Estimate

Price on request

Session 2

26 February 2015

Hammer Price

Description

Teak with sissoo, kingwood, ivory and dyed ivory inlaid decoration
Designed as a small temple with demi-octogonal base
Dome with cross with the colours of Saint Dominic Order, black and white, and framed by pierced wood balustrade
Articulated doors with Mogul inspired decoration, outside with stylized floral motifs and framed by colored cluster friezes
Typical Indo-Portuguese gilt and scalloped bronze hinges
The doors opens to reveal similar decorated interior with niches with carved ivory sculptures, left with: St. Domininc, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Paul; right side with: St. Anthony, St. Peter and St. Francis Xavier
The represented saints symbolize on one hand the Church foundation (Peter and Paul) and on the other hand the three most important oriental missionary ordens, Domincans, Franciscans and Jesuits
Being St. Francis Xavier depicting among the saints we can date the piece from after 1622, the canonization year of the Jesuit saint
Interior with six spiral columns with corinthian chapiters and palm-tree bases with oil on copper depicting apparition of Our Lady of the Rosary to Saint Dominic of Guzman
This exceptional tenebrist painting is possibly a spanish work of the sencond third of the 17th century
Based on the multiple references to Saint Dominic Order and the quality of the work we believe that this piece is indeed a highly important Domican commission, possibly for one of its monasteries
India, 17th century

75x34,5x24 cm
75x103x24 cm

Category

Objects

Additional Information

Note: Similar pieces kept at Museu de Arte Antiga (MNAA), Lisbon and Évora Museum.
The one kept in MNAA has even a similar iconographic reading, displaying the same images of saints but in a different order.
For the same decoration, we can consider the one from the former collection of Francisco Hipólito Raposo, although these one with a different typology.