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The painting is the fruit of a moment of post-emancipation, marked by the adhesion of racialism in the public sphere and the "necessity" of actions in relation to the destiny of the black and mixed population in the free and republican order. The painting alludes to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, Chapter 9. In the episode, a drunk and naked Noah is exposed, instead of covered, by his son Ham to the latter's brothers Shem and Japheth. For bringing shame upon him, Noah condemns Ham to be a slave along with his son Canaan, who is cursed as "the servant of the servants". Noah prophesied that he, Ham, would be "the last of the slaves of his brethren." Ham was then pointed out in the Bible as the supposed father of the African races. This was the basis for Christians from the 16th to the 17th centuries to justify slavery in colonial economies.The painting shows a sort of reversal of the "curse" (being Afro-descendant), by whitening the other characters. It is noticeable the realism present in the work, which brings gradations of colors between the three generations of the characters. The baby is the whitest, followed by the father, sitting next to the mother, who holds the child in her lap. In the left corner, the one with the darkest skin is the grandmother, her hands raised to the sky in prayerful thanksgiving. By being born white, her grandchild was freed from the "curse" of being black, since her daughter, a mulata, had married the white man.Seated are the child's mother, who carries her on her knees, and a man with crossed legs – supposedly the white husband and responsible for the "bleaching" of the offspring. This gradation of color notably follows from left to right, showing miscegenation in its entire process. Here, it is not only a question of cultural and racial elimination, but also of the need for progress that, in Brocos's eyes, would come only through the "laundering" of the population and the approximation to European culture, eliminating and ignoring other ethnicities and customs.This denial of African culture becomes apparent in the robes of the female figures; both women wear Westernized clothes and not costumes that recall their African descent. The seated woman's body is covered in clothing, making it look more European than African. Here is an idea of black women's adjustment to white Christian morality and an ideal of a "whitening reproduction". In addition, it is notable that the two characters who do not have white skin are women: the mother and the grandmother, establishing a color opposition to the baby and the father. The whole composition is strengthened when the viewer realizes that the ground on which the man treads is stone, showing an "evolution" in relation to the bare earth the women's feet touch. Once again, the white-skinned European is shown as superior, and this is evident even in his pose: his back is turned as he looks at the rest of the scene.The position of the hands and gazes between the characters brings coherence to the message that Modesto Brocos wanted to pass. There is also a theory that the young mother alludes to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the baby, the Child Jesus. This is due to the woman's shawl being blue, which was (and still is) linked to Mary in art.The period in which the work was produced was marked by intense scientific mobilizations; however, in referring to the biblical episode narrated in the book of Genesis, The Redemption of Ham seems to bet more on religion than science to corroborate its perspective. There is, in the work, a perspective of religious court rather than a "scientific" look. The work reflects the racist ideologies of the time by showing the laundering passed on by the family members as something to be praised by them. As Tatiana Lotierzo and Lilia Schwarcz point out in the article "Gender, Race and Whitening Project: The Redemption of Cam" the adult women in the painting are disposed as if there was voluntarism from them in the process of laundering which sought to extinguish their own ethnic group. The work became the mark of an era that, imbued with a racialist thought, left indelible marks in the Brazilian tradition.
Bible Canaan Japheth Genesis Lilia Schwarcz European culture miscegenation right republican racialist Modesto Brocos African culture Child Jesus racialism realism slavery races whitening Ham emancipation Blessed Virgin Mary Shem Noah