Name: BARBARA FARIA TOFOLI
Publication date: 01/04/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANA LÚCIA MACHADO DE OLIVEIRA | Examinador Externo |
| CLEBER VINICIUS DO AMARAL FELIPE | Examinador Externo |
| JEAN PIERRE CHAUVIN | Examinador Externo |
| LENI RIBEIRO LEITE | Presidente |
| MARCUS DE MARTINI | Examinador Interno |
Summary: In this thesis, we identify elements of continuity and transformation of the topos of similarity
between painting and poetry—synthesized in the Horatian expression “ut pictura poesis”—
within colonial literate practices, through the rhetorical-visual analysis of two eighteenthcentury Luso-Brazilian epics: O Uraguai (1769), by Basílio da Gama, and Caramuru (1781),
by Santa Rita Durão. The selected works, which constitute the corpus of this research, were
examined through an analysis of rhetorical figures of visuality—namely ekphrasis, enargeia,
and phantasia—embedded in the texts, in comparison with visual, pictorial, and sculptural
works related to the verses highlighted for analysis. Ancient, medieval, and early modern
manuals, treatises, and writings, as well as contemporary theoretical frameworks, support the
argumentation, particularly regarding the different relationships between pictorial and poetic
arts across historical periods, following the conceptual network of Classical Rhetoric and
discourse studies. Based on these premises, the thesis is divided into three chapters. The first
presents a theoretical discussion addressing rhetoric and visuality from Antiquity to the
eighteenth century, beginning with the formulation of the topos in ancient poetic treatises—
especially in Aristotle (5th century BCE) and Horace (1st century BCE)—through its
reconfiguration among humanist theorists of painting, represented by authors such as Alberti
(1450) and Leonardo da Vinci (1651), to its proposed dissolution by Enlightenment thinkers,
among whom Lessing (1766) and Diderot (1795) are particularly noteworthy. Our hypothesis
is that, although the doctrine of similarity between the arts was dismantled among
Enlightenment thinkers in the eighteenth century, within the Luso-Brazilian context the
maintenance of classical rhetorical-poetic precepts persisted, given the long duration of the
Ancien Régime in Portugal and its colonies. Therefore, O Uraguai and Caramuru were
produced through the replication of cultural orientations of the Early Modern period rather than
Enlightenment principles. To substantiate this perspective, the final two chapters present an
analysis of O Uraguai and Caramuru, identifying the ekphrastic passages in their verses and
demonstrating how the persistence of the Horatian doctrine functions as an argumentative
instrument in support of the Lusitanian political-theological purposes underlying the context of
each work’s composition and publication
