COMMENT: Making DD's Rome of the East (By Binod Behl)
Frederick Noronha (FN)
Though the great sculptures of India have been known to be among the finest in the world, Indian paintings have been in the shadow. The Indian mural paintings of the ancient period are among the greatest paintings of mankind. Owing to the fact that these exist in remote sites, scattered all over the country and that many of them are extremely difficult to film in their dark and constricted locations, this great treasure of the world’s art has never been clearly photographed or shown to the world before.
The paintings in the churches of Goa form an exquisite chapter in the rich and many-faceted tradition of painting in India. A journey through the development of the art, over the centuries in India, would be incomplete without including these paintings. Rome of the East was conceived as the sixth film of the series.
As research for this film began, I found that there was no previous material to read on the paintings in the churches of Goa, nor could we find any expert who could speak about these paintings.
The Embassy of Portugal was helpful and put me in touch with an authority on art who came from Portugal. However, he also knew of no book on the subject. Finally, while shooting in Goa, architect and musician Lucio de Miranda was able to provide us an article written in Portuguese, which made a reference to Goan church paintings. The Embassy of Portugal later helped us translate the article into English. Such was the scarcity of research material on the subject!
Fortunately, over the past twenty-five years, I have been photographing and studying Old Goa and the joyous Indo-Portuguese art and culture of this sunny state. Thus, I have been aware of the beautiful paintings in the basement of the Convent of Santa Monica, the paintings around the casket of relics of St. Francis Xavier, the oil paintings on canvas in St. Cajetan and other works in the many churches. This film shaped itself and grew around my personal knowledge and love of the splendid city of Velha Goa.
In the sixteenth century, on the banks of the Mandovi river, the Portuguese built the magnificent capital city of Old Goa or Velha Goa. This became one of the most important ports in India. It also became the nerve centre of the Portuguese Empire in Asia. Portuguese commercial interests and religious orders, covering the area from the East coast of Africa to China and Japan, were centered here.
Old Goa was a great commercial centre. Whether it was precious stones and spices that went to Europe, or whether it was the Arabian horses which the Portuguese traders sold to the Indian kingdom of Vijaynagar, they all went through here.
The relationship between Portugal and Goa was not restricted to commerce alone. The Portuguese made this picturesque coastal land their home. They brought with them a new religion and culture. They believed it was their duty to convert the local people to Christianity and to show them what they believed was the True Path. They built magnificent houses of God in this land. The idea was to inspire and convert the local people through awe and grandeur and power and majesty.
In the sixteenth century, Old Goa was known as the Rome of the East. Within a small space there were so many churches, that there are on record letters which were written to the King of Portugal by the priests here saying that, their choirs and our choirs, their bells and our bells, there is cacophony here.
The religious ideas came from Europe, but the churches of Goa were made by Indian hands and quite often transformed by the Indian heart. The craftsmen who made these churches had their own images in their minds. In the Basilica of Bom Jesus, the saints are seen standing on lotuses, much the way that Hindu deities are made.
Within these magnificent houses of God, a great treasure of religious art was created. Paintings were brought from Lisbon and from Rome. These were used to teach Indian painters new subjects and a new manner of painting. In fact, in Goa, European techniques and materials of painting were introduced long before the British set up their first art schools in India.
The Se Cathedral was completed in 1652. The paintings around the altars are a fine example of paintings in the churches of Goa. These paintings bring to us a reflection of traditions of painting in Europe. This was the period of the Baroque in Western art; a style characterized by drama and heightened emotion. The artists used colour, form and diagonal lines, to make the paintings realistic and dynamic. Dramatization became the principle of the paintings. The figures are starkly drawn out in a dramatic play of light and the contrast of dark shadows. These paintings depict the expression of the suffering and passion of Christ and the apostles.
The Church of St. Francis of Assisi, built in 1527, stands in the main square of Old Goa in the same compound as the Se Cathedral. The Church has some of the finest Goan paintings on wood panels depicting portraits of saints.
The ideas and stories of Christianity were new to the Indian artist. However, the feeling of reverence towards a God who loved all of humanity was not new to him. While he laboured with the new mediums of painting and with subjects which came from another land, the artist found himself at home in the depiction of gentleness and love upon the face of Christ.
The Convent and Church of Santa Monica dedicated to the mother of St. Augustine was constructed in 1627. It is the oldest and largest nunnery in Asia and is active till today. The Convent was once completely covered with the most beautiful frescoes. Unfortunately, most of them have been covered with plaster and whitewashed. However, some paintings which still retain their original glory, remain in the chapel of the Convent. The colourful paintings bring alive stories from the Holy Bible. The paintings depict the miracles of faith. As in the ancient Indian tradition of art, we see gentleness and overflowing love in these paintings.
Tucked away in the quiet of the basement of the Nunnery of the Santa Monica are some of the finest mural paintings of Goa. These cover the vaulted ceiling of the basement and depict the many saints of the Catholic faith. We see their benign figures portrayed with love and a deep feeling of reverence. The artist has captured their gentleness and kindness with rare sensitivity.
By 1545, there is an official record stating that an Indian painter was being used to make fine portraits of Portuguese Viceroys. This was a great achievement, considering the fact that the medium of oil painting was entirely new to the Indian painter. These are some of the earliest portraits that were painted in India and are painted in the styles that prevailed in Europe then. It was a rare and fruitful confluence of different traditions.
Father Rudolph Aquaviva and Father Monserat of St. Paul’s College in Old Goa were invited to the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar. They were guests of the Emperor in Fatehpur Sikri for many years. They carried with them portraits and paintings on European themes, which were presented before Akbar. These paintings were among the earliest European influences introduced to the mainstream of the Indian tradition of painting.
European painting was different from the paintings of India, both in its medium and techniques and in its philosophic approach. Goa’s was the first meaningful and complete experience of the Indian artist with the styles of European painting. Of course, in the centuries to come, dominating European influences were to come to Indian painters through the schools of art that were set up by the British in the nineteenth century.
Under the Portuguese, the Indian painter learnt to paint in the realistic manner of the West, with painstaking care to depict light and shade and perspective in a photographic manner. Whereas his tradition had taught him to present the sublime peace of Brahmananda, or eternal bliss, the new tradition brought the poignant portrayal of suffering in human life.
The medieval history of Goa is a unique chapter in the history of India. In Indian paintings too, this was the time when the artist tried to adopt an altogether different style and approach in painting. In the best of Old Goa’s paintings, we see gentle and sublime expression. Here, in Goa, is a true confluence of the art of India and Europe.
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Eminent art historian, documentary film-maker and photographer, Behl photographed and documented the churches and culture of Goa over the past 23 years. He wrote this for Parmal, the journal of the Goa Heritage Action Group.