Two Brazilian Ceramic Wedding Couples on Horseback by Manuel Eudocio

Manuel Eudocio (Brazilian, 1931-2016). Two Wedding Couples on Horseback. Ceramic sculptures, n.d. Both signed on underside of horses. A trio of hand modeled clay figural groups comprising two Northeastern Brazilian wedding parties and a Mexican group of children at play. In each of the Eudocio groups, the groom sits astride a chestnut horse in a white suit, scarlet hat, and necktie, with his veiled bride seated behind him, her gown accented with red dotted florets. The horses are incised on the underside with the maker's name. The figures are fired without enamel, finished in bright oil paint, and show Eudocio's characteristic raised white eyes. The third piece is a polychrome barro betus seesaw tableau by Gerardo Ortega of Santa Cruz de las Huertas, Jalisco, mid 20th century, with four figures on a wire seesaw, signed on the underside. About the artist: Manuel Eudocio Rodrigues (1931-2016) was among the most celebrated folk sculptors of Alto do Moura, the pottery village near Caruaru in Pernambuco that became the beating heart of Brazilian ceramic figurative art. Orphaned young and raised by his grandmother, he modeled clay dolls for market stalls as a boy, the common apprenticeship of country children in the region. His life as an artisan crystallized in the late 1940s when Mestre Vitalino settled in Alto do Moura; working alongside Vitalino and his brother-in-law Ze Caboclo, Eudocio absorbed their techniques yet forged a distinct hand. It was he and Ze Caboclo who devised the characteristic eye, a raised dab of white paint centered with black, seen on these very figures. He favored scenes of Northeastern life, cangaceiros, rural weddings, and above all oxen, which became emblematic of his output. Working the wet clay by hand, he fired the pieces without glaze in a backyard wood kiln and finished them in vivid oil paint. His work was collected across Brazil and abroad in Germany, France, Portugal, and the United States; a piece titled "Familia de Retirantes" was presented to Pope Benedict XVI. Honored as a living patrimony at the Folklore Museum of Rio de Janeiro in 2005, Eudocio passed the craft to his sons, who continue the family tradition. Item # 203680

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