mirroring devotion. toward a structural analysis of artistic and religious interactions on the...

Mirroring Devotion.Toward a structural analysis of artistic and religious interactions on the Catholic Missions in India

Rui Oliveira Lopes ([email protected])Postdoctoral Research Fellow, FCTArtistic Studies Research Centre,Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon

Colonial (Mis)understandings.(Mis-)understanding religious art in colonial encounters

CHAM, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, New University of Lisbon17 - 20 July, 2013

terça-feira, 7 de janeiro de 2014

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Christian art on the Catholic missions of the East

Saint Francis Xavier Preaching in GoaAndré Reinoso, c. 1620

Jahangir presents Prince Khurram with a turban ornamentfrom the Padshahnam, c. 1650



Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqifrom China Illustrata, 1667

Namban Folding Screen (detail)Kano Naizen School, c. 1620



Archetypes | Schemata | Symbols

Intercultural dialogueProcesses of alterity and construction of knowledge

Convenience (mutual knowledge on the other)Emulation and Appropriation

Analogy (knowledge transfer from one particular to another particular)

Intercultural dialogue and the construction of knowledge

The process of visual perception makes use of schemata to define a mental structure of perceived ideas, giving place to a creative and symbolic dimension of the social world, which results in the representation of collective life, i.e., the anthropological structures of the imaginary.

Archetypes are a form of schema to establish a pattern of behaviour and, accordingly with Jungian psychology, they refer to a collectively inherited unconscious idea or a pattern of thought universally present in individual psyches.

The symbolic conception of the imaginary is defined by consistency between the dominant reflections and their expanse or cultural confirmation. This means the consonance between global unconscious ideas and local cultural identity.

Primary Images / Pure Forms Dynamic Images / Cultural Forms

Images of the sacred and mythological narrativesaccordingly with the fundamental codes of a culture

(cultural geography, language, political system, religion, and cultural values)


Intercultural dialogue and artistic interactions on the Catholic missions in India

Portuguese State of India Mughal India

Goa, from the Itinerario, voyage ofte schipvaert, Ian Huygen van Linshoten naer Oost ofte Portugaels IndienAmsterdam, 1596

Jesuits at the Akbar’s Courtfrom Akbarnama, 1595


Intercultural dialogue and artistic interactions under the Catholic missions in India

Portuguese State of India

MatrimurtiJain Temple, Palitana, Gujarat

AgniSihonia, Morena Fort Museum, Gwalior

(Mis)understanding religious art

(...) e dentro estava huua ymagem pequena a quall eles diziam que era nosa Senhora (...)

(...) and inside there was a small image they said it was Our Lady (...)

Álvaro Velho, Roteiro da Viagem que em descobrimento...

(...) No mais que está para tresladar esperamos de descubrir muytas falsidades que nos ajudem para confundir os que nelas confião (...)

(...) In what is left to translate we hope to find out lots of falseness that could be useful to confuse those who trust in them (...)

Father Pedro de Almeida, December 26, 1558, in the Jesuit College of S. Paul in Goa




Holy TrinitySaint Monica Convent, Goa


(...) têm muito por semelhas a Santa Trindade (...) e fazem sempre a sua oração a Deus, o qual confessam e adoram ser Deus verdadeiro, criador e fazedor de todas as coisas, que é três e um só deus (...) Estes bramanes e gentios, onde quer que se acham, entram em nossas igrejas e fazem oração e adoração às nossas imagens, perguntando sempre por Santa Maria, como homens que disso têm algum conhecimento ou notícia, e, como à nossa maneira, honram a igreja, dizendo que entre eles e nós há muito pouca diferença.

(...) they have lots of similarities with the Holy Trinity (...) and they always do their prayers to God, who they confess to be the true God, creator and maker of all things, that is three and only one God (...) This Brahmans and gentiles, wherever they are, they get in our Churches and pray and adore our images, always asking about Our Lady, like they are men with knowledge on that subject, and, in our way, they honour the Church, saying that between them and us there isn’t much difference.

Duarte Barbosa, Livro que dá relação do que viu e ouviu no Oriente, c. 1516




TrimurtiElephanta Caves, Maharashtra


(...) philosofos e religiosos que se chamão bramenes, os quais crem na santissima trindade, padre, filho, spirito sancto, e em muitas cousas de nossa sacratisima ley (...)

(...) philosophers and religious men called Brahmans, who believe in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and in a lot of things from our Holy Law (...)

D. João de Castro, Roteiro de Goa a Diu, c. 1539




Replacement and Appropriation



Mughal India

Jesuits at the Akbar’s Courtfrom Akbarnama, 1595

Apotheosis of the Virgin, c.1580



Mughal India

Allegorical Figure, c. 1600

Crucifixion, Kesu Das c.1585 - 1590



Mughal India


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