 114 years since the Brazilian town of Batatais, 300 miles northwest of Rio, had been formally elevated to the official and honorable category of village, and Bishop Luiz Mousinho marked the anniversary last week by blessing 14 brilliant religious murals in the town's new Roman Catholic church. Surprisingly, the paintings were the work of an avowed freethinker and Communist. But the 9,850 townspeople would have no other artist than Candido Portinari, 49, who rose from a lowly birthplace near Batatais to become Brazil's best painter and the area's most admired native son.

When the townsmen first approached Portinari a year ago, the peppery little (5 ft. 5 in.) artist replied: "I am no longer a Catholic; I do not believe--but I understand. Many of the people I love best are Catholics, and for them religion is important. I will try to make a good thing that will serve them." Bishop Mousinho had grave doubts at first: not only was Portinari a Communist; in 1946 he had painted some murals for a church at Pampulha full of such strange, angular distortions that the church refused to consecrate the building.

Finally, however, the villagers persuaded the bishop to visit Portinari. Portinari almost ruined everything by casually remarking: "In your profession you are only a bishop; in mine, I am the Pope." With an exercise of other-worldly patience, the bishop remained to look at Portinari's sketches for the murals, and found that they were well-proportioned groupings in a pleasingly realistic style. "I will judge the paintings solely on their merits," said the bishop at last. "The bishop is a sensible, intelligent man," said Portinari.

The murals in oil--on familiar scenes from the life of Christ--took most of the next year to paint. After the bishop's blessing last week, all Batatais flocked to the church to admire the results. Portinari glowed with pleasure at his home-town triumph, and the bishop announced with pardonable satisfaction that "the master of Batatais has gloriously superseded the artist of Pampulha."

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