Portuguese tiles in Portugal and Brazil are often considered as objects belonging to the History of Art. The purpose of this study is to address the tiles not as objets d'arte but as documents of the history of Luso-Brazilian culture. The concept of an image document will be developed through the analysis of one of the most important rites of the history of Western religious culture: the procession. The study will focus in particular on the Procession of the Bones, which is represented in the panels of the tiles (c. XVIII) of the Church of Mercy in Salvador. The Procession of the Bones, instituted by King Manuel in 1498, was intended for the removal of bones of those brought to justice, and to provide them with a burial. For the mission, the king appointed the Order of Mercy. This Royal act was extended to Brazil when the first House of Mercy was founded in the city of Salvador in 1549. The panel, dating from the eighteenth century, and representing the ceremony, divides the Church of Mercy with two other representations: the Procession of the Dead Lord, introduced in Brazil (also by the Portuguese), and the Procession of the Torches, introduced by the Spanish. Between the date of the first Procession of the Bones and the laying of the panel of tiles, there is a time frame that evaluates the heterogeneity of art periods, where differentiated rhythms do not necessarily coincide with the periods of history.
Religious art; Tiling; Luso-Brazilian culture
