Missionary Imagery: History, Aesthetics and Heritage

This paper analyzes the missionary imagery remaining in the municipality of Santa Bárbara do Sul, RS, Brazil, in the areas of history, aesthetics and heritage. These sculptural representations and their trajectories allude to historical processes that make up the dynamics of the dispersion of the remnants of material culture from the Eastern Missions of Uruguay - known as the Seven Peoples. Aesthetically, these images are representative of the indigenous intervention in the imaginary, introduced by the Jesuits, and of the cultural amalgam that was the missionary experience. By analyzing the aesthetic elements and attributes that accompany the images, their missionary origin was verified. Finally, there has been a significant change in the meanings attributed to the images. Nowadays, they are undergoing a process of patrimonialization to the detriment of their religious value.