Women from Bahai 

Emiliano Di Cavalcanti painted this oil on canvas depicting Women from Bahia. The composition places two Afro-Brazilian women in the foreground of a church that seems almost to loom over them. The women are centrally placed, and so the cultural and religious traditions of Brazil are given equal footing. As Brazil moved into the mid-20th century there was a growing nationalist fervor which focused on the authentic expression of Brazilian culture. Di Cavalcanti was a part of this movement and sought to create an identifiably Brazilian art by using the cultural traditions of the Afro-Brazilian population as inspiration. The imagery is of a religious site but the women in the foreground bring elements of Afro-Brazilian culture into the frame. The question for the art historian then becomes what constitutes authentic national expression and whose traditions are elevated to that status? Further research would be needed into the place of the Catholic church and Afro-Brazilian traditions in Brazil at the time.