5. Brave New Worlds

This chapter examines Rego’s work concerning Portugal’s discovery and colonization of Brazil, including the implications for the colonizer and the colonized. Lisboa explores the woman’s plight that is found at the heart of her work, and considers the growing significance of the female body in Rego’s work from the mid-1990s. Lisboa discusses the twinned themes of maternity and mother(land) in Rego’s work, and the origins of Brazil as an independent nation with a basis in two family romances. Finally, Lisboa examines Rego’s First Mass in Brazil, with particular attention to the fish that feature in this work, and the mixture of good fortune and misery represented in the painting.