Ɏ AN INDO-PORTUGUESE GILT AND POLYCHROME IVORY FIGURE OF CHRIST AS THE GOOD SHEPHERD, GOA, 17TH CENTURY
This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve

Published:
1. Jean-Paul Desroches (ed.) et al, Two Americans in Paris. A Quest for Asian Art, Paris, 2016, p. 167, no. 279.
2. Pointe-à-Callière Museum, Two Americans in Paris. A Quest for Asian Art, Montréal, 2016, exhibition album, p. 15.

Exhibited:
1. Pointe-à-Callière Museum, From the Lands of Asia. The Sam and Myrna Myers Collection, Montréal, 17 November 2016-19 March 2017.
2. Kimbell Art Museum, From the Lands of Asia. The Sam and Myrna Myers Collection, Fort Worth, Texas, 4 March-19 August 2018.

Western India. Very finely carved seated with crossed legs and resting his head upon his hand while balancing a sheep on his lap and left shoulder, wearing a patterned wool tunic tied around the waist with a knotted belt suspending a gourd of water, a saddlebag strewn across his body, and his face gently modeled in a downcast gaze framed by strands of curls.

Provenance: The Collection of Sam and Myrna Myers, Paris, France. Acquired between circa 1965-2012.
Condition: Very good condition with wear and natural imperfections. Flaking and expected losses to gilt and pigment.

Weight: 339.6 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 15.5 cm (excl. stand), 17.1 cm (incl. stand)

Mounted on an associated wood stand. (2)

This ivory carving was produced in the Portuguese colony of Goa, on India’s western coast, where such sculptures were made for export and for Catholic missionaries in India. Aware of Mughal interest, Jesuits might have brought similar sculptures to the court. Jesus was regarded as a prophet in Islam, and images of Jesus and other prophets were collected by the Mughal courtiers and painted on the walls of Mughal palaces.

The representation in ivory of Christ the Good Shepherd is an iconography that is unique to Goa. While the exact date of these carvings is not known, most published examples are attributed to the seventeenth century or possibly earlier. Similar examples have also been described as Saint Francis, such as the similar example in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly named the Prince of Wales Museum), Mumbai, illustrated in M. Chandra, Indian Ivories, 1987, pl. 19.

The depiction of Christ as a contemplative figure is noteworthy and may have been borrowed by the Jesuit missionaries from Buddhist images of pensive bodhisattvas and Maitreya, the Buddha of the Future. Christ's eyes are closed. The gesture of his right hand, lightly touching his hair with two fingers, is seen by some scholars as adopting a gesture of the Buddha. Influences may also have been exerted by the popular Indian concepts of Krishna as the child god and divine cowherd. The Portuguese Christians thus could have deliberately selected a theme familiar to the Indians.

Literature comparison:
Compare a related ivory carving of Christ Child as Good Shepherd, Goa, 17^th century, 19.4 cm high, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, accession number M.86.187, illustrated by Pratapaditya Pal, Indian Sculpture, vol. 2, 1988, p. 236, no. 120. Compare a related ivory carving of Christ Child as Good Shepherd, Goa, 17^th century, 17.4 cm high, in the Walters Art Museum, accession number 71.324.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s Amsterdam, 5 April 2007, lot 38
Price: EUR 19,200 or approx. EUR 29,500 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A polychrome decorated ivory group of Christ as the good shepherd, Goa, 17^th-18^th century
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling, manner of carving, and subject with similar pensive pose, expression, garments, and coddling sheep. Note the separately carved base and overall height (27.2 cm), this figure and the current lot being of similar size.

Trade Certificate: The trade certificate for the sale of this lot within the EU has been granted (permit number AT 25-B-1203).