Bom Jesus de Matosinhos - Twelve Prophets
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Twelve prophets
The twelve highly expressive figures of prophets, created between 1800 and 1805, which stand at different levels on the terrace leading up to the church form a powerful and dynamic ensemble with their varying attitudes and gestures. They have been seen by some experts as expressing a mute protest, while others see in these figures with their Latin scrolls an allusion to the rebels of the Inconfidància. At the foot of the terrace are Isaiah and Jeremiah; above them are Baruch and Ezekiel; on the upper terrace are Daniel, Hosea, Jonah and Joel; at the corners of the wall are Obadiah and Habakkuk; at the far ends are Amos and Nahum. The statues of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel (the four major prophets) are larger than the other eight. The figures of Daniel and Jonah are each carved out of a single block of stone; the former is portrayed as a self-assured young man, a Renaissance David, while Jonah has the aspect of a dead man who after being saved from the belly of the whale is returning to life.
The twelve highly expressive figures of prophets, created between 1800 and 1805, which stand at different levels on the terrace leading up to the church form a powerful and dynamic ensemble with their varying attitudes and gestures. They have been seen by some experts as expressing a mute protest, while others see in these figures with their Latin scrolls an allusion to the rebels of the Inconfidància. At the foot of the terrace are Isaiah and Jeremiah; above them are Baruch and Ezekiel; on the upper terrace are Daniel, Hosea, Jonah and Joel; at the corners of the wall are Obadiah and Habakkuk; at the far ends are Amos and Nahum. The statues of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel (the four major prophets) are larger than the other eight. The figures of Daniel and Jonah are each carved out of a single block of stone; the former is portrayed as a self-assured young man, a Renaissance David, while Jonah has the aspect of a dead man who after being saved from the belly of the whale is returning to life.
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