New Jesuit Sources on the Iconography of the Good Shepherd Rockery from Portuguese India: the Garden of Shepherds of Miguel de Almeida (1658)
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: The Good Shepherd Rockery is the only original iconography developed in the ivory carving tradition of Portuguese India. Despite the large production of these statuettes, the scarcity of written sources and the untracked diffusion of such artworks did not allow the clear understanding of the original purposes of this iconography. The present essay wishes to establish a comparison between the artworks’ iconography and the prologue of the Onvalleancho Mallo (Garden of Shepherds) by the Jesuit Miguel de Almeida (1607–83), published in Goa in 1658. This doctrinal work presents a detailed interpretation of pastoral images which perfectly overlaps with the artworks’ iconography. Almeida’s work represents the best documentation for the interpretation of the iconography as it was circulating in the missionary discourse of Portuguese India. It suggests that the statuettes symbolized the eschatological role of the missionary clergy and the Catholic Church though the didactic use of pastoral allegories.
Source: Journal of Jesuit Studies
Author: Francesco Gusella
Institution: University of Münster
Language: English
Subfield: Conservation
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2980416436