page_title: Passeio Público (Rio de Janeiro)
section_title: Decoration
hierarchical_section_title: Passeio Público (Rio de Janeiro) / History / Decoration
caption_attribution_description: Passeio Público, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
context_page_description: The Passeio Público is a public park in the historic centre of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Built after 1779, it is the oldest public park of Brazil and one of the oldest in the Americas.
context_section_description: The beautiful iron gate at the entrance of the park, in Rococo style, is still in its original place and carries the effigies of Queen Mary I of Portugal and the King consort, Pedro III, with the Latin inscription Maria Iª et Petrus III Brasiliae Regibus 1783.
  Inside the park, Master Valentim built two fountains positioned back to back and collectively known as the Fonte dos Amores (Love Fountain). One face of the fountain (the Fonte dos Jacarés, Caiman Fountain) had a basin decorated with plants and bronze statues of caimans, a bronze coconut tree, and egrets from whose beaks the water flowed. Unfortunately the tree and the birds have been lost, but the two intertwined caimans are still in place. At the back of this fountain, facing the sea, is located the Fonte do Menino (Boy's Fountain), which had the coat of arms of the Viceroy Vasconcelos, vases and a bronze statue of a boy holding a turtle. Water flowed from the mouth of the turtle to a basin. This statue was stolen and later replaced by one with a different design.
  The bronze statues of Master Valentim were the first to be cast in Rio, and are a precocious representation of autochthonous fauna (caimans, egrets), which would become widespread in the Romantic Brazilian art of the 19th century.
  In 1806, Master Valentim added the final touch to the park — two granite pyramids with medallions made of Portuguese Lioz stone, one with the inscription Saudade do Rio (Nostalgia for Rio) and the other Ao Amor do Público (To the Love of the People).
  Between 1785 and 1790, the pavilions of the Passeio Público were decorated with oval paintings by one of Master Valentim's collaborators, the painter Leandro Joaquim. The oval paintings were among the first landscape paintings produced in Brazil and show various views of Guanabara Bay. Six of these paintings have survived and are now in the Museu Nacional de Belas Artes and the Museu Histórico Nacional.
caption: View of the Passeio Público with its decorative granite pyramids
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