Critical commentary
Antônio Francisco Lisboa was born into slavery as the illegitimate son of Portuguese carpenter and architect, Manoel Francisco Lisboa and the slave girl, Isabel. Receiving an early artistic training from local craftsmen, he learned architectural drawing and techniques of carpentry and joinery from his father. He may also have learned the craft of woodcarving and sculpting from renowned artisans such as Francisco Xavier de Brito (n.d. - 1751) and José Coelho de Noronha (n.d. - n.d.). It was nevertheless the Portuguese artist, João Gomes Batista (n.d. - 1788), a draughtsman and engraver, who, having worked at the local branch of the state foundry since 1751, was responsible for introducing theoretical and erudite elements into Antônio Francisco's practical training.

His first work, executed while he was still a journeyman in his father's workshop, was the sketch for the fountain of the Governor's Palace in Vila Rica, today Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, executed in 1752. It was not until 1761 that his name again appeared as the author of the female bust for the fountain of Alto da Cruz in Vila Rica (built by his father), the first soapstone sculpture in the region.

The first work associated with Antônio Francisco as a master artist is the sketch for the capela da Ordem Terceira de São Francisco de Assis da Penitência [chapel of the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi the Penitent], in Ouro Preto, dating from 1766. While there are no precise records of the subject, scholars have concluded that Aleijadinho was responsible for the architectural design. Even today, the chapel represents one of the most complete sets of work by the Minas-born artist, since he is responsible for the execution of the pulpits (1771-1772), the sketch and part of the execution of the vault of the chancel (1773-1774), for the sculptures of the façade and the font of the sacristy (1777-1779), both in soapstone, as well as the carvings of the high altar (1790-1794). He also drew the sketch of the side-altars, which were not executed until much later, in 1829.

The church with reduced proportions reveals in its whole the influence of the European Rococo, albeit in a lighter and simpler form. As in other architectural works by the artist, both external and internal spaces are characterized by the conjugation of elements of containment with forms of movement that give a dynamism and unity to the composition. The vocabulary of Rococo style appears both in the exterior and the interior decoration through the figures of cherubs, elements of vegetation, asymmetric shapes of shells, bows and interwoven garlands sculpted in wood and soapstone. As Germain Bazin observed, Aleijadinho created a genuinely 'musical' space in the capela de São Francisco [Chapel of St. Francis], achieving unity through a sequence of irregularities that converges to a harmonic centre.¹ His heads of angels with strong and robust features characterise the accents and axes of the compositions.

The first accounts of his illness date from 1777, when the artist was carried by two slaves to inspect the execution of the main chapel of the sanctuary of Nossa Senhora das Mercês e Perdões [Our Lady of Mercies and Pardons] in Ouro Preto, which he had designed in 1775. Some refer to his mysterious illness as 'nervous leprosy', others as rheumatism. The fact remains that he left Ouro Preto in 1788, in search of a drier climate, and perhaps in flight from the troubles assailing the city due to the shortage of gold (the output of which had been falling since 1760) and for the ever greater degree of intervention by the Portuguese crown that would result in the political crisis of 1789, triggered by the violent suppression of the Inconfidência Mineira revolt. He began to be called by the nickname 'Aleijadinho' [Little Cripple] in 1790.

Many sculptures recognised as works of the Minas-born artist are not recorded in contemporary documents that might confirm authorship. Among other reasons, this was because he was a mulatto and hence often obliged to accept contracts as a journeyman rather than a master. For this reason, some distinctive characteristics of his works, such as the oval face close to Gothic models,² the almond-shaped design of the eyes, the moustaches that arise directly from the nostrils, the well-delineated curly hair, the chin divided in two, the geometrised draperies, the robust body structure with salient muscles and veins and lastly, the emotionally powerful albeit contained and spiritualised expressions, are used by scholars as parameters for identifying his artistic legacy.

Antônio Francisco was able to realise some of his master works at a peak of economic and social instability. In 1796, he began his works at the Santuário de Bom Jesus de Matosinho [sanctuary of Bom Jesus dos Matosinhos], in Congonhas do Campo, Minas Gerais, conceiving the 66 figures of the Stations of the Cross. The life-size wooden sculptures were executed by a number of craftsmen under his supervision until 1799. We may note that Aleijadinho only sculpted the principal figures himself (e.g. of Christ and the Apostles). In these, the Gothic stylisation shows itself with full force in the oval forms of the faces, in the hair falling into curves, in the draperies both broken and straight with a tragic effect like 16^th Century German sculptures in wood. At the same time, despite the dramatic nature of the subject, there is something sublime about the suffering of Christ in this Via Crucis from Minas Gerais, which maintains a serenity that is hardly ever interrupted by the despair of the situation.

In 1800, the artist was commissioned to make the 12 prophets in soapstone for the churchyard of the sanctuary. In these works, he returns to a rapture inspired by the Baroque. The sculptures are arranged symmetrically, despite the asymmetric construction of their bodies, with their gestures forming a kind of ballet, whose choreography is organised in accordance with a balance of opposites and a play of compensating factors. On account of the eloquence of the group, the Prophets should be seen as an important example of Baroque scenography, and this at the beginning of the 19^th Century.

After completing the enormous project in 1805, Antônio Francisco became less and less active. We have some reports of works completed during the last years of his life, such as the altars of São João and Nossa Senhora da Piedade (1807) and Santa Quitéria and Santa Luzia (1808-1809) for the Capela de Nossa Senhora do Carmo [chapel of Nossa Senhora do Carmo], in Ouro Preto, as well as the drawing of the façade of the main church of Tiradentes, Minas Gerais (1810).

Antônio Francisco achieved a relatively high degree of professional success in his time and generated a large number of followers. In 1790, his name was cited in the Register of Notable Events of Mariana as 'superior to everything and singular'.³ His first biography, consulted even today, was written by Rodrigo José Ferreira Bretas in 1858. During the 19^th Century, for reasons ranging from the economic and cultural decadence of Minas Gerais to the development of neoclassicism in Brazil, Aleijadinho in particular, and the Baroque in general, declined in artistic prestige. It was in the Modernist context of a search for a national artistic tradition that Aleijadinho and the Minas Gerais Baroque began to be reappraised as the first expression of an art with Brazilian characteristics. On Aleijadinho's architecture, Mário de Andrade (1893 - 1945) commented in 1928: "This kind of church, immortalised in the two examples of São Francisco de Ouro Preto and São João del Rei, does not merely correspond to the taste of the time, reflecting the Portuguese roots of the colony, but already distinguishes itself from the Baroque Portuguese-Colonial solutions by one or other kind of affectation, by a more sensual and charming grace, by a most gentle delicacy, all of which are eminently Brazilian. (...) It is the Brazilian solution of the Colony. It is the half-caste and logically represents independence".⁴