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| South Asian Art - In Memory Of Prashant H. Fadia |
Pedro Moura Caravalho, Anne Hawley and Alan Chong
04/02/2008
One of the important consequences of the establishment of permanent relations between Portugal and India over five centuries ago was the creation of a vast and distinctive corpus of artistic goods. Western artistic conventions introduced into the Indian Subcontinent were creatively transformed by Indian artists, who produced masterful objects that fuse two distinct cultures. Often overlooked, these works of art should be regarded as an intrinsic part of the artistic heritage of India, especially since they preserve techniques and materials that are otherwise lost to us. Few of these so-called Indo-Portuguese works survive in the Subcontinent; many were incorporated into princely collections in Europe, where, beginning in the early sixteenth century, they were highly prized for their exotic character and virtuoso craftsmanship.
Although Indo-Portuguese works of art found their way into collections throughout the Western world, they, with few exceptions, have only recently attracted the attention of art historians. Both Indian and Western scholars had long overlooked them because their hybrid character made them difficult both to appreciate and to situate within standard art-historical categories. Only in the last two decades, the complex nature of these objects, which demonstrates the fusion of two cultures, has begun to arouse scholarly interest.
The fusion of artistic styles and decorative motifs that energizes art made for export can also obscure its origins and lead to erroneous attributions. For example, objects made with mother-of-pearl from the northwest Indian state of Gujarat are still sometimes regarded as German. Some Western scholars maintain these attributions, despite copious evidence to the contrary, perhaps because they cannot conceive that these exquisite objects of European form (or decoration) had a non-European source. The dating of Indo-Portuguese objects and the identification of their region of origin are complicated by the vast extent of the Asian territories under Portuguese influence and the persistence of the Portuguese presence. Portuguese establishments in the Indian Subcontinent were not limited to Goa and the Gujarati territories of Daman and Diu, the three territories that were ruled from Lisbon until 1961, when they were invaded by the Republic of India; the situation was far more complex.
Under Dom Manuel I, king from 1495 to 1521, the Portuguese rapidly expanded their political, military, and commercial interests, especially in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut
(Kozhikode) in southern India in 1498. Fifteen years later, in 1513, Jorge Ãlvares landed in China. In this brief span, the Portuguese visited and described the coasts of nearly every country in Asia, including present-day China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam; they arrived in Japan in 1543.
One of the masterminds of Portuguese expansion was D. Francisco de Almeida, founder of the Estado da Ãndia (literally, the state of India), a network of territories and holdings in the Indian Ocean and adjoining regions, stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan, that were regulated by the Portuguese crown. Almeida maintained control through strong sea defenses and a number of strategic fortresses; in 1505 he became the first viceroy of the Estado da Ãndia. His successor, Afonso de Albuquerque, had even greater impact on the political balance of the region. Sent to India in 1508, he became known for his military and diplomatic skills. Albuquerque explored the coastal regions from the Strait of Hormuz to the China Sea, and his many achievements included the conquest in 1510 of the island of Goa, then part of the Bijapur Sultanate. In 1511 Albuquerque conquered Malacca (in present-day Malaysia), the main trading center for spices and other commodities shipped in the Indian Ocean and beyond; in 1515 he completed the subjugation of the island of Hormuz, a prominent commercial port in the Persian Gulf. This led to Portuguese domination of the gulf and the establishment of closer contacts with Iran under the Safavid dynasty (1501– 1722).
After Albuquerque’s death, a succession of governors and viceroys defended Portugal’s vast commercial and political interests in the Indian Ocean.2 They built fortresses along the Malabar Coast, the earliest being Cannanore and Quilon; on the Coromandel Coast, including São Thomé de Meliapor; and in Ceylon, present-day Sri Lanka. Goa became the capital of the Estado da Ãndia in 1530 and grew into an even more important trading center. In 1535, after several attempts, the Portuguese finally gained control of Diu, a southern Gujarati island strategically situated on the Arabian Sea. Later, when D. João de Castro was viceroy, Diu was fiercely attacked by the Ottomans and their local allies; the successful defense of the island cemented Portuguese ambition to dominate of the Indian Ocean.
The Portuguese also founded settlements in Bengal, Java, Pegu (in present-day Myanmar), Sumatra, Thailand, and Timor, among others. Although they were periodically visited by Portuguese vessels, these outposts were not always officially integrated into the empire; rather than striving to conquer vast territories that would be difficult to maintain, the Portuguese sought to secure trade routes through the region.
Goa also became the seat of an archdiocese and the base of religious orders such as the Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits. Among the first members of the Society of Jesus to arrive was the future Saint Francis
Xavier, who reached India around 1542. The missionaries of various orders worked under the Padroado, the responsibility to spread Christianity assigned to king of Portugal by successive popes from the fifteenth century
onward. Through their evangelical work, missionaries formed vital links between Goa and the many regions where they had founded missions; they were instrumental, for instance, in establishing diplomatic relations with the Mughals, the dynasty that ruled large parts of the Indian Subcontinent from 1526 to 1858.
During the sixteenth century, both Portugal and Spain extended their reach around the globe. Although they were competitors overseas, the two royal families became linked through a series of marriages. The eldest daughter of D. Manuel I married Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (r. 1519–56), while the Portuguese king D. João III (r. 1521–57) married Charles’s sister Catherine. In the next generation, Philip II of Spain (r. 1556–98) married the daughter of D. João III. D. Sebastião, the grandson and only surviving natural heir of D. João III, ruled from 1568 and 1578; he was killed in the battle of Ksar el-Kebir, in northern Morocco, leaving no direct heir. After two years of regencies, in 1580, D. Sebastião’s uncle Philip II of Spain was crowned king of Portugal as Philip I. The union of the Iberian crowns, which had been avoided by centuries of diplomacy and war, was a reality. The following sixty years of joint rule inexorably changed the course of Portugal and its vast overseas territories.
In order to gain acceptance as king of Portugal, Philip II made several concessions: the country’s language, legal system, and customs were maintained, and the Portuguese empire continued to be administered by Lisbon rather than Madrid. Nonetheless, Portugal paid a heavy price for being part of the Spanish crown; the enemies of Spain were nowits enemies. The Dutch and English mounted attacks on territories of the Estado da Ãndia, many of which were lost.
Portuguese military and financial resources were also drained by Spanish wars and by widespread corruption, especially in the regions administered by Goa. Finally, in 1640, a Portuguese nobleman, the Duke of Bragança, was
proclaimed king of Portugal as D. João IV (r. 1640–56), ending six decades of Castilian rule. Despite many setbacks, all Portuguese territories except Ceuta opted for the reestablishment of their status prior to the union of the two crowns.
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