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Retable art in India: its importance, the empathic apathy and the
future. Cultural aspects concerning conservation
M. Reis
University of Algarve; CHAIA Center for Art History and Artistic Investigation, University of vora

ABSTRACT: Due to a combination of cultural factors and the lack of specific studies, retable
art in India is slowly being neglected, forgotten and distorted, leading to a situation in which it
is vanishing day by day. Actions to prevent its total dilapidation cannot be reduced to specific
studies, which ultimately, will only prevent the total dilapidation of its memory. Portuguese India is long gone and, with it, its features in art are simply being buried along with the past generations. Politics are a double-edged sword acting both for and against culture and art. What are
the reasons for this loss of Indo-Portuguese retable art? And will knowledge of these reasons
help us establish a prevention plan to save retable art? Could India be a partner to save miscegenized Indo-Portuguese Christian Art, an expression of two cultures? What is the future of Christian retable art in Hindu India? This essay is a reflection on past and present history with a view
to bring about the subject on modern retable art conservation.

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 The idea of India and the Portuguese expansionist policy
Understanding how to preserve a particular art form, such as the Indo-Portuguese retable art,
may only be accomplished if we consider the history and cultural constraints established in the
various contact points between the two cultures throughout history. Local Indian culture, multicultural and with its own singularities, has always been a point of fascination in the western
world such fascination being a result of the geography itself as it prevented the west from entering this sub-continent for centuries. India is the cradle of such religions as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, with religious traditions which have lasted to our days, as is the case of Hinduism, and religious traditions imported before the Portuguese arrival, such as Islamism. Indian
society is organized in a caste system, with its own laws dictated by the holy texts handed down
through generations and which has received along the centuries the presence of several peoples
for reasons that are connected to its own economy, based mainly in the spice trade. In the case
mentioned here, western culture was conveyed by the Portuguese at the beginning of the 15th
century during the reign of King Manuel I (1469-1521), embedded in a project with an essentially political matrix - the one designed by the House of Aviz, essentially focused on pleasing
the nobility which was now underprivileged of war conquests and issuing pressure on the royalty (Boxer 1969). The solution was to make expansionism a means to make the State stronger;
() [however, the assertion of the] dynasty must have been an idea that developed in a gradual
manner (Thomaz 1994, 60).
Previously, the Project carried out by King Joo II (1481-1495) was drawn in seven different
fronts, the fourth line being the collection of information on the East, the sixth line being the attempt to create several foci of Christianisation throughout the African continent, and the seventh
being the intensification of diplomatic activity aiming at achieving the supremacy of Portugal
over the conquered territories (Thomaz 1994, 166-7). These lines were also of critical impor-

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tance for the Manueline imperial project, which further added to the inherited Messianic ideas
that characterized the way that Portugal ended up arriving in India. This way, the second voyage
to India carried out by Pedro lvares Cabral was established by King Manuels precise instructions on how to approach the land and the people living there:
() Wishing very much to find out about that land of India and its people, primarily on the
service of Our Lord, as we have the information that he and his subjects and inhabitants of his
kingdom are Christians of our faith () should be sought for, to make sure they best practice
our faith () taking from our kingdoms goods they need, and on the other hand bringing their
own back to our kingdom ()(Rego 1991).
Politics and the economy of the kingdom were the main motivations that led king Manuel I to
engage in the Portuguese expansion which - based on Messianism and the search for lost Christians - departed to India once again. The help from religious congregations would be critical and
the Jesuits aims to convert souls fitted perfectly with the kings intents. Thus they were assigned the task of recovering Christians deemed to be lost. It is at this precise moment that IndoPortuguese retable art meets its protohistory, as it is due to this need to gather souls that the retable a Bible in images shall be the leading player of faith of an event in art.
2 RETABLE ART IN INDIA
2.1 What is Retable Art in India: the effects of miscegenation.
The word retable originates from the latim retrotabulum - meaning the ornamental panel behind
the altar. When mass celebrations began taking place with a forward-facing audience, retable art
gained importance and began to grow not only in size but also in artistic splendor (see figure 1).
In India it is within the realm of this ornamental grammar that the most relevant elements
emerge to reveal the artistic miscegenation which characterizes and differentiates IndoPortuguese retables from those of Portugal. Figurative elements undoubtedly constitute one of
the aspects where one can best establish parallels between the classic models and miscegenation, the artistic expression of the encounter of various cultures. It is possible to find "works
very close to Hindu sculpture with great hieratic character, if not to say rigidity often with a
frontal predominance (...) with inexpressive oriental faces and complex treatment of plated
dresses [a unique feature hinting at traditional Mughal clothes] (...) and bright colors enhancing
physiognomic features. The faces of Our Lady "are fashioned after Indian deities, adopting
even some of their attributes (Dias 1998, 264-266; Dias 2008, vol. 10). This is certainly the
most obvious feature: faces are round, slightly flat, with narrow eyes. The facial expressions are
pleasant, approaching the sculptural representations of Hindu deities.
As far as angels, cherubs and seraphim are concerned, they are often made to fit reduced
spaces by twisting their bodies and placing them in unrealistic positions. The same is true of the
sculptural ceilings of Hindu temples, where deities and mythical beings are restricted to geometrically scanty spaces, as seen in Hindu votive plates and rock carved temples (Harle 1994; Mitter 2001). The rigidity of the bodies is also characteristic of the Hindustani sculptures, as seen in
traditional Hindu representations of apsar, or divine angels, a result of Mughal influence on
Hindu iconography. Also in the field of figuration, predominantly in pulpits but also in the
crowning of the big windows apses, such as the big windows of St. Jerome Church apse of
Mapusa in Daman and Bardez in Goa (see figure 2), mythical beings often appear wrapped in
clusters of leaves, which make it impossible to distinguish them at first. These representations
have no parallel in Christian iconography, but Hindu iconography provides the necessary context relating them to the Kirtimukhas, widely used in Hindu sculpture until the 14th century as
decorative elements symbolically associated with the idea of glory and protection (Jansen 2007,
19; Harle 1994; Rowland 1977, 316, 446).

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Figure 1 - Detail in windows in

Saint Jerome Church, MapusaBardez in Goa

Figure 2 - Main retable in

Good Jesus Church in DamanSquare.

Figure 3 - Detail in Our Lady with the

Child retable in the Church of Our Lady of Remedies, Little-Daman

Animal representations are often placed all over retable composition. In some cases, one can
see beyond their Christian context towards a Hindu theme (Murthy 1984). This is the case of the
middle-relief sea monster at the pediment of the retable of Our Lady with Child surrounded by
acanthus in the Our Lady of Remedies Church, Grand Daman, Gujarat (see figure 3). The coil
of the acanthus ends with a sea monster, which is a Makara in Hindu iconography (Jansen 2007,
68).
The interpretation of the ornamental grammar by local artists is particularly evident in ornamentation. While in Europe retables were decorated with wine leaves, acanthus, pomegranates
and others, different interpretations of the Christian religious liturgy emerge in Goa, Daman and
Diu: "acanthus leaves (...) [are] the most important and widespread, combining [with ornaments
typical of] (...) the local art (Azevedo 1969, 26). Among the elements of local art listed by the
author is the replacement of grapes by cashews, which ties in with their local usage: like the
grape, the cashew produces a juice used to produce an alcoholic beverage. Beside this, the cashew is used in Indian culture to cure various diseases and, therefore, may also have been associated with a certain apotropaic character (Erdia et al. 2001, 98).
Lotus flowers appear in almost all the Indian retables as symbols of purification, compassion
and knowledge. There is no single representation of this floral element, which instead may appear in a more pure fashion, stylized or even in geometric shapes. The presence of palmettes in
the entablature and as motifs framing niches, galleries and chambers is recurrent and follows local ornamental themes inherited by Persian, Mesopotamian, Byzantine and Islamic cultures
(Jones 2001).
2.2 The fight against disappearance
Many retables are in urgent need of intervention, containing clear evidence of degradation, jeopardizing their survival. This unfortunate fact is recurrent throughout Goa. Climatic conditions
are one of the aspects that contribute directly the deterioration of woodwork. A hot and constantly humid climate challenges wood properties. Nature also lends a hand: termites, known locally as caria, lodge inside the timber and, silently and literally, eat up the artwork. When infestation becomes visible, it may be too late and the whole retable can simply crumble. Many
retables were disposed of because there was not enough money or technical knowledge for their
consolidation.
Another recurrent aspect, one which is contributing to the adulteration of the Indo-Portuguese
retable, concerns the constant aesthetic interventions they undergo. These interventions are often made by companies and individuals who lack basic knowledge of heritage intervention or
simply ignore the history of the retable. The retable ends up being given successive washes of

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paint, with more or less common chromatic options and inappropriate types of paint, or else the
entire surface is gilded irrespective of whether it was originally neutral or punctual. Often golden paint is applied instead of golden sheets, contributing little to the intended purpose and placing unnecessary financial burden on the communities. What is actually happening is the result
of technical misinformation in the midst of a good will for preservation. These are consequences
of not having an organization dedicated to preservation and of legislation commensurate with
international rules of conservation and restoration (ICOMOS 1964a; Ballestrem, ICCROM, e et
all 1978; First International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments
1931; ICOMOS 1964b; ICOMOS 2003). The extant local organizations, unfortunately, are unable to supervise all the work involved. For the sake of retabulistics, art and its legacy, a solution
is urgently needed.
3 GOA: HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL PRELUDE
3.1 From Aparanta to Gomantak, from Gomantak to Goa .
Aparanta means land before the end. This was the name by which northern regions of India, including Daman, Diu and Goa, were known during the Mauryas period. Later on other civilizations1 lived there and other names were given to it. What is important to retain here is that, according to tradition, the identity of Goa was being slowly built to the extent of diverging from
the rest of India. Tradition has it that the first inhabitants of Goa region were Brahmin Sarasvati
who came to this place to settle down and take possession of the lands (Dhume 2009, 177-8,
339). The first three groups arriving in Goa were Bhojas, Chediyas and Sarasvatis who kept
connections with northern India. The second wave settled down in Quelossim and Cortalim
respectively Keloshi and Kushasthal in their original denominations but then became known by
the name of their villages: Keloshikars and Kushasthalikars. Later on, the latter expanded to
other places. The names of talukas (municipalities or districts) which nowadays distinguish and
subdivide Goa, are also a reflection of the settling of Goa: Tiswadi, the name of the taluka
which hosts Panjim (the capital) means originally thirty villages, and Salcete, the taluka where
the city of Margo was located, means sixty six. With the settlement of Goa came Hinduism and
with it its deities. Magirish, Mahadeo, Mahalaxmi, Kamakshi, Mahalsa, Shantadurga, Nagesh,
Saptakoteshwar among so many others, are only some of the main deities brought from the
north of India. The evidence that proves this reality is the amount of temples dedicated to those
deities which can be found throughout the Goan territory. Later on, the enclave situation endured by Goa during the Islamic and the Christian periods allowed for a more pure form of Hinduism to be retained, as the words of Romesh Bhandari2 suggest:
Goa has a special role in the practice of Hinduism. It was the Aryans who first brought
Hinduism as we know it today to Goa. The Hindus in Portuguese Goa however remained insulated from what was happening to their co-religionists in other parts of India. The Goan Hindu
is therefore of relatively greater purity than Hindus elsewhere. This relates to religious rites,
practices and of the observance of customs, rituals and festivals (Bhandari 1999, 161).
This must have been one of the first episodes of the flight of the deities that the Goan territory
had witnessed. However, this is not a flight in the negative sense of the word, as it represents the
settlement of the Hindu religion within the territory.
3.2 Conquering India: an unfinished Project
In his overseas policy, king Manuel I supported an imperial project of a deeply commercial nature in addition to missionary and faith propagation. What the Portuguese crown was not expecting was that it would be extremely difficult to implement this faith project based mainly on
conversions alone. The difficulties resulted in the use of more extreme measures which gave
rise to reproachable actions, such as mass conversions, territorial prohibitions and inaccessibility to senior public offices by unconverted people. The crown relied more on the conversions as
a guarantee of its control over pepper not only pepper, but all wealth produced by India. In its
turn Goa had already undergone a similar period of control, of Islamic religious nature, under
the auspices of the Vijayanagar Empire, in the 14th and 15th centuries and later on under Adil
Khan of the Bijapur sultanate until 1510, the date when the latter surrendered Goa to Afonso de

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Albuquerque. Portugal reached India but never actually entered it, a fact which is obvious from
the territorial geography. In a few centuries, Portugal lost even the exclusivity of the Cape
Route, due mainly to the activity of spies, such as Jan Huygen Van Linschoten (1563-1611)3.
The routes were no longer exclusive to the Portuguese crown and the economic consequences
had their corresponding natural impact (Guinote 2003). Under these controls of religious nature,
the Hindu matrix never really disappears from India; on the contrary it feeds and survives on the
populations zealous dedication. It is important to retain this fact, as it is in this religious zealousness that the current approach to retable art is going to be positioned.
3.3 Hindu Goa, Portuguese Goa and Goan Goa.
During the 1600s in Goa, the kingdom turned to conversions which from a certain moment on
became mass conversions. These episodes had native populations feeling more and more threatened as their lands were being occupied and their temples demolished to be replaced by
churches. Hindu worship was repressed in its various aspects and the new Christian converts
were forced to avoid any contact with members of their former religion, forcing the native Hindu population to move from the territories occupied by the Portuguese (Axelrod and Fuerch
1996, 417). This was the true flight of the deities, a strategic flight to allow the continuation of
Hinduism, thanks to the migration of the family, goods and deities in order to erect new temples
to its gods in the territories of the New Conquests. After these first episodes of conversion the
Church realized the newly converted were on a thin line as far as the effective practice of the
Christian worship was concerned. New converts began to leave the Christian-controlled territory
to join the Hindus that had already migrated, leading to reconversions to Hinduism (Axelrod
and Fuerch 1996, 414). Influential Hindus were brought into the fold of Christianity, as was the
case of some Brahmins who played an important role with the translation of Vedic works (Neill
1984, 237), but the removal of Hinduism largely failed in Goa and Hindu rites continued to be
followed with the participation of the newly Christian. There were movements in and out of the
Christian area and even orphans and widows were being sheltered by their relatives to allow
them to escape conversion to Christianity. It is in this sense that the Count of Linhares (16291635), Governor and Viceroy of Goa between 1585 and 1677, passed a law in 1633 ordering
that from that day on, all gentiles were prohibited to own any houses or land in the Salcete taluka, allowing them two months for departure. According to that law, any contacts between gentiles and Christians during this period of time were forbidden (Axelrod and Fuerch 1996, 416).
Despite resistance by Hindus, rules, decrees and laws were passed prohibiting the practice of
Hinduism. The number of new Christian converts increased to the extent that in the 1800s, Goa
clamed Catholicism as its major religion (Borges and Feldmann 1997).
The two cultural and religious realities formed a new way of being and thinking the Goan
way (Borges and Feldmann 1997). The regions territorial location and cultural past gave birth
to a singular kind of identity, an identity where most Goans would come to consider themselves
Goans above their Indian-ness. This new identity, the Goan identity, which is neither Portuguese nor Indian, is an identity with very specific features which prevails until this day. One
unique characteristic is the perseverance of Hindus to keep worshiping their gods, originating
interesting syncretic episodes. This is, for instance, the case of the Bhagvati goddess of the Tiswadi taluka. This goddess, initially called Chimbel, was taken to Marcel in 1673 after being
concealed in Mahen. Nowadays this goddess returns to Chimbel every year, in a procession
which attracts both Hindus and Christians who worship her in the same way (Axelrod and Fuerch 1996, 393-4).
The history indicates that it was impossible to repress the essence of a people, irrespective of
all decrees and laws passed. In the midst of conversion and escape from conversion, local identity continued to survive alongside a new imported one (Robinson 1994). In the retable these
identities merge, beginning unique forms and representations, showing that on this stage the
one of art conflicts can occur between a naga and a seraph, but no one can loose.
3.4 On the edge of a cliff Indo-Portuguese art thru a political lens
Portuguese India at the beginning of the 20th century was faraway and inaccessible. Lisbon was
unaware of the immediate realities of Goa, its elite society and its own history, of the realities of

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a colony which was entitled to choose its own representatives to the courts of the kingdom.
When on the 15th August 1947 India declared its independence from the British authority, Salazar declared himself an enemy of Pandit Nehru, chief candidate of the Indian Union. On both
sides actions and consequences emerged. The Indian Union claimed that Goa, Daman, Diu, Dadra and Nagar-Haveli territories had been stolen from India, which made the Portuguese occupation of the mentioned territories illegal. In reply, the Portuguese government (the so-called
New State - Estado Novo) claimed that at the time of the occupation of the territory there was
not an Indian rule of law and those territories had been taken from the Islamic authority. Therefore, the Portuguese conquests were legal, in the light of the Right of Conquest. As far as religious and ethnic issues were concerned, the Indian Union declared that it wished to be cut free
from the oppression imposed by the Portuguese. In reply, Portugal stated that there were no
signs indicating that the Goan citizens wanted in fact, to be released, and that the lower castes
had, in fact, benefitted from the Portuguese presence as they had acquired the dignity which the
Indian system did not grant them. The invasion of Goa, Daman and Diu territories has, therefore, two names: Revolution and Release, depending on the two points of view explained
above, showing a duality that is still present and shown by the Goan people.
This incursion in politics of the early 20th century was the basis for what followed: Portugal
was disconnected from the Indian colonies and was now about to lose them. Under this scenario, England was a powerful ally to the Portuguese in preventing the loss of these territories. The
New State relied on this alliance and employed the history of Indo-Portuguese art as a political
tool to maintain ties with its overseas territories. Mrio Tavares Chic (1905-1966) and Carlos
de Azevedo (1918-1995) were summoned on a scientific mission to show that this art was neither Portuguese nor took away Indianess from the Indian state, as a way of justifying the presence of Portugal in the territories. This hard task guided by political issues was probably one of
the best scientific missions ever accomplished by the Portuguese state, but its submission to a
political thought prevented it from fully achieving its aims. The manner in which the IndoPortuguese art were seen was deeply influenced by the political agendas, the alliance with England and the detachment of the kingdom regarding the colony. The objectives that should have
been of primary importance were largely disregarded. These in our view included establishing
an intercultural understanding of the art itself; legitimizing Indo-Portuguese art as the unequivocal result of contact between two civilizations; considering art as a reflection of culture, religion and the artists; understanding how artists perceived Christian art against a background of
control; documenting the manner in which the Christian message was conveyed to the new
Christian converts through this art; and finally, gaining an understanding of what particular aspects of Christian art and symbolism were considered to be the most contentious to Hindu resistors. The consequences for other forms of Indo-Portuguese art, such as the decorative arts4, were
not as strong as for the retable art. Retable art, while a major symbol of Christian religious spirit
in churches, is of only minor importance in modern Indian daily life. The lack of research (Irwin
1955) into the meaning and importance of Indo-Portuguese art has resulted in a lack of formal
recognition of it as a unique and important cultural form (Gomes 2009). Taken together, these
reflections on the definition of the concept of Indo-Portuguese art indicate why it has not been
able to attain a position as an important expression of art. These considerations may also be a
large part of the reason why Indo-Portuguese retable art is considered as a minor area within art
historiography, to which only slender and outdated studies are dedicated (Chic 1954; Chic
1959; Chic 1956; Azevedo 1959; Azevedo 1969).
4 INDO-PORTUGUESE RETABLE: KNOWLEDGE AND PRESERVATION
4.1 Old Goa and the oblivion of the rest of the territory
In terms of the historiography of preservation and restoration, Goa a 3702 m2 territory comprising 11 talukas or municipalities has only had about 3 m2 and one single taluka: Tiswadi,
the taluka where the first Goa of the Portuguese can be found: Old Goa. Although it is not our
intention to deny its historic and artistic relevance, Goa is not only Old Goa. Outside the latters
limits, lies a much larger area that cries for attention. The view that Goa only exists within Old
Goa is abundantly evident -- from academic studies to tourist publications (Telles 1932; Telles
1931; Pandit 2004; Jos Pereira 2003; Doshi 1983; Lobo 2004; AAVV 1979; Fonseca 1878;

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Serro e et all 2007; Antnio Nunes Pereira 2005). Goa is considered to be only found in Old
Goa, and any other places with a Portuguese presence are simply an afterthought to this fact.
This reality is also apparent in the typology of studies carried out on Indo-Portuguese art: the
sacred, votive, ornamental objects, as well as furniture items are by far the most studied ones.
Then comes architecture, that of Old Goa and of Kerala in the south of India. Following the expeditions of Chic and Azevedo, the retable was given little attention in the 1950-60 apart
from the writings of Hilda Frias (Frias 2006). Even Frias, however, only considered a subsidiary
section of retable art: the pulpit. Recently however, research into the retable art of the Company
of Jesus in Daman and Diu has begun (Reis 2007; Reis 2009). Since 2007, 93.95% of IndoPortuguese retable art within the Goa, Daman and Diu territories has been examined, resulting
in the inventory of already 911 retables and 154 pulpits a clear and impressive indication that
Goa is much more than just Old Goa, at least as far as retables are concerned.

Figure 4-Total Sampling

Figure 5 - Totals of Examined Places

The other 6.05% not in the inventory correspond mostly to places within the space of the
New Conquests but with buildings dating from after 1800. Among the 93.95% in the inventory
taken in Goa, Daman and Diu, 69.15% correspond to places with at least one retable, 23.79%
correspond to places with no woodcarving pieces at all and 0.81% correspond to places with
isolated woodcarving pieces with no entire retables5 It should also be mentioned that a small
parcel of 6.25% correspond to places that either do not exist today, or no longer have a place in
social memory.
4.2 Portuguese interventions and local interventions
Since 1995, the Oriente Foundation (FO) has been represented in Fontainhas, the historical district of Pangim. The foundation has been instrumental in undertaking the restoration of IndoPortuguese heritage artifacts, including the restoration of Indo-Portuguese retables. For this purpose specialists were brought in from Portugal to carry out not only immediate actions for the
preservation of these materials, but to also teach restoration and preservation techniques to local
artists, already engaged in the preservation of retable art through their families. Many of these
local artists have been restoring retable pieces for at least three generations. The result, although
isolated, is a positive one and allows for the perpetuation of restoration knowledge and the art.
However, not all of the scenarios described here are ideal. The preservation and restoration
techniques do not always follow the rules and the number of retables in need of intervention exceeds the specialized labour existing in Goa. In 2001 FO undertook an intervention on the Our
Lady of Monte Chapel in Old Goa (Fundao Oriente 2001) managing to recover the retables
from an unexpected fire that occurred during the very first maneuvers of the restoration work itself. By the hands of Miguel Mateus and Jos Artur Pestana, two renowned Portuguese conservators/restorers, the retables were given an intermediate solution, as the fire had taken most of
the original polychromatic information. Today, the chapel is used for music festivals and official events (The Times of India 2010), an example of how investment can be productive.
In 2007 the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG) started a project with the aim of taking
an inventory of Portuguese Historical Heritage to assist in the restoration and preservation of
Portuguese historical heritage scattered throughout the world, The work was undertaken between 2007 and 2009 and currently, three volumes are being prepared for publication, with each
one dedicated to single continent (America, Asia and Africa). A press release stated that the

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project, headed by the most renowned specialists, was to be as comprehensive as possible, in

order to foster future research for many decades to come. However, no statement regarding the
specific number of countries that were involved was included. When we got in touch with FCG
to write this article Dr Mafalda Soares da Cunha, one of the members of the research team for
this project, told us that in terms of selection criteria, the team sought to articulate the existence
of non-movable heritage of artistic and/or heritage value. Since it focuses mainly on analyzing
the non-movable heritage, less attention was given to the interior decoration programs (Cunha
2010). Regarding the Indo-Portuguese retables, Dr Mafalda Soares de Cunha is not aware if the
retables were considered within the FCG inventory. In addition to this project, there are efforts
being made to restore the frescoes of the Santa Mnica Convent of Goa. These frescoes, in addition to the retable of Santa Mnica (not contemplated at this stage for restoration), are in urgent
need of intervention and study.
The INTACH Indian National Trust for the Arts and Cultural Heritage is a semi-private institution with its head office in New Delhi, and it specializes in the protection and restoration of
Indian historical and artistic heritage. Its pioneer intervention in the Sacred Art Museum in Rachol beginning in 1994 (now permanently in Old Goa, near So Francisco Church) are included
in its list of direct intervention actions of Christian heritage. This intervention was carried out in
cooperation with FCG and currently the restoration of Santana de Talaulim Church and the estate are inside it, including the retables. It is still early to carry out a critical appraisal of the action of INTACH at Talaulim since this action is still in progress. The author visited Santana of
Talaulim in 2009 and found it to be a true restoration workshop, with at least five people carrying out interventions of important figures, although the restoration of the collateral retables with
baroque influence were to be left in an allegedly neutral polychromy: white. There was no specific justification on the choice as the person in charge of the work was not at the site at that
moment.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), under the Ministry of Culture, is the premier organization for archaeological research and protection of the cultural heritage of the nation. Its
approach unfolds along more immediate actions like direct intervention, such as the regulation
and implementation of safety rules on the listed heritage items. In Daman and Diu, ASI goes
almost unnoticed except for the setting of identification plates. In Goa its action focuses primarily on Old Goa territory. According to the information provided by an officer of ASI Goa
Circle, engineer Rajendiran Siva (Siva 2010), ASI has been carrying out isolated preservation
actions according to the cases which justify it. In this context, ASI has carried out the restoration
of the retable of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in 2005, setting new integrating pieces
which had been detached from the set and which are perfectly visible to the naked eye, according to the more recent rules for this sort of intervention. More recently, in 2009, one of the retables of S Catedral (Cathedral) was removed for restoration.
The few and scarce interventions carried out, in partnership by local institutions and national
institutions, are insufficient to guarantee the preservation of retable art in the long run, although
this effort is preventing some retables from losing various constituting parts or from complete
destruction. But in order to effectively implement conservation, it is necessary to take the next
step.
5 HOW TO ACT?
5.1 Intervention plan: proposals for dialogue
The initial fundamental step to draw up an intervention plan has already been implemented: the
inventory of Indo-Portuguese retables. This project, currently still in progress, is of particular
importance for the restoration of retables, as it is only through the knowledge of what still exists
and the manner in how it needs to be restored, is it possible to prepare intervention and cooperation plans among the various entities and institutions aiming to reevaluate and restore IndoPortuguese retables. Taking into account the fact that we have carried out an inventory which
brought us very close to the reality of the Indo-Portuguese retables and the people who mediate
their daily use, we have the sufficient knowledge to be able to say that an important step, if not
the most important one, shall have to be taken by the Goa, Daman and Diu Archdiocese.

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The weather conditions and long life have not always been the worst enemies of the IndoPortuguese retables. In fact, one of their worst enemies has been the lack of information and
training of its interventionists. It is necessary to create regulations for the retables and the easiest
and immediate way to do so is through the Church. The role of the Church would be to promote
the dialogue and training of the various participants: clergy, the faithful, local preservation and
restoration companies and later on to regulate the specialized intervention of the retable by
means of written documents and supervision. In order to promote and implement this project,
the Church would grant financial support and impose fines when interventions are carried out
incorrectly. For that purpose it would be necessary to prepare a specific intervention policy
which takes into consideration the Indo-Portuguese retable.
For economic reasons together with the lack of artistic training and knowledge of the historical value of the retables, completely inappropriate restoration actions are being carried out on
Indo-Portuguese retables: full gilding, inappropriate and neglectful painting of the elements and
application of external elements such as light spots. Other more serious cases result in the replacement of the original retable, still in good condition, with new retables for aesthetic reasons.
These replacements take place when original retables are incorrectly considered to be aged and
valueless, when instead, what should have been ascertained was that the retable was old and of
high artistic value. It is sad for an historian to realise that in Old Portuguese India a retable of
the 17th century can be considered as something old and with no value. This shows the ignorance and lack of information (training) that prevails. There are also reported cases where the
restoration donors believe they are paying for pure gold and after the work is concluded the
gilding is found to have been carried out using golden paint and not by means of the delicate
application of gold leaf. During the research that took place in Goa we have watched several interventions in progress and in one of them we were even shown the gold leaf they claimed they
were applying on the retable. However, through the use of a large focusing lens we could see
that if that gold leaf was indeed ever applied, it was in isolated cases, since a paint draining
would never occur in an ideal situation of applying that same gold leaf. In addition to these
above mentioned aspects, the preparatory action for the intervention on the retable itself is all in
all inappropriate: full removal of previous paints or gilding, showing no respect for the artistic
matrix of the retable. By these examples, and for the sake of an art common to two peoples, it is
necessary to lay down intervention rules on preservation and restoration for their participants:
regulate the use of materials, prepare specific action plans for each case under study, legislate
restoration artists, implement supervisions to restoration works in progress and duly train qualified restorers.
In addition to the fundamental role that the Church shall have to play, it is necessary to foster
the dialogue among the various local bodies such as: Goa Government, Government of the territories of the Indian Union, INTACH, Archaeological Survey of India, Goa, Daman and Diu
Archdiocese and local associations of intervention for the recovery of heritage with the participation of national bodies: Portuguese Government, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (FCG),
Oriente Foundation (FO), Portuguese Institute for Conservation and Restauration (IPCR), etc.
The presence of international bodies, such as Icomos International, is critical to obtain a strategic vision aiming at analyzing and preparing specific intervention plans.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The manner in which Indo-Portuguese art has been and still is viewed today, is largely a result
of significant Portuguese and Indian political and historic events. The political and cultural constraints which this art faces hamper the retable to be suitably regarded as an art object and not
simply as a religious one. The repeated foreign incursions that have occurred throughout Goas
history clearly show that the cultural diversity of the region was already apparent prior to the arrival of the Portuguese. The Portuguese presence only made an additional contribution to its cultural and artistic background, already multicultural on its own and distinctive from its big brother India. This is evidenced by the resilience of the Hindu religion, which has survived despite
several occupations of the Goa territory by aggressors of a different religion. In its turn, Hinduism crystallized in its most pure form as a result of the Islamic and Christian enclaves within
the territory. These enclaves prevented the natural evolution of Hinduism that took place in the

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rest of the sub-continent. This multicultural uniqueness is apparent in retable art, not only influenced by Hindu artistic concepts, but also by artistic traditions brought by the former Islamic
occupations. The syncretism in representations can only be explained when taking into count
these cultural and artistic traditions brought by the people that helped shape the Goan identity.
Even nowadays, the way the Christian rites are celebrated with an explosion of color and religious devotion are contrary to traditional, more somber, European Christian rites. This too, reveals its rich mixed cultural inheritance. On the other hand, the political and economic presence
of the Portuguese within these territories in its last decades of rule, endangered the understanding of retable art as art. Instead, retable art has been seen through a lens colored by Christian
conversion and soul gathering. This has resulted in the underestimation of the intrinsic artistic
purpose of retable art. The scientific mission of Chic and Azevedo was exemplary but fell
short due to the current political scene and the way that the scientific research itself, full of political constraints alien to art, was conducted in the end.
As for what concerns to retable art the scenario is different. Art has managed to put aside
economics and political dialogues, evidenced by canonical Christian representations placed
alongside local representations of non-Christian deities, myths and local flora. One can easily
identify Persian or Islamic patterns from the early occupation of the territory. This multi-faceted
nature of Indo-Portuguese retable art clearly indicates that the retable in former Portuguese India should be recognized as a unique art form.
In order for Indo-Portuguese retable art to receive its due significance, it is necessary to preserve and restore retable art for the sake of art itself and not just for its religious value. This dialogue in a Hindu India will not be feasible unless religiosities, mea culpa and current or past
political factors can be put aside. It is necessary to understand and define what Indo-Portuguese
retable art is in order to save it from incorrectly carried out restorations. Indo-Portuguese retable
art is the result of an artistic cooperation of two types of religious praise one indigenous and
one imported which produced a specific art form not found in any other part of the world. The
foundations of a project for the recognition and preservation of this common heritage should be
based on this unique character of Indo-Portuguese retable art.
ENDNOTES
1 - Mauryas (3rd cent. BC) Kshatrapas (2nd4th cent. AD), Batpuras, and Bhojas (4nd6th cent. AD),
Chalukyas (6th-8th cent. AD), Rastrakutas (8th-9th cent. AD), Shilaharas (20th cent. AD), Kadambas
(1000-1334), Local fiefs (1334-1350), Vijayanagara Empire (1380-1470), Bahamanis (1350-1380 and
1470-1510), Portuguese Empire (25 November 1510 to 19 December 1961), British Empire (17971813)
2 - Shri Romesh Bhandari (March 29, 1928, in Lahore) served, among many other positions, as Governor
of Goa from 16th June, 1995 to 19th July 1996. His bibliography can be accessed at
http://romeshbhandari.com/biography2.html
3 - Jan Huygen Van Linschoten (1563-1611) was a Dutch merchant and explorer who while in the service
to the Portuguese crown, had access to maps and other information regarding Portuguese trade and navigation in Asia. He used his skills as a cartographer and draughtsman to copy a considerable acquis
on nautical and trading information, enabling the entrance of Northern Europe into India.
4 - Decorative arts include furniture and sacred, votive and ornamental objects.
5 - These two data Places without woodcarving and Places with isolated woodcarving shall be
changed during the research, since the accounting of Places with isolated woodcarving is being carried
out.

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