Some figures in the history of art seem to belong more to legend than to reality, and Antônio Francisco Lisboa—Aleijadinho—is one of them. A sculptor, woodcarver, and architect born in Ouro Preto around 1730, or more likely 1738, he left colonial Brazil with a body of work so expressive that, centuries later, his name remains at the center of debates, tributes, and academic disputes. Having died on November 18, 1814, in the same city where he was born, Aleijadinho is considered by many experts the greatest name in American Baroque.
His personal trajectory begins with the same ambiguity that would mark his entire story. The illegitimate son of Manuel Francisco Lisboa, a respected Portuguese master builder and architect, and Isabel, his father’s enslaved African woman, Antônio was born into a condition that combined proximity to power with social vulnerability. According to the baptismal certificate cited by biographer Rodrigo José Ferreira Bretas, Antônio was baptized on August 29, 1730, in the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Antônio Dias, in Vila Rica (now Ouro Preto), and was freed in the same act by his father and master. His death certificate, however, records that at the time of his death in 1814, he was 76 years old—which points to 1738 as the more likely birth year, a date accepted by the Aleijadinho Museum in Ouro Preto.
This uncertainty about his birth year is just one example of the unstable ground on which any investigation into his life is built. The main biographical source available is a note written by Bretas in 1858, forty-four years after the artist’s death. Bretas himself relied on documents and testimonies from people who allegedly knew Aleijadinho personally, including excerpts from a memorandum by Captain Joaquim José da Silva, written in 1790 and later lost. Contemporary critics tend to view Bretas’ biography with skepticism: it would largely be a romanticized narrative constructed to elevate the artist to the status of a national hero, a singular genius whose life needed to be dramatic to justify the greatness of his work.
The physical condition that gave rise to the nickname by which the artist became globally known is one of the most controversial aspects of his biography. The disease that progressively affected his limbs—and which some historical documents associate with leprosy or other degenerative conditions—would have impaired his hands and feet over time. The image popular tradition has enshrined is that of an artist who, unable to hold tools with his fingers, tied them to his wrists to continue sculpting. This detail, regardless of its truth, has become an inseparable part of the myth surrounding his figure.
All of Aleijadinho’s work was concentrated in Minas Gerais, particularly in the cities of Ouro Preto, Sabará, São João del-Rei, and Congonhas. His style incorporates elements of Baroque and Rococo, manifesting in carvings, architectural projects, reliefs, and statuary. Over four hundred creations are now associated with his name, though the attribution of most of them was made without formal documentation, relying mainly on stylistic similarities to pieces whose authorship is confirmed. This documentary gap fuels debates that still divide art historians today.
Among his most celebrated works are the Church of São Francisco de Assis in Ouro Preto and the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus de Matosinhos in Congonhas. In the latter, one of the most impressive sculptural ensembles on the American continent can be found: the biblical prophets in soapstone positioned in the churchyard and the Passion of Christ scenes carved in cedar, arranged in chapels along a devotional path. The combination of movement, expression, and technical mastery in these pieces is what solidified Aleijadinho’s international reputation as one of the great artists of the Western world.
The process of monumentalizing his figure throughout the 20th century added additional layers of complexity to his story. Brazilian modernists in the first half of the last century made sometimes biased interpretations of his life and work, amplifying stereotypes that still circulate in the popular imagination. His figure was instrumentalized by political and ideological projects of various orientations, which saw in the mixed-race, poor, and physically debilitated artist who allegedly created magnificent works a convenient symbol of resistance and national identity.
The state of Minas Gerais turned him into one of its tutelary geniuses. His name appears on schools, streets, squares, and tourist routes. The cities where he worked shape part of their cultural identity around the legacy he left in stone and wood. For the residents of Ouro Preto, Congonhas, or São João del-Rei, Aleijadinho is not just a figure from the past: he is a living presence in churches, museums, and façades that make up the everyday landscape.
Foreign researchers have even pointed to Aleijadinho as the greatest representative of American Baroque, placing him alongside the great names of Western art. Regardless of the exact extent of the contribution that can be directly attributed to him—and this debate remains open—what is not in dispute is the existence of an extraordinary body of work associated with his name and his time, built in the heart of Minas Gerais, which endures with the same stubbornness as the man who, according to legend, tied tools to his wrists to keep creating.