10/06/13

A Vision Beyond Immediacy

Teotonio R de Souza | teodesouza at gmail.com

Bible. The Old and The New Testament. Bblia: O Antigo e o Novo Testamento. Leatherbound parchment. THE MUSEUM OF CHRISTIAN ART at Rachol Seminary marked an important chapter in the history of Church Art collections in Goa, starting from the very start of the 20th century through he efforts of the Commisso Permanente de Arqueologia, whose existence was formalized a couple of years after the stablishment of the first museum of Bom Jesus in Old Goa, in 1900. Art collections were also organized and displayed at the convents of St Cajetan and St Francis of Assisi in Old Goa. After 1961, most items were transferred to the museum at the Convent of St Francis of Assisi, controlled by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The State Government also set up its own museum in Panjim, gathering therein pieces of Christian art. However, the unique Christian heritage of Goa justified a Church initiative, and this became possible when Mario Miranda, the convenor of the Goa Chapter of INTACH (the Indian National Trust for the Arts and Cultural Heritage) suggested in 1988 a joint project of INTACH, the Goa Archdiocese and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to set up a Christian Art Museum at Rachol. Dr. Jos Blanco, the Administrator of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Mario Miranda and Martand Singh, of INTACH, were firmly convinced that it had to be there, because it was from Rachol that the Jesuits had fanned out to the rest of Salcete, making it a stronghold of Christianity, and it was from the Rachol Seminary that over the centuries the Church of Goa had sent and still sends its priests to look after the needs of the faithful in Goa and elsewhere in India and beyond. The decision-making process for the installation of the museum at Rachol took more than three years, after much debate and preparatory work effected by a committee appointed by the Archbishop-Patriarch on February 12, 1988. As the then Director of the Xavier Centre of Historical Research, I was asked to be on the Executive Committee as its Vice-President. The committee drafted the Memorandum of Association and the Rules and Regulations for creating a Museum Trust to administer the proposed museum. The foundation stone was finally laid, in one of the Seminary's remodelled chambers
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(camarata), on December 5, 1991, by the Archbishop-Patriarch with the participation of the Gulbenkian Choir. The circular issued by the Archbishop-Patriarch on June 24, 1991, delved into the objectives and some of the initial phases described above. The main objective of the circular was to lay the groundwork for the task that was entrusted to me, namely to prepare a general inventory of the art objects available in the churches and other religious establishments of the Church in Goa. It was for me a most educative phase in my life, taking me to every nook and corner of Goa and enabling me to get in touch with the real-life situations of the Churches and chapels, and their pastoral and other care-takers. It was a wearisome task because it meant spending almost every Sunday, for nearly a year and half, from morning till late evening, photographing and describing art objects of relevance, amidst generous covers of dust and with poor or no lighting conditions. Despite early warnings, it was not always possible to find the key-holders of the places and, as often happens in Goa, the electricity was occasionally shut down for repairs on Sundays.

Painting of Our Lady with Infant Jesus. Length 27 cms. Width 23 cms. Painting set in an enamel frame.

Much of this job would not have been possible without the dedicated assistance of two close personal friends, namely a young Goan artist, Fausto Colao from Margo, with his professional knowledge in cataloguing, and Felix Ferro from Alto Porvorim, who helped with transport and his private current generator. None of us received any monetary compensation for this work. It was for all three of us a duty of love for our heritage. The photography was carried out by a paid professional photographer, Olencio Coutinho, owner of the Hollywood Studio in Panjim. As a result of our endeavours, I was able to hand over to Father Avinash Rebelo, the Secretary of the Museum Trust, in April 1993, nine volumes of inventory, containing photos and descriptions of selected art objects, including murals and other objects, which could hardly enter
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A Vision Beyond Immediacy

the proposed museum, but which can serve at some future date to repair any damage that might happen to such items. For this and other reasons, the Christian Art Museum of Rachol was an effort that has gone beyond its immediate aims and objectives, crossing immediacy! This is even more true if the museum is no longer at Rachol. It has crossed the immediacy even physically. It was on the basis of the above inventory that Maria Helena Mendes Pinto, a conservation and art expert of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, was able to undertake the selection of items to be displayed at the museum. I have most satisfying memories of the collaboration and of the whole process that resulted in a landmark in Goa's art history.

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