Carved out of solid wood, covered in gesso and
painted in semi-naturalistic way, this head may
represent either a Saint or a disciple of the
Christian Catholic church. The elongated head
painted with pale completion, terminating in a
long beard and moustanche, the eyes open and
mouth sealed in a severe expression.
The head belonged to a small group, now
gathered in the Barakat collection (see LO.882
and LO.881), discovered in a sealed room in the
cellar of an Anglican church in the city of
Colombo in Ceylon, in 1998, when engineers
were underpinning the foundations. The church
originally belonged to the Catholic Portuguese,
and was passed over to the Dutch Reformists in
the first quarter of the 18th century.
The style of the head would seem to place it just
prior to the Dutch conquest. During the 16th and
17th centuries the practice of keeping the beard
prevailed among the Roman Catholic clergy,
especially amongst the foreign missionaries
involved in the establishment of the Far Eastern
Missions. This group of heads are stylistically
affine to the early Jesuit and Franciscan
iconography employed prevalently during the
17th century in India, after the foundation of the
Catholic mission in Goa by St Francis Xavier,
when not only the Christ but also saints, such as
St Xavier and Thomas the Apostle, were often
portrayed long-bearded.
Furthermore, towards the end of the Catholic
presence in Ceylon (ended 1658) wooden heads
and large saintly figures were indeed used not
only as votive images in churches, but also as
didactic vehicles in the Natya Nadagam (Nativity)
plays, to introduce the Christian religion to the
indigenous public.
The head here illustrated, differently from the
other two in the group, which clearly depict the
passion of Christ, might represent a saint close
to the missionary cause, perhaps even St Francis
Xavier, who was already canonized in 1622 and
would therefore fit the description perfectly
within the time frame.
