Notas para o estudo do mecenato de D. Frei Aleixo de Meneses: os Recolhimentos da Misericórdia em Goa

Abstract

D. Frei Aleixo de Menezes (1559-1617) is a poorly known character. Following is own words found in the letters written to his uncle and Archbishop of Braga, D. Frei Agostinho de Jesus (that have been kept in the archives of the Biblioteca Pública de Braga), using the knowledge of the complex and rich web of relationship both domestic and courtly that he nourished all his life and through his action as a religious as well as a politician, I tried to understand its personality and how it was projected in his patronage. His extended and vary artistic patronage is merely mentioned as my only intention is to understand the reasons to raise two buildings in Goa: the Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora da Serra (1605) for female orphans and the Recolhimento de Santa Maria Madalena (1609) for outcast females. Being buildings of less architectonic interest, its constructions raises questions related to space, power and urban development, disputes attention towards social and religious values as well as gender and, above all, points out the importance of an enlighten artistic patronage that this Augustinian stimulated both in Portugal and in India.