In place of the shepherds

on some sparse works by Ariano Suassuna

Abstract

Only a few people know that the Brazilian writer Ariano Suassuna (1927-2014) was a plastic artist, too. He has illustrated some of his very works by the way and he has made some engravings that were released or sold sparsely during his life. This essay aims to analyze some of these Suassuna’s engravings, mainly one entitled “O presépio e nós – Poema de Natal” (“The nativity scene and us – Christmas Poem”), that the writer has produced according to the principles of an artistic genre named by himself as iluminogravura (illuminated engraving). Even though these works are in short dimensions, they perfectly illustrate all the sources involved in Suassuna’s creative process.