Ask the Scholar

This ivory carving was produced in the Portuguese colony of Goa, on India’s western coast, where such sculptures were made for export and for Catholic missionaries in India. Aware of Mughal interest, Jesuits might have brought similar sculptures to the court. Jesus was regarded as a prophet in Islam, and images of Jesus and other prophets were collected by the Mughal courtiers and painted on the walls of Mughal palaces.This popular compositional type of carved ivory statuette depicting the Good Shepherd was apparently invented in Goa (west coast of India), a Portuguese colony and Jesuit training center for missionaries. At the bottom, Christ's follower Mary Magdalene reads scriptures in a mountain cave, where, according to legend, she retired in later life. Above is a fountain of life (suggestive of baptism) with doves and lambs, and at the top is the meditative figure of the Christ Child sitting with a lamb. Christ's eyes are closed. The gesture of his right hand, lightly touching his hair with two fingers, is seen by some scholars as adopting a gesture of the Buddha.