Museu Paulista and the memories of the narratives of Aimé-Adrien Taunay and Hercule Florence

This book was conceived from essays that intend to deepen and present different approaches on themes related to the research “The notebook of Aimée-Adrien Taunay: stories, discoveries and paths”, whose result is available on the website – http://www.adrientaunay .org.br –, and “Hercule Florence: Patriarca da Iconografia Paulista”, whose investigation will also be the subject of another specific publication. Both initiatives were undertaken through an agreement signed between the Museu Paulista of the University of São Paulo (MP/USP) and the Hercule Florence Institute (IHF). In the first part, dedicated to Aimé-Adrien Taunay (1803-1828), the artist's biography, the inclusion of Adrien Taunay's notebook in the Museu Paulista's Afonso Taunay Collection, the conservation and extroversion of the artifact and, finally, the reconstitution of the path taken by the painter reported in the studied manuscript. In the second, the texts highlight the presence of works based on Hercule Florence (1804-1879) in the collection of Museu Paulista, especially the commissions made in the 1920s and 1940s by Afonso d'Escragnolle Taunay, the incorporation of reproductions of part of these paintings and even of Florence's works in books, always in double movement and mutual feeding. The issue of Florence's concerns with reproducibility and the representation of the real is another topic addressed by the authors.