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Angelo da Fonseca, artist and muralist living in the crucial century that ushered in nationalism and revolt against colonial rule, envisaged that Christianity should find a home in post colonial India.  The hope was justified as the Indian society was secular and multi-religious. Christians, who were in a minority and had lived in harmonious relations with people of other religions, expressed this sentiment strongly.

Angelo da Fonseca spent the years between 1927 and 1931 at Calcutta and at Santiniketan under the tutelage of Abanindranath Tagore, the nephew of Rabindranath Tagore. Angelo da Fonseca described him as “the greatest artist of the twenties of this century”, who founded an “Indian school of art”, and he was keenly “wanting to be his shisya (student).”

Abanindranath Tagore in a letter wrote to the artist: “You ought to do some Bible pictures in fresco. There are too many churches in India that people ought to get painted the life of Christ on the wall.’  This missive intuitively gave direction to Angelo da Fonseca’s artistic journeys.  It was the mission to find a home for Christianity — to inculturate, infusing it with colours, motifs and symbols drawn from the very region where the religion was practiced.

In his artistic career spanning nearly four decades, Angelo da Fonseca followed this vision and its testimony is a prodigious output of nearly 500 works in watercolours, 50 oil paintings, some murals and stained glass.  He pursued the mission of creating a new swadeshi lexicon replete with asanas (positions) and mudras (hand gestures) drawn from the living culture of the subcontinent.

The philosophy of the Bengal school to visualize a local atmosphere was clearly reflected in Angelo da Fonseca’s choice of earthen shades, contrasts that created the effect of light of the sun-soaked Indian landscape — terra-verte, lapis-lazuli, blues now warm, sometimes sombre, orange, ochre and yellows. Angelo da Fonseca like the early iconographers pounded some of the colours from rocks collected around Baga and clay from the local fields in Goa, which bonded with Windsor and Newton fixatives, were used with water-colours and for his murals.

Angelo da Fonseca’s flattish visualizations are reminiscent of the icons of Cappadoccia in Turkey where the early icon-makers moved to from Syria after being ostracized for making images of Christ.  However, within the rectangular lines that divide the space to form niches, a surprising perspective emerges in his work.  The influence of the pre-Raphaelites and the Nazarenes is evident in his work.  So also, there is borrowing from Islamic miniaturist and Pahari schools of art.

Angelo da Fonseca’s body of work falls into three phases — 1931 to 1941, 1941 to1951 and 1951 to 1967, the year of his death at 65.  The last phase (1951-1967) reflects his most mature period and the emergence of a distinct style. Circles, ovals, arches, niches, surface detail, ethnic weaves, rugs, charpoys and the minutiae of objects of everyday use breathed life to create a pan Indian landscape that pulses through his work. It is also identified by its haloes, dense, luminous, moonlike, sometimes only a cluster of rays and at others, a fine circle etched in a dark line outside of a nimbus, before it becomes a gigantic planetary form around the figure of the Virgin ascending unto the heavens.

The value of Angelo da Fonseca’s work was realized by prominent Indologists like Fr Henry Heras SJ who sought him out and encouraged him to foray into the Indic past by commissioning his travels to several places in northern and southern India.  Angelo da Fonseca, in return, acknowledged the debt by declaring the venerable intellectual as his second father. Further support, in an atmosphere where his work was throwing up mixed ripples, came from Fr Mathew Lederle SJ, a German Jesuit, resident in Pune. He hailed from Nuremburg and applied his entrepreneurial skill to propagate the new art of Angelo da Fonseca that addressed the Christian iconography in post colonial time.  Fr Heras also introduced Angelo da Fonseca’s work to Leo Pieter Kierkels, the Apostolic Internuncio to India at the time.  Cardinal Celso Constantini, secretary of Propaganda Fide in Rome, encouraged the artist through several commissions. Prefect Apostolate J Malenfant, Fr Marion R Batson SJ of the Patna missions, and Fr P J Übelmesser of Mission Procura, Nuremburg were also patrons of Angelo da Fonseca’s work.

From the selected works on exhibit presently, one can gauge the multifarious influences that Angelo da Fonseca draws from to create his pantheon of indigenized and sanctified Christian figures.  St Anne is sitting cross-legged on a low stool in position with the young Mary in her lap receiving instructions. Mary is wearing a gagra choli, and around her head looms a trident within a numinous halo.  St Anne is wearing Tamilian jewellery and an orange-bordered white sari (see painting entitled The Childhood of Mary).  The first few works (Presentation of Mary, 1954, and St Anne and Maria, 1957), each richly nuanced, embody within a religious tradition of Mother India leading Goa to the temple of a pan-Indian culture, somewhat in the fashion of Abanindranath Tagore painting Mother India.

In the work depicting the visitation of the archangel Gabriel bearing tidings (Annunciation / Sadhana 1,1954), the tonal depth is created by the rectangular division of space around the genuflecting Mary, her hands in anjali mudra (folded hands). Note the tilting posture of the Virgin as in a tribanga, characterizing body posture in Indian art and dance. The backdrop screen in orange has block print, a traditional brass diya and a pair of cymbals used in bhajans (chants) lying on the rug

Note the spangled light in the corridor of space behind archangel Gabriel, with the abhaya and gin mudras signifying assurance, instruction of silence and contemplation to Virgin Mary. Mary is adorned with Indic jewellery, sitting in vajrasana (thunderbolt pose) bearing cymbals in her hand and surrounded by a significant halo (Annunciation). The aromatic arc of smoke in another work (Evening Prayers / Sadhana 2, 1961) disappears into the heavens, encompassing Mary in a mood of meditation.  The minimalistic division of space, spare detailing, and the womblike encompassing of the body in dhyana (meditation) contrasts with the ecstasy of the Mira-like bhakti trance of Mary, her cymbals askew, the atmosphere behind her in a state of flux, and her mat in levitation as she plays the ektara (Mother Mary, 1956).  The mood is ‘unfathomable’ clearly plumbing the depths of fear and fusion before ecstasy and surrender. Atman (individual soul) submits to the will of Brahman (universal soul) in the tradition of bhakti.

The visit of Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth (Visitation, 1954) leads us on to the birth of Christ in a manger.  Mary and Joseph sitting crossed legged bow to the infant their hands folded in Anjali mudra (Birth of Jesus, 1954).  The wide circular opening behind the scene of nativity represent the earth as well as opens up the interiority of the space to the landscape of the hills above which shimmers the holy star.

The interiors of their home in Nazareth against a rectangular  breakup of space in the background, the inner recessed wall showing  a window whose barricades reveal a cross- like formation, a diya, an earthen water urn and a cauldron over a burning wood fire provide the backdrop against which the Holy Family are fore-grounded  (Nativity of Refugees,1954).

The Holy Family is posited against a pristine backdrop partly reminiscent of Pahari landscapes partly inspired by the gigantic rain trees that have outlived Angelo da Fonseca at the Christi Prema Seva Ashram in Pune where he lived and painted for a good part of his life (By The Wayside, 1947).

The Madonna and Child series are a genre in themselves. The artist once wrote that he liked to paint the Virgin Mother in all her attributes.  The epiphany is depicted in the backdrop of the mountains and the sky in a rectangular window seat.  The Virgin is depicted with the infant Jesus fore-grounded by the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh (Epiphany, 1938).

The year 1954 was declared as the Marian year. Angelo da Fonseca received a significant number of international commissions to paint the mother and child series. In these, he visits the working class neighourhoods, laying the Madonna and Child in Maharashtrian domesticity (Mother Mary and Child Jesus, 1964).

The shades of blue and maroon, depicting a krsna-hued Madonna with child forms a radical departure from the other depictions of the Virgin (Mother and Child, 1957).  The Madonna suspended in a landscape of stars is seated on a low stool in padmasana position, a lotus in her left hand enveloped in a maroon halo.  A blue hue denoting love infuses the Virgin. This work was painted in the same year the artist’s daughter was born.  Such details help trace the parallel between his personal life and the trajectory his art was delineating.

The presentation of Jesus in the temple and the flight unto Egypt hint at the varied repertoire of the artist’s oeuvre drawing from the Islamic and Indic cultural repertoires to posit the Holy Family into a landscape unmindful of the nuance of its derivative traditions (Jesus, Mary and Joseph,1942; The Presentation, 1954; and Flight Unto Egypt,1959).

The depiction of the Madonna was influenced by several women Angelo da Fonseca painted — Guita Roy, Alice Pereira, and Sherin  Gilani — but the significant muse was his wife Ivy Angelo da Fonseca, whom he married in 1951.  In Ivy’s beautiful and strong persona, Angelo da Fonseca found the Indian feminine he pursued in his works.  His daughter Yessonda-Delphina, was often the model for the young Jesus and this striking resemblance can be noted in the last painting in the series (St Joseph and Young Jesus, 1962).  The tunic that Simeon wears as he beholds the Holy Child has a syncretic quality almost like the robe of Rabindranath Tagore (Simeon in the Temple, 1960).  Sometimes a skull cap or a turban delicately marks out Angelo da Fonseca’s quest to find a home for Christian in post-colonial India.

This exhibition of Angelo da Fonseca, Christmas Story, showcases the artist’s work as well as addresses the need to reach out  to the community with these paintings — touching the lives of the people for whom he painted so that they can absorb the true meaning of inculturation.

The Xavier Centre of Historical Research, Alto-Porvorim, has organised an exhibition of 25 selected paintings of eminent Goan painter, Angelo da Fonseca.

The Exhibition has been titled ‘Angelo da Fonseca Christmas Story’ and has been curated by artist Savia Viegas from Carmona, Goa.

Noted Goan writer and Padma Shri awardee, Dr. Maria Aurora Couto will inaugurate the Exhibition on 6 December 2011 at 5:30 pm at the Xavier Centre of Historical Research. Mrs. Ivy da Fonseca, wife of Angelo da Fonseca, will be the Guest of Honour.

Angelo da Fonseca Christmas Story will be available for public viewing from 6 December 2011 to 6 January 2012. The Exhibition will be open from Monday to Friday from 10 am to 5 pm.

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On 19 December 2011, Goa celebrates fifty years of liberation from Portuguese rule. Fifty years in the crucible of history may seem like a drop in the ocean, but these brief but momentous years have been shaped by a long chain of events spread over hundreds of years and at the same time are a precursor to ‘history in the making’. Thus any analysis of post-colonial Goan society leads us back to both the colonial and pre-colonial periods of Goan history. Jubilees are not just occasions to celebrate, but more importantly are opportunities to take stock, to re-discover one’s heritage and to analyze the numerous by lanes and twists and turns of the post-1961 thriller.

The historical event of 1961 associated with the jubilee is itself disputed. Some call it the Indian annexation or invasion of Goa; others refer to it as the liberation of Goa. Similarly the events in post-colonial Goa, whether it be rapid industrialization and urbanization accompanied by infrastructural development and decline in agriculture, or the large scale in-migration with the resultant issues of Goan identity, language and culture, or the real estate boom and growing environmental concerns, are viewed and judged from different perspectives. Post-colonial Goa has also seen the emergence of various subaltern groups and communities that have lobbied and protested vociferously for recognition of their rights and their unique identity.

This seminar, intended as the first of a series of multidisciplinary seminars on Goan themes and issues, is being convened to begin a process of self-education and knowledge-creation to comprehend how the people of this state have shaped and directed their post-colonial history and how specific socio-political and cultural contexts have influenced that contemporary history. This is a process of rewinding and recovering post-colonial Goan heritage and culture and analyzing the complexities of multiple historical contexts to arrive at a mosaic of Goa in 2011. This seminar is not only restricted to the influence of the colonial and pre-colonial periods on contemporary Goa but also analyses the impact of the socio-political and economic developments in independent India on Goan society. This seminar wishes to create a knowledge base on contemporary Goan society and culture that will inform and direct public policies on Goa.

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The two Jesuit research institutions, Xavier Centre of Historical Research (XCHR) and Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr (TSKK), organized a National Seminar entitled ‘Goa 2011: Reviewing and Recovering 50 Years’ on 29-30 September 2011 at the XCHR-TSKK Complex, Alto-Porvorim, Goa.

The Seminar dealt with various issues related to post-liberation Goan society. This Seminar which was supported by the Directorate of Art and Culture, Government of Goa, was part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Goa’s liberation from Portuguese rule.

Around 150 people from different colleges and other educational and research institutions in Goa listened attentively and participated actively in the discussions and deliberations as 19 papers on diverse themes were presented at the seminar. The Provincial of Goa Jesuits, Fr. Anthony da Silva SJ, while welcoming the gathering urged the people of Goa to assume a blended identity that welcomes and draws from outside influences and cultures. Dr. Dileep Deobagkar, Vice-Chancellor, Goa University, who was the Chief Guest, questioned and challenged the audience to reflect on who is a true Goan.  He mentioned that though his mother is from Goa and even if he has many relations here he will not be accepted as a Goan. Dr. Rudolph Heredia, an eminent sociologist from Mumbai, situated the socio-economic and political crises in Goa in the wider context of India.

The ten business sessions of the 2-day seminar saw papers on different areas of Goan society and culture.  Dr. Savio Abreu, the Seminar Coordinator and Director, XCHR, highlighted the themes of post-coloniality, identity and culture and modernization in his paper on Civil Society Movements in contemporary Goa. Fr. Victor Ferrao from Rachol Seminary challenged the audience to a new perspective as he reinterpreted Goa’s past as a traumatic experience for both the Hindu and Christian communities and looked for ways to cope with this trauma. There were papers on the role of the press and its links with politics by Ms. Lourdes Bravo da Costa, senior librarian, Central Library and Mr. Fredrick Noronha, freelance journalist.

Mr. Prajal Sakhardande, member of the Goa Heritage Action Group made a fervent plea to the younger generation to get involved in the heritage conservation movement. The session on language, culture and identity evoked hot discussion and debates. Dr. Parag Porob, Department of History, Goa University, linked the myth of Parashurama to the cultural hegemony of the upper castes in post-liberation Goa, which was not challenged by the Bahujan Samaj inspite of the political domination of the MGP. Dr. Pratap Naik from TSKK while highlighting the facts and figures of the Konknni language argued that “one script, one dialect, one community” principle has failed to unite Konknnis (people speaking Konknni) and if we force this principle Konknnis will survive but Konknni will perish.

There were two papers on the subaltern groups of Goa — Dr. Bernadette Gomes on Goulys and Ms. Priyanka Velip on the Stigmatisation of the Velips. Papers by Dr. Remy Dias, Government College of Quepem and Alexandre Barbosa, Assistant Editor, The Times of India, traced the land reforms brought about by the Mundkar and Tenancy acts.

In the concluding panel discussion Dr. Rowena Robinson, professor of sociology, IIT Bombay, summed up the various themes that emerged  during the seminar. Dr. Aditya Arya, DGP, was the Chief Guest for the concluding function, wherein Fr. Apollo Cardozo, Director, TSKK, thanked everyone.

History is often said to be written by the victors. Not necessarily. On 20 August 2011 some 357 students from 30 schools across Goa, along with their teachers and friends, descended at XCHR, Porvorim and made history by taking part in the first edition of the XCHR Inter-School Goa History Quiz Competition. The Quiz was organized as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Goa’s Liberation. And since very little of Goa History is taught in the school syllabus, the XCHR Quiz Competition was meant to encourage the students to take interest in the history of their own state, Goa. However, we must add that we were not disappointed. The Quiz was conducted with the help of the Sunday Evening Quiz Club. The Quizmaster for the day was Mr. Rajiv D’Silva, one of Goa’s ace quizmasters.

While students were required to report here only by 9:00 am, there were quite a number of them who had already queued at our gates as early as 7:30 am. Students braved a rainy day to take part in the Quiz. Well, they were all prepared! Before the Quiz began, one could witness scenes of hectic preparation and consultation. The written preliminaries began at 10:00 am. Later, as the students snacked away to some pastries, the judges seemed to have had a testing time in deciding the finalists. When the results of the preliminaries were announced, there were some heartbreaking scenes as teams missed the finals by a whisker. A wildcard round followed by the semi-finals finally set the stage for the final battle. Two teams from Loyola High School, Margao and one team from St. Britto High School, Mapusa made it to the semi-finals. Meanwhile, in between the quizzing, the audience was kept well entertained with some historical facts and they took away some fabulous audience prizes. After some intense and gruelling quizzing, Mushtifund High School, Panjim emerged winners. Rosary High School, Miramar won the second and third places while Loyola High School, Margao bagged the fourth place. The winners took home the XCHR Rolling Trophy, a cash prize of Rs. 5000, a plaque and certificates. The second and third prizes consisted of cash prizes of Rs. 3000 and Rs. 2000 respectively, a plaque and certificates. Those who reached the semi-finals were awarded a collection of books on Goa for their school libraries. Similarly, all the participants were awarded participation certificates. Students went home satisfied, but not before vowing to show up for a more challenging second edition of the Quiz next year!

The response to the Quiz was certainly overwhelming and unexpected. The XCHR seemed to have been bursting at its seams. Yet, it proved to be a grand success for us. Meticulous planning of the event began in June with Fr. Savio Abreu, Fr. Apollo Cardozo, Fr. Rinald D’Souza, Mr. Frederick Noronha, Mr. Rajiv D’Silva and Mr. Aniruddha Sengupta working out the details. While the XCHR Staff worked overtime for the event, we need to make special mention of the close cooperation we received from the TSKK Staff before and during the Quiz. Volunteers from the SEQC were also here to help us out. Fr. Efraim Gracias provided us with live coverage of the Quiz which was simultaneously screened in the corridor. The XCHR Rolling Trophy was designed and sponsored by Mr. Mahendra Alvares of Big Foot, Loutulim. On a positive note, Mr. Rajiv D’Silva remarked that “this was certainly one of the best organized quizzes that I have conducted, from the logistics point of view”. Further information and photographs are available at our Facebook page at facebook.com/xchr.goa

During your review you try and remember what stood out in your prayer.

Is there something you need to return to?

What did you feel, experience, encounter, like, dislike? Was there something you realised?

You will later share this review with your director.

If you feel there is something you do not want to tell your director, start by telling him (her) exactly that.

Tell him (her) the truth.

Do not make up things to please him (her).

He (she) does not look to being pleased, but rather how to be of help to you.

Whatever you share with him (her) is confidential. So do not feel afraid. He (she) will not think any different about you. He (she) too is human, fragile and weak.

The Prayer Method on this page has been provided with permission from the book Pray: How? by Savio Rodrigues SJ

Meditation is a slow pondering of the text, trying to intellectually understand its significance, and to apply it to one’s life situation.

Meditation in this sense, means developing an intellectual image of the text, which in turn awakens a spiritual response. In this process one becomes more conscious of the facts just read, and the mind moves the heart to respond. This response is a commitment to action — physical or spiritual.

After going through 1 to 5 of the shell of prayer…

Read the text very slowly, trying to understand almost every word and its purpose in the text. Read the text a number of times, until you are satisfied that you have it in your mind.

Now slowly allow bits of the text to appear before your mind. Try to grasp what the text is trying to say, using your knowledge of its subject, author, period in history, its cultural background, and the purpose for which it was written.

Try and spend time with its relevance to you, in today’s world and times. What sense does it make to you? What message does it have for you?

Having discovered its message and its purpose for you, you now decide, as to how this text is going to be applicable in your life.

End with a short vocal prayer.

The Prayer Method on this page has been provided with permission from the book Pray: How? by Savio Rodrigues SJ

Ignatian contemplation makes use of guided imagery and active imagination within a selected gospel text.

It is advisable to choose an action filled passage, so that it brings one’s personal desires, inclinations, emotions, problems, shadows, etc. into focus in prayer, without planning to air these.

Choose an action filled passage from the gospel — one that has a lot of colour and movement. Avoid discourses, teachings and parables, for these will lead you to moralise or intellectualise.

Read the passage. Stop for about five seconds for the scene to settle in your mind. Read it once again so as to take in some of the details you may have overlooked. Stop and let it sink in. Read it once or twice more in case you feel you need to do so. Do not struggle to remember details or words or passages. Be fully satisfied with whatever you remember. Remembering the passage or its details is of no importance at all.

Place yourself in the presence of God. Centre yourself using any of the centering methods you feel suits you best. Centering is a help to create an empty mind, a mind free of worries and distractions. Have no fixed agenda or definite graces, but ask with an open mind and heart.

Now close the Bible and let yourself sink into the scene you have created for yourself through the reading of the passage. Let your self get lost in the scene and identify yourself with some person or something in the scene. Try and re-live the actual situation. You may soon find your self in active conversation, of helping or sharing or just being with someone in the scene. Be passive, but alert. Let the others in the scene control the events, you just go along, but always being a part of that reality that is re-enfolding.

Do not try to find parallels in the scriptures, or in your personal life. Avoid moralising like saying, “It should be like this”, “I must”, “We must”, “We could”, “It is better”, etc. No judgements or comparisons are to be made. When you get to your reflection later on, you will find yourself automatically living what you experienced in your contemplation.

You live in a world of emotions and feelings during the time of contemplation. Avoid any contact with the intellect.

After you have emerged from your contemplation you spend some time in reviewing your prayer. At this time you check as to what actually happened during that hour. What did you notice in your mind, feelings, sentiments, emotions etc. Write these down and try and discover what they are saying to you.

The Prayer Method on this page has been provided with permission from the book Pray: How? by Savio Rodrigues SJ

Reflect on the Psalms: What does it mean? What is the psalmist trying to express? His feelings?

Involve heart and soul: Use affective meditation — make the lines of the Psalm personal, catering to your needs, emotions, problems and situation.

Repeat constantly: Repeat the lines of the Psalm simply but with as much attention as possible. The prayer becomes very simple.

Saying nothing: Simply gaze at the Lord. Be as still as possible, physically and emotionally. Praying this way is a grace that leads to deep peace and joy, ultimately to prayer of quiet.

Get deeper into silence: Keep gazing at the Lord. I reach a state where there is no awareness of self, even while gazing at the Lord. I gracefully slide into total quiet, which is a state where the mind is shut off totally.

The Prayer Method on this page has been provided with permission from the book Pray: How? by Savio Rodrigues SJ

Do not bother what the drawing looks like. Use lines to draw. Do not draw any figures.

Take a sheet of paper and fold it into eight equal parts. Then in each of the parts draw: Anger, Joy, Peace, Depression, Power, Illness, Femininity and one feeling of your own choice.

Before you start, close your eyes and centre yourself.

Now try and imagine the last time you felt any of these emotions. Feel these emotions all over again by RE-LIVING them. Let these emotions move slowly from the heart to the head and to the hand, and draw them out.

In praying this way you are bringing your insights to a conscious level.

It makes your thought visible, and demonstrates the reality of the visual language.

Your drawings will also reveal your commonness and your uniqueness in relation to others.

I call this a form of prayer because in trying to re-live your experiences, you grow in self-awareness and this is getting in touch with your inner self, which is almost synonymous with the God within you. And prayer is nothing but awareness of God’s presence, in any form.

The Prayer Method on this page has been provided with permission from the book Pray: How? by Savio Rodrigues SJ