for few years, the country sought to consolidate its position among the great nations through a modernization program, in which a nationalist motivation was obvious and where support for the arts was indispensable as a proof and propaganda of the progress achieved as a cultured civilization and as a regioanl military power. But at the time, a symbolic imagery capable of bringing together the forces of the people and the elites around a sense of national identity had not yet been formed. In this construction, which was orchestrated by the government, the role of painters such as Victor Meirelles was essential. The Imperial Academy, where Meirelles was educated, was one of the executive arms of this civilizing program, which also sought to move away from the memory of colonial times under Portuguese rule through affiliation to other models of culture, such as France and Italy, where many painters were sent to improve their skills. At the same time that, in cultural terms, dependence on foreign inspiration remained inescapable, typically Brazilian elements that had previously been disowned, such as the indigenous peoples, began to be reintegrated, praised and merged with European references as part of the local roots necessary for the legitimation of national culture, in a synthesis not devoid of contradictions. Teresa Franz wrote that: Symptomatic of the intentionality and, in a certain way, artificiality of this nationalism invented by the elites, were the circumstances of the elaboration of the first masterpiece by Victor Meirelles, Primeira Missa no Brasil. During its creation Meirelles kept in contact by correspondence with the then director of the Academy, Manuel de Araújo Porto-Alegre, who served as spokesperson for the official ideology and led the painter's work in various aspects, which happened throughout his entire student period. It was in the Sainte-Geneviève Library, in Paris, that Meirelles found material for studying Brazilian amerindians, and not in Brazil, where the indigenous peoples had long been driven to remote regions, decimated or acculturated. There he studied the documentation and ethnographic records about the natives left by naturalists, and it was there that he came into contact with the letter of Pêro Vaz de Caminha, which would inspire the backdrop for his creation. Victor Meirelles developed an eclectic style, and it has been difficult for recent critics to agree on his exact characterization. During his period of study, he came into contact with the entire tradition of Western