Between heroism and martyrdom: considerations regarding the representation of the Latin American hero in the 19th century [1]

Maria Berbara

BERBARA, Maria. Between heroism and martyrdom: considerations regarding the representation of the Latin American hero in the 19th century. 19&20, Rio de Janeiro, v. X, n. 2, jul./dez. 2015. https://www.doi.org/10.52913/19e20.X2.01b [Español]

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1.      The expression “hero and martyr” can be frequently read on book covers or articles on the great protagonists of Latin-American history in the 19th century. Just to quote a few examples, let us consider the book Antonio Jose de Sucre, gran mariscal de Ayacucho, heroe y mártir de la independencia Americana, by William A. Sherwell, first published in 1924, and Manuel Belgrano, precursor heroe y mártir de la argentinidad, by Francisco Mario Fasano, published in 1984.

2.      However, “hero” and “martyr” are two very distinct concepts, and, in a certain sense, even antagonistic ones. But when were these concepts formulated in the Western tradition, as we know them today? In what way did rhetorical and visual elements dialogue with each other in the process of their formulation, transmission and reception in modernity?

3.      Let us go back to patristics. The Alexandrian philosopher Origen, writing in the first half of the 3rd century, noticed the parallels between civil sacrifice and Christian martyrdom, and noted how Jesus:

4.                                    accepted his death willingly for the human race, like those who died  for their country to check epidemics of plague, or famines, or stormy seas. For it is probable that in the nature of things there are certain mysterious causes which are hard for the multitude to understand, which are responsible for the fact that one righteous man dying voluntarily for the community may avert the activities of the evil demons by expiation, since it is they who bring about plagues or famines or stormy seas or anything similar.[2]

5.      Here Origen makes an indirect reference to the great civic heroes of Roman history, such as Marcus Curtius, Horatius Cocles or Mucius Scaevola, who volunteered to save the Republic at the expense of their own integrity. Origen mentions how, both in the case of Christ’s sacrificial death and in the civic heroism of the Greco-Roman tradition, there is the idea according to which a person should die or, at least, be endangered, to re-establish a state of lost balance. Moreover, both cases have the same premise as a starting point: the life of a person is less valuable than the maintenance of the community to which they belong. In both symbolic universes, an abnegated death represents an external sign of virtue and spiritual strength.

6.      If Origen, as well as other Church Fathers, saw a solution of continuity between civic heroism and martyrdom, St. Augustine was relentless when observing the differences between the two systems, which, to his mind, were insurmountable. In his City of God, he argues that, firstly, the torture of martyrs is not self-inflicted, but applied by others, that is, the death of Christ and of martyr saints is suffered passively, and not actively determined.[3] Secondly, but most importantly, the Roman hero dies for his country, for the earthly city, while Christ and the martyrs are sacrificed for the 'city of God'. Not expecting eternal glory, the former can only have acted out of vanity.[4]

7.      Despite all Augustine’s negative criticisms, he considers the pagan hero as a sort of  'competitive model' for Christians:

8.                                    Yes, it was through that [Roman] empire, so far reaching in time and space, so famous and glorious for the deeds of its heroes […], that we have before us such models [exempla], to remind us of our duty. If in serving the glorious city of God we do not cling to the virtues that they clung to in serving the glory of the earthly city, let us be pricked to our hearts with shame.[5]

9.      Similarly, St. Jerome compares the sacrifice of Christ to the one of Roman heroes, emphasizing the superior power of the former:

10.                                  Certainly if we trust the accounts of the pagans that Codrus, Curtius and the Decii by means of their death checked plagues, famines and wars of cities, how much more can we believe that the Son of God by the shedding of His blood cleansed not one city, but the whole world![6]

11.    The Church Fathers’ criticism was not a mere rhetorical rivalry, it expressed fundamental differences between Roman and Christian sacrifices. The Greco-Roman self-immolation, as Augustine had already observed, was deeply connected not to religion but to patriotism, which, in that universe, was a moral obligation of the highest order. Cicero seems to synthesize a widespread opinion when stating “[...] there is no social relation [...] more close, none more dear than that which links each one of us with our country. Parents are dear; dear are children, relatives, friends; one native land embraces all our loves”.[7] For the early Christians, however, the idea of homeland had no appeal. They would not die for it, but for God's kingdom instead. Tertullian had already noted their indifference to civic matters, “there is nothing more alien to the human being than the public thing”, he writes in his Apologeticus.[8]

12.    But, how do artists elaborate this vision of heroes and martyrs? If we move towards the early modern period, it was not unusual for images to be produced in which these heroes were represented free from any ambiguity of character, and, what is more, fully integrated into Christian iconographic programs, where they figure with the same spiritualized pathos of the martyr saints.

13.    As an example, I will briefly examine the case of Marcus Curtius, a Roman warrior who, according to Titus Livius,[9] saves Rome by throwing himself into a big chasm that had opened in the middle of the Forum. According to the Oracle, the only way to close the chasm that was draining Rome and its inhabitants would be to offer in sacrifice the most valuable possession of the Roman people. Then, the young soldier Marcus Curtius, avowing that no virtue was more Roman than military weapons and bravery, mounts a warhorse and throws himself into the abyss, which immediately closes, thus saving the city. In Roman iconography, Curtius is represented at the moment he leaps into the abyss [Figure 1].

14.    In the Renaissance, however, the hero starts appearing in a completely different way. Frequently, its iconography is associated with St. George, the dragon slayer [Figure 2]; in other cases, the hero is depicted in a spiritualized sense that is completely Christian.

15.    Veronese [Figure 3], for example, represents him di sotto in su, as if the viewer were positioned inside the abyss that drained Rome; Curtius is represented in the typical attitude of the martyrs, with the head upright and eyes turned skywards.

16.    The most important element for our analysis is perhaps the position of his extended arms. Curtius no longer controls the animal, does not hold the reins and does not raise his sword; just like the martyrs, he assumes a totally passive attitude, and the horse seems to become the instrument of his martyrdom. If we recall the Augustinian objection to the active posture of the hero as opposed to the submission of the martyr, it seems clear how the artist has Christianized this episode of Roman history by taking away from Curtius the power over his own immolation.

17.    Examples like this one appear again and again in the early modern period: artists redeem heroes, transforming them into martyrs by changing their attitude or position. These changes might seem to be mere details, but they are actually in dialogue with old and rooted theological traditions of Western thought.

18.    One element that seems to unify the hero and the martyr is a deep sense of mission. This word, in fact, appears recurrently both in literary sources and in subsequent texts written, for example, about Latin American heroes. Another recurring term is “cause”.

19.    In both worlds, therefore, an ideological system is created in which the hero, or the martyr, is a distinguished individual with a very specific sense of mission. His fate, beyond his own desires or wishes, is to fulfil this mission. In a recent book on Bolívar, the author, an Englishman in activity nowadays, asserts that Bolivar's greatness is in his cause. In the Latin America of the 19th century, it is not difficult to see that often this cause is to become free from the metropolis and obtain independence. Bolivar said that freedom was the only thing that justified the sacrifice of a man.[10] The Venezuelan also believed in the principle of equality – equality between the Americans and the Spaniards, which was the basis of the discourses of independence.

20.    Unlike the martyr, the hero does not need to die; in fact, great heroes of Roman history such as, for example, Horatius Cocles, live many years after their heroic actions. When the Christian martyr dies, his destiny is fulfilled once he achieves the imitation of Christ’s sacrifice; in the hero’s case, however, a sacrifice is not necessarily needed. On the other hand, it is in death that the hero actually becomes a hero; by dying, they fully assume their superhuman dimension.

21.    In his excellent text on the figure of the hero, Jaime Cuadriello[11] argues how the categories of greatness and dominance, temperament and action embrace the “heroic frenzy” of the Renaissance, and how such qualities remain dormant until Romanticism raises heroicity to the level of the predestined genius. In the previous centuries, the monarch had been the reference of the heaven-sent hero; with the rise and fall of so many crowned heads, it would be the establishment of new political systems based on the concept of nation that would restore the belief in the predestination of the hero. These new heroes embody, as defined by Paul Benichou, the “sanctity of the ideal”.[12]

22.    In a text of 1984, Michael Walzer[13] analyses how heroic figures and modern political discourses were based on Hebrew theology and political philosophy: “It is, ultimately, a call to a literal exodus, an escape from oppression involving a journey to the Promised Land, and for that call the biblical account has been the source, supplying all the images”.[14] In that sense, the hero is the prophet who was granted a transcendent vision and is willing to sacrifice his own life in order to materialize it. Soteriology, Messianism, Utopianism, are all currents that came together to create the Latin American hero / martyr figure.

23.    On the other hand, thinking in terms of a dialogue with the classical tradition, it is not difficult to realize that the visual construction of the Latin American hero borrowed gestures, postures and motifs derived from Greco-Roman antiquity – heroes who, in turn, had been Christianized. To mention only a few examples, let us consider the famous Battle of Guararapes, painted by Victor Meirelles in 1879 [Figure 4].

24.    The painting depicts a battle between the Dutch and the Portuguese in 1649, on the hill of Guararapes, located where today is the state of Recife, in the northeast of Brazil. The central character of the painting, towards which the gaze is immediately directed, is the Portuguese colonial and military governor André Vidal de Negreiros, who, riding his rearing horse, raises his sword and advances on the Dutch army. Their leader, Dutch Colonel Pedro Keeweer, has fallen from his horse and tries in vain to reach a weapon that will prove useless to him; clearly he is defeated. That composition immediately recalls different classic visual organizations such as the one in Dexileos’ Stele, where the young Athenian is about to deliver a mortal blow on his fallen foe [Figure 5], or even the one in the famous mosaic of Alexander in Naples, which, although badly damaged, still allows for a clear appreciation of the victorious and impassive attitude of the heroic leader.

25.    Leandro Izaguirre’s The Torture of Cuauhtemoc, painted in 1893 [Figure 6], exalts, according to the classical tradition, the heroic bravery of the defeated. The artist chooses to represent the moment when Cortez tortures Cuauhtemoc by burning his feet. Beside him, the noble Aztec Tetlepanquetzal is likewise tortured, but unlike Cuauhtemoc, he contracts his feet to avoid the torment. Cuauhtemoc, sitting, bound and tortured, holds Cortez’s gaze, who, despite his frankly advantageous position, looks smaller.

26.    It is almost impossible to look at that painting without remembering the famous Roman hero Mucius Scaevola. Imprisoned by the Etruscans during the war that followed the fall of Tarquinii, the Etruscan king, Lars Porsenna, whom Mucius had tried to murder, threatens to torture Scaevola. At that moment, the hero extends his right hand over the fire, hence showing his contempt for pain and death and his loyalty to Rome. The episode was represented many times both in Antiquity and in the early modern period, in works such as those by Baldung Grien and Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini [Figure 7].

27.    In some cases, Scaevola, as well as other heroes, is represented as a typological prefiguration of Jesus Christ himself; a painting by Francesco di Giorgio Martini in the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena, for example, represents Mucius and Curtius side by side on a triumphal arch that appears in the background of an Adoration. Clearly, one of the main differences between the torture of Cuauhtemoc and the one of Scaevola is precisely the fact that the latter assumes a voluntary attitude while the former embraces a passive one, which characterizes them entirely as a martyr and a hero, respectively.

28.    The idea of exalting the vanquished is a real topos of classical culture and often appears in iconography; let us bear in mind, just to mention a couple of examples, the so-called Dying Gaul [Figure 8], who shows an almost lyrical nobility in his defeat, or the Ludovisi group, which most likely was part of the same program commemorating the victory of Pergamum against the Gauls.

29.    Returning to the intersection of heroism and martyrdom, one of the greatest Brazilian heroes / martyrs is the “Mineiro”– i.e., born in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais – lieutenant and dentist Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier, also known as Tiradentes, nicknamed in Brazilian school textbooks as “martyr of the Inconfidência Mineira” (martyr of the Minas Conspiracy), executed in Rio de Janeiro in 1792 for lèse-majesté crimes due to his active participation in an uprising movement against both the Portuguese rule and the high rates charged for the gold found in the province.

30.    Once the conspiracy had been discovered, Tiradentes was the only one to be condemned to death; the other inconfidentes (traitors), as they were known, had their sentences commuted for some years in prison and exile. The crown tried to turn his death into a spectacular exemplum: Tiradentes was transported to the capital city, Rio de Janeiro, and, on April 21st 1792 – nowadays a national holiday – he was carried in procession through the streets of the city centre up to a square today named after him, where he was hanged and then had his body dismembered into four parts. His head was taken to Villa Rica – a city which today is called Ouro Preto – and placed on a pike, where it remained until it disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

31.    Although 19th-century Republicans wanted to see in Tiradentes the leader of a great revolutionary movement, the Inconfidência or “Conjuração Mineira” (Minas Conspiracy), as it is known, consisted of a couple of meetings and was stopped without much effort on the crown’s part. Tiradentes’ own companions accused him of being the leader of the movement, and it is speculated that he had been chosen as a scapegoat, precisely for being the participant with the most humble social background.

32.    Already in the 19th century Tiradentes was depicted as a martyr: a canvas by Décio Villares represents him with a Christ’s appearance, eyes to the sky, the rope around his neck and, as if that were not enough, the palm of martyrdom. Likewise, a work by Aurelio de Figueiredo represents Tiradentes, di sotto in su, on the scaffold [Figure 9]. His attitude is typical of martyrs: resigned, patient and proud. The injustice of his death is such that even the executioner conceals his gaze. Significantly, a dove, the symbol of peace, but also of the Holy Spirit, flies by.

33.    However, nowadays, the most famous representation of Tiradentes is undoubtedly the canvas by Pedro Américo [Figure 10], which represents him dismembered. Brazilian researcher Maraliz Castro studied in depth this work and its critical fate, analysing the reasons why it was forgotten and its powerful re-emergence in the 1970s.[15]

34.    It is not difficult to perceive the artist’s influences: the celebrated paintings by Géricault, Raffet and Brascassat were certainly present at the time of constructing the hero’s dismembered body. On the other hand, the almost literal citation of the Vatican Pietà by Michelangelo is evident for the observer; Christ’s fallen arm would reappear, amongst other important works, in the murdered Marat by David.

35.    By representing the dignity of that body torn to pieces, Américo creates a visual oxymoron in which the body’s humiliation is precisely what makes it great and noble. The head, reminiscent more of John the Baptist than of Christ, crowns a still life of members full of mystical significance. The overall composition, which could not be otherwise, is vertical. In a similar direction of some Post-Tridentine writtings, Pedro Américo seems to be willing to arouse the emotions of the observer, leading them to extreme compunction.

36.    We do not have enough space here to explore further examples of how artists were in active dialogue, and not as mere illustrators, with the different traditions of Western thought linked to the concept of hero and martyr. As in the early modern period, they seem to have adequately solved a contradiction noted by philosophers and theologians, and, contrary to what could be expected, it is that vision that has prevailed throughout the 20th century until the present. Examples abound – Getulio Vargas, Evita, Che Guevara, and even Hugo Chavez, whose fight against a cancer that took him too young seems to have elevated him, according to many, to the magnitude of Bolivar himself. In all these cases, death, whether natural or not, has sealed the greatness of their destiny, and intelligent iconographic models were able to transform them not into heroes + martyrs, but into a third category, different from the previous two, in which some of their qualities merge but also transform and recreate themselves.

Bibliographic references

BRADING, D., et al. El éxodo mexicano: los héroes en la mira del arte. México D.F.: Museo Nacional de Arte, 2010.

CHRISTO, M. C. V. Pintura, história e heróis no século XIX: Pedro Américo e "Tiradentes Esquartejado", PhD dissertation defended at Unicamp (Campinas, Brazil), 2005.

CUADRIELLO, J. Para visualizar al héroe: mito, pacto y fundación, In: BRADING. D., et al. El éxodo mexicano: los héroes en la mira del arte. México D.F.: Museo Nacional de Arte, 2010.

LYNCH, J. Simón Bolivar, a Life. New Haven/Londres: Yale University Press, 2006.

WALZER, M. Exodus and Revolution. Nueva York: Basic Books, 1984.

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[1] Translation by Elena O’Neill.

[2] Contra Celsum I, 31.

[3] De civitate dei V, 14.

[4] De civitate dei V, 18.

[5] De civitate dei V, 18.

[6] Comment. In: Ephesios I, 1, 7.

[7] De officiis I, 57.

[8] Apologeticus 38, 3.

[9] Ab urbe condita VII, 6.

[10] Bolivar’s discourse in Bogotá, January 23rd 1815. Escritos, VII, p. 264. Quoted by LYNCH, John. Simon Bolivar, a Life. New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2006, p. 284.

[11]  CUADRIELLO, J. Para visualizar al héroe: mito, pacto y fundación. In: BRADING, E. and D., et al. El éxodo mexicano: los héroes en la mira del arte. México D.F.: Museo Nacional de Arte, 2010, pp. 39-103.

[12] Apud Cuadriello, p. 44.

[13] Exodus and Revolution. Nueva York: Basic Books, 1984.

[14] CUADRIELLO, Op.cit., p. 49.

[15] She did so in her excellent PhD dissertation, Pintura, história e heróis no século XIX: Pedro Américo e "Tiradentes Esquartejado", defended at Unicamp (Campinas, Brazil) in 2005.