A holy see
The Museum of Christian Art (MoCA) sits within the 17th-century Convent of Santa Monica in the heart of Old Goa, the scenic precinct of churches, monuments and ancient monastic ruins. A church is attached to the three-storey stone structure. The museum is housed in its nave.
Over the past three years, the museum has been painstakingly renovated in a project executed jointly by MoCA and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, a philanthropic organisation based in Portugal, with the conservation of the over-200 artefacts carried out by INTACH (the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage), Delhi.
The revamped museum is now spread across the ground floor, a mezzanine and a reconstructed first floor, the original having collapsed in the 19th century.
“In the new layout, the collection has been arranged in chronological order to assist in the interpretation of the evolution of the Indo-Portuguese art history,” says museum curator Natasha Fernandes.
When the Portuguese arrived in India, they brought European masterpieces with them, and used those masterpieces as models when commissioning new works by India’s own highly skilled artists. As a result, from the 16th to mid-20th century, a range of artefacts was created in Portuguese colonies here that bear the stamp of both cultures.
Sometimes, a Portuguese icon will have features that look distinctly Indian; local embroidery shows up on garments worn by representations of Jesus and Mary; local flora and fauna turn up in statuary; and, in a seamless marriage of cultures, symbols of significance to the Hindu faith such as the lotus and Naga are seen in distinctly Christian artefacts.
At the museum, the most intricate examples of Indo-Portuguese art include an 18thcentury image of Infant Jesus as Saviour of the World featuring Nagas and a red velvet gown covered in zardozi embroidery; a 20thcentury ivory representation of Mary as Nirmala Matha, rising from a lotus and dressed in a sari; a 17th-century painting of the Virgin and Child framed in paisleys and silver filigree; and a 17th-century silver-on-wood tabernacle monstrance.
The tabernacle monstrance (a tabernacle is a sacred object used to hold the consecrated wafer called the host) is nearly 5 ft high. The monstrance (used to present the sacred host for the adoration of the faithful) takes the form of a splendid pelican. In its breast is an opening surrounded by a golden sunburst designed to show off the consecrated host. “All these features as well as the metalwork technique employed by the silversmiths, especially on the feathers, make this piece unique,” Fernandes says.
Elsewhere, an intricate 17th-century ivory representation of Jesus as the Good Shepherd depicts a young boy with gambolling sheep at his feet, and one leaping over his left shoulder. The pedestal is made to resemble a terraced hillock. Jutting out from the upper level is a face representing the fount of life. On the lower level is a figure of a holy penitent performing penance in a cave.
The delicate painting of Virgin and Child gazing down at the sleeping Jesus. It is notable for its multiple frames — one bearing stylised leaf motifs, another with floral and animal motifs, yet another with scrolling paisleys and the final outermost frame worked in fine silver filigree. These and other artefacts at the renovated museum can be viewed online at museumofchristianart.com.