Museu de Arte Sacra do Funchal

HOMEPAGE | COLLECTION | PORTUGUESE ART | ART FROM THE MEETING OF CULTURES

		Pedestal Cross (Calvary) Indo-Portuguese Wood with metal and ivory appliqué 17th Century 100 cm (H) x 53 cm (W) From Our Lady of Carmo Church, Funchal MASF447 Pedestal cross of an Indo-Portuguese Calvary scene, rare in the regional context. The cross and the base are carved in low-relief, somewhat crudely, forming a decoration based on vegetal forms, found in another type of Luso-Oriental productions¹. The base spreads laterally in two large wings, camouflaged in an embellished decorative vegetal design, a large niche opening at the centre with two twisting columns. This niche must have held a sculpture, now gone, probably of Our Lord of the Column. This structure reminds us of the information of the plain Portuguese architecture, with a Luso-Oriental flavour. The upright and crossbeam of the cross are carved wood and trimmed with a cut-out and perforated fillet. The trim of the crossbeams, as well as the upright and the pronounced legend INRI, end in a curious pine-cone shaped form. A dead Christ dating from the mid-17th century, made in an Indo-Portuguese workshop, is nailed on the cross, revealing traces of polychrome and gilding on the fine veil. At the base of the composition, the figures common in representations of Calvary scenes, St. John the Evangelist and Our Lady, are missing from the set. Note the similarity between this piece and that presented by Bernardo Ferrão de Tavares e Távora², or with the Calvary scene presented in the catalogue of the exhibition A Arte e o Mar³, from a private collection in Lisbon. ¹ Fernando Moncada, "Mobiliário Quinhentista Luso-Oriental", Jornal O Antiquário, n.º 16, Jan. 1997, pp. 6-9. ² Bernardo Ferrão de Tavares e Távora, Imaginária Luso-Oriental, Imprensa Nacional, Lisbon, 1983, cat. 151, p.116. A Expansão Portuguesa e Arte do Marfim, Coord. Francisco Hipólito Raposo, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, ed. Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, Lisbon, 1991, cat. 377, p.141. ³ A Arte e o Mar, Coord. Fernando António Baptista Pereira, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 1998, cat. 86, p. 120.