Manoel da Costa Ataíde

An important artist of the baroque-rococo school in Minas Gerais, Ataíde had a major influence on painting in the region, with many students and followers.

He owned technical manuals and theoretical tracts such as Andrea Pozzo's "Perspectivae Pictorum Architectorum" from which he must have studied technique.

In the period 1781 to 1818 he completed and gilded Aleijadinho's images for the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas and the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Ouro Preto.

[1] Many critics have celebrated Ataíde's originality in reflecting in his paintings the physical characteristics and facial features of Brazil's mestiço population, most famously in his depiction of the Virgin in the Igreja de Sao Francisco (see image).

Ataíde remained unmarried through his life but in 1808 the age of 46 began a relationship with the then 20 year old Maria do Carmo Raimundo da Silva.