The oratorios gathered in this exhibition capture our gaze and our spirit for their originality, beauty and the many meanings they carry. The black artists who carved them, whose identity is no longer possible to recover, left in each piece the imprint of their original culture, which appears strong in some, subtle in others. They left their art in the reinterpretation of aesthetic standards that were not theirs. A way of making each other's culture closer, absorbing it to a certain degree and permanently transforming it. The simplest and most common materials used by them, the difficulties of realization due to the scarcity of sculpting instruments, the expressive freedom noted in the paintings and ornaments, the repressed and intimate religiosity are some aspects that the perceptive eye of the curator Angela Gutierrez, grande connoisseur of Brazilian sacred art, she identifies in these pieces. It is known that the black people who came to the Americas were urban and had knowledge of trades related to this type of environment, certainly many had sculptural skill and artistic talent and exercised them in the way they could, full of obstacles and restrictions that slavery imposed on them. We can look at these oratorios in many ways, one of which is as a small metaphor for Brazilian popular culture: forged in difficulty, mixed, vibrant, full of spirit and originality. CCVM is pleased to receive such special, rare and for the first time oratorios exhibited together. A beautiful tribute to the black people of Maranhão, coming from Minas Gerais this year when we celebrate the greatness of black people in our culture. We thank Angela Gutierrez for this unprecedented gift, for her willingness to share and, above all, for her work over decades assembling an exceptional Brazilian collection, which has already given rise to three museums (Oratório, Artes e Ofícios and Sant'Ana) and continues to bear fruit at exhibitions like this one. Paula Porta Director and curator of CCVM