"Entry into the Forest": A Mural by Candido Portinari

One of the most colorful murals in the Hispanic Division's foyer is Candido Portinari's "Entry into the Forest," the second in a four-fold series painted by the renown Brazilian muralist in 1941. The mural shows four men on an expedition through one of the dense, wild forests of the recently discovered Americas. As wildlife, undergrowth, and trees surround the human figures in the scene, the vastness of the forest is remarkable; nonetheless, the explorers dominate the composition--and perhaps even nature itself--with their determined stares, self-assured stances, and solid forms.
Available through the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, Portinari's initial sketches for "Entry into the Forest" reveal details about his compositional decisions. An early sketch includes more men (and fewer animals) in the background exploring the forest (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3g06745/) while another drawing shows that Portinari initially envisioned a smaller composition with a greater focus on the two explorers toward the right (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/00650395/). In the finished mural, three explorers stand as they survey the forest, while a fourth lies on his stomach to drink from a stream that runs horizontally through the painting (http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/img/forest.jpg). The two explorers in the foreground frame the scene and provide an interesting visual comparison to one another. The man on the left has his back to the viewer, feet planted firmly as he stares off into the forest. In contrast, the man on the right faces the viewer straight on, holding a gun in one hand and a bird in the other. His clothing differs from that of the other men and may serve to demonstrate his authority as the commanding explorer. He wears a bright red-and-white checkered shirt, a yellow belt, and is the only explorer to wear a hat. He is also the only figure in the group to hold a gun, while a sack of supplies and a coil of rope have been momentarily set down on the floor of the forest.

Consistent with Portinari's self-imposed constraint that the Hispanic Division’s murals not depict one specific place, age, or nation, the unidentified forest and explorers symbolize the many expeditions of the Spanish and Portuguese in the Americas during the Age of Exploration. Nonetheless, the animals that appear in Entry into the Forest are animals typical of Brazil and some suspect that their presence may be a small tribute to Portinari's native country. In the foreground of the painting one sees a small wild deer or veado in Portuguese. Only reaching the knees of a nearby explorer, this small deer could be a Grey Brocket, a grey-brown deer found in Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay that often lives on the edges of forests. Behind the deer, a small creature emerges from the undergrowth, perhaps curious about the explorer drinking from the stream. This is likely a capybara, one of the world's largest rodents. Resembling a guinea pig, the capybara is a short-haired mammal that can grow to be 1 meter long and can weigh up to 70kg. As in Portinari’s mural, the capybara normally lives near water sources in dense forests but is also found in savannas. It is often hunted for its meat and hide. In the center of the mural, a giant anteater (called a tamandua-bandeira in Portuguese) emerges from behind the tree trunks. Solitary, slow-moving creatures usually found in jungles or savannas, giant anteaters have thick coats and long claws. They are instantly recognizable thanks to their long snouts through which they eat ants and termites. Finally, the explorer to the right holds a bird resembling a type of Brazilian woodpecker, with its straight beak and red plumage on its crown. Generally found in subtropical or tropical forests, Brazilian woodpeckers vary in size and color but all have a distinctively strong, straight beak that allows them to drum into tree trunks in search of insects and eat nuts, tree sap, and fruit.

To see the Portinari murals in person, come and visit us in the Hispanic Division! To view images of Portinari's murals or his preliminary drawings, consult the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/). For more information about Candido Portinari, his work, or the geography and wildlife Latin America, consult the Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) (http://hlasopac.loc.gov), or send a question to the Hispanic Division reference staff via Ask-a-Librarian (http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/).

The Hispanic Reading Room is a center for the study of cultures and societies of the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and other areas where Spanish and Portuguese influence has been significant. Researchers may visit the reading room to seek assistance with the vast Luso-Hispanic collections from reference librarians and area specialists. The reading room is located on the second floor of the Jefferson Bldg, LJ-240, and is open M-F, 8:30am to 5:00 pm.