---

The Abelardo Rodrigues Museum is a Brazilian museum that occupies Solar Ferrão, in Pelourinho, Salvador. The organ is linked to the Institute of Artistic and Cultural Heritage of Bahia (IPAC) and its collection is focused on sacred art produced in Brazil.



It was inaugurated on November 5, 1981, and the act of creation was Decree nº 27.724.



The museum's history begins on September 2, 1973, when the Government of Bahia sent a letter to the widow of Abelardo Rodrigues, expressing interest in the acquisition of the works collected by the lawyer and which Pernambuco refused to acquire. Also this month, the proposal was registered at the Registry of Titles and Documents in Salvador, after a letter from the attorney in which the sale was proposed. On September 22, the purchase was completed, being registered at Cartório in Recife. On the same day, the Government of Pernambuco issued Decree 2,929, expropriating the collection. On August 23, 1974, the government of Pernambuco arrested the collection by order of the State Attorney, Hélvio Mafra, removing it in a careless way - the pieces were wrapped in blankets and transported in a moving truck - from the house from the collector to a small room at the State Museum, where they were in custody. The parlor was so inadequate that the decorator Wilton de Souza, in charge of the State Attorney's Office to cure the collection, resigned (O Estado de São Paulo, August 24, 1974, p. 7). The case went to justice, and the Federal Supreme Court finally decided, on August 27, 1975, that the possession of the collection belonged in fact to Bahia. This process, involving two entities of the Federation, received at the time the epithet "Holy War", given the content in dispute.



On September 6 of that same year, the works finally arrived in Bahia, being provisionally installed in the Museum of Sacred Art of Bahia, having its first public exhibition in the following year, 1976. On March 13, 1980, the decree was finally issued creation of the museum, which opened the following year.



The collection was formed by Abelardo Rodrigues, a Pernambuco lawyer and collector, one of the largest collections of sacred art in Brazil. There was a legal dispute between Pernambuco and Bahia for possession, with the winner being the state of Bahia.



The collection was transferred to Salvador, remaining for six years under the custody of the Museu de Arte Sacra of the Federal University of Bahia. It consisted of 808 pieces of Brazilian sacred art, in the following modalities: images, crucifixes, oratories, models, paintings, etc. The collection was called by its owner, Abelardo Rodrigues, "Corte Celestial", receiving this epithet the Museum itself afterwards.



The images consist of pieces in clay, wood, ivory, soapstone and ceramics or combined materials. In various styles of the time, the Baroque prevails, with the main characteristic of highlighting the work of the Brazilian artisan.



The building where the museum is located constitutes, in itself, an important architectural and historical monument. The manor is listed by IPHAN as a national architectural heritage.



Solar Ferrão has been engaging with the Abelardo Rodrigues Museum a dialogue - space and object - that connects colonial architecture with devotional iconographic art, from similar times, however, in a recurring and delightful way, sharing concepts, recalling stories and spreading the artistic experience of the Brazilian people , valued, here, in this admirable synthesis

—Thanks Lobo, director



For the historian and professor at UFBA, Dr. Luiz Alberto Ribeiro Freire, "The main hall of Solar Ferrão with its twisted columns is more than perfect stage for the baroque theater of the images chosen by the collector Abelardo Rodrigues".

---