Indo-Portuguese Goa Finely Carved Ivory Figure of the Infant Christ as Saviour of the World ‘Salvator Mundi’
Indo-Portuguese Goa Finely Carved Ivory Figure of the Infant Christ as Saviour of the World ‘Salvator Mundi’
Period 1700-1750
Origin Indo-Portuguese, Goa, India / Goa
Medium Ivory, polychrome
Dimension 24.5 cm (9⁵/₈ inches)
The hair with traces of polychrome and gilding
An old label to reverse of wood stand inscribed ‘Messel Collection’
First half of the 18th Century
Size: 24.5cm high - 9½ ins high / 29cm high - 11¼ ins high (with base)
Period: 1700-1750
Origin: Indo-Portuguese, Goa, India / Goa
Medium: Ivory, polychrome
Dimension: 24.5 cm (9⁵/₈ inches)
Provenance: Ex Irish Private collection
Ex Messel collection
Literature: The Christ Child holds his right hand in a sign of benediction and in his left a sphere representative of the globe surmounted by a cross. This image had been a Christian symbol of authority since the Middle Ages symbolising Christ’s dominion over the world, but became particularly favoured from the period following the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563). The Jesuit missionaries were among the most enthusiastic promoters of the images of the Salvator Mundi throughout the East and it is one of the most remarkable produced in Goa revealing the Jesuit mission of militant Catholicism.
Finch & Co
Antiquities, ethnographica, natural history, sculpture and works of art
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