Goa’s Bom Jesus as Visual Culture: The Basilica’s Architecture, Image, History and Identity

Synopsis

This book chronicles the visual history of the Basilica of Bom Jesus, one of the longest-surviving churches from Goa’s Portuguese colonial era. In the sixteenth century, this baroque church in Old Goa was constructed to house the sacred relics of St. Francis Xavier and is emblematic of Goa Dourada or Golden Goa.Despite their early modern origins, monuments like the Basilica continue to influence visual culture that pertains to Goa. Accordingly, this book uncovers the traces of architectural images of Goa’s sixteenth- and seventeenth-century monuments and conducts a genealogical study of how uses of religious architecture shift over time. Thus, even as the Basilica originally functioned to portray or recall a grand empire by evoking the notion of Goa Dourada, its iconicity has been employed in marking Goa’s difference from the rest of India thereafter. By employing an analysis of historical texts, illustrations, photography, film, and pageantry, this volume demonstrates how the image of the Basilica has been employed to create a discourse on Goan identity. In fact, right from the colonial period, when Goa was heralded as the Rome of the East, to the post-Portuguese period, when Goa became an idyllic destination for leisure tourism, architectural images of Bom Jesus have been central in shaping Goa’s identity.Goa’s Bom Jesus as Visual Culture will be useful to students and educators in the fields of architecture, history, anthropology, sociology, history of architecture, and colonial/postcolonial studies. Finally, the long history of a single monument that the book documents highlights how Goans have been shaping their unique culture. At the same time as Goans imbibed Portuguese and other European influences, they also domesticated and remade such colonial heritage in South Asian fashion and, in turn, contributed to global aesthetics.

Copyright:

2025

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781040251997

Related ISBNs:

9781032488608, 9781040251980, 9781032904412, 9781003558064

Publisher:

Taylor & Francis

Date of Addition:

11/27/24

Copyrighted By:

Vishvesh Prabhakar Kandolkar

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Art and Architecture, Religion and Spirituality, Social Studies

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.