A standing figure of The Christ Child as Saviour of the World (Salvator Mundi) delicately carved in elephant ivory with traces of polychromy. In his left hand he holds an orb, symbolising sovereignty over the entire world, and makes the sign of blessing with his right hand. The figure is like a small baby and is carved with great naturalism with typical adipose tissue shown on the chest, belly, thighs and in the folds between the legs. Buddhist elements are evident in the trivalī marks of mahāpuru a or “great man” - the three incised lines on the neck, which are distin - guishing marks of the Buddha -, and the curly hair of a South Asian prince, reminiscent of that of Siddhārtha Gautama, alongside the typical depiction of the eyes, indicating inward contemplation (dhyāna), the oval face, rounded cheeks, small full lips and sharp nose, all combine to create an image of rare grace, blending a focused gaze (nimīlita d i), perfect form (rūpa), a devotional state of mind (bhāva), grace and charm (āva iā), and likeness (sād šya). All of these aspects would strongly appeal to a Buddhist devotee (upāsaka), or a sixteenth-century Hindu follower of the bhakti movement, and even more so to a high-ranking newly converted Christian in Ceylon. The superior quality of the carving, and its Buddhist features, points to an early date in the European contacts with Ceylonese sumptuary art. Upon their arriving on the island in 1506, the Portuguese immediately began to commission, probably from master ivory carvers working at the imperial city of Kō e, large numbers of religious objects to suit the demand for images to be used in missionary work and in their attempts to convert the indigenous population. 1 Figurines of the Christ Child as Saviour of the World were made in the imperial workshops not only from ivory but also from finely carved and polished rock crystal, some with precious gold mounts set with rubies and sapphires. 2
Modelled after European prototypes, such as wooden statuettes of the Christ Child produced for export in Mechelen (Malines) in Flanders and inspired by late sixteenth-century religious engravings, these figurines were produced in Ceylon alongside other devotional objects.3 These were among the first to be produced in Kō e, probably in the mid-1550s, around the time of the much sought-after conversion of the king, the eighteen-year-old João Dharmapāla (r. 1551-1597), which finally occurred in 1557. At this same date, “all the courtiers, also the queen, his wife, who was the daughter of the king of Kandy with all the ladies of the court” were baptised by Franciscan friars.4 This period saw not only the conversion of many hundreds of the Karāva, fisherman, traders and craftsmen of South Indian origin that lived along the coastline near Colombo, but also the Brahmin chaplain and Kō e ambassador, Śrī Rāmarak a Pandi a, which took place in Goa in late 1552. Upon conversion, the king rewarded the evangelical zeal of the Franciscan missionaries with substantial donations. The main temple of the city was converted into the church of Saint Anthony, and the revenues of the Buddhist and Hindu temples in the kingdom were given to the Portuguese missionaries. The Da adā Māligāva, the private royal temple where the famous tooth of the Buddha was enshrined, was transformed into the church of Saint Saviour.5 This is precisely the invocation and iconography conveyed in our ivory figurine, the proselyte and crusader Salvator Mundi which replaced images of the Buddha in private shrines and temples in the imperial city.6
1 On the Portuguese presence in Ceylon, see Paul E. Pieris, Ceylon and the Portuguese, 1505–1658, Tellippalal, American Ceylon Mission Press, 1920; Jorge Manuel Flores, Os Portugueses e o Mar de Ceilão, 1498-1543. Trato, Diplomacia e Guerra, Lisboa, Cosmos, 1998; Jorge Manuel Flores, Hum Curto Historia de Ceylan. Five Hundred Years of Relations Between Portugal and Sri Lanka, Lisbon, Fundação Oriente, 2000; Alan Strathern, Kingship and Conversion in Sixteenth-Century Sri Lanka. Portuguese Imperialism in a Buddhist Land, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007; and Zoltán Biedermann, The Portuguese in Sri Lanka and South India. Studies in the History of Diplomacy, Empire and Trade, 1500-1650, Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014.
2 See Hugo Miguel Crespo, “Rock-crystal carving in Portuguese Asia: an archaeometric analysis”, in Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, K. J. P. Lowe (eds.), The Global City. On the streets of Renaissance Lisbon, London, Paul Holberton publishing, 2015, pp. 186-211; and Hugo Miguel Crespo, "The Plundering of the Ceylonese Royal Treasury, 1551-1553: Its Character, Cost, and Dispersal," in Michael Bycroft, Sven Dupré (eds.), Gems in the Early Modern World Materials, Knowledge and Global Trade, 1450-1800, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, pp. 35-64.
3 On Ceylonese ivory carvings, both secular and religious, see Bernardo Ferrão, Imaginária Luso-Oriental, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1982; Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, Johannes Beltz (eds.), Elfenbeine aus Ceylon. Luxusgüter für Katharina von Habsburg (1507-1578) (cat.), Zürich, Museum Rietberg, 2010, maxime cat. nos. 12, 18-19, 21-23, 50-52; Nuno Vassallo e Silva, "«Engenho e Primor»: a Arte do Marfim no Ceilão. «Ingenuity and Excellence»: Ivory Art in Ceylon", in Nuno Vassallo e Silva (ed.), Marfins no Império Português. Ivories in the Portuguese Empire, Lisboa, Scribe, 2013, pp. 87-141; and Maria da Conceição Borges de Sousa, "Ivory catechisms: Christian sculpture from Goa and Sri Lanka", in Alan Chong (ed.), Christianity in Asia. Sacred art and visual splendour (cat.), Singapore, Asian Civilisations Museum, 2016, pp. 104-111.
4 See Paulo da Trindade, Chapters on the Introduction of Christianity in Ceylon (eds. E. Peiris, A. Meersman), Colombo, Catholic Press, 1972, p. 51; and Martin Quéré, “Christianity in the Kingdom of Kotte in the First Years of Dharmapala’s Reign (1551-1558)”, Aquinas Journal, 5, 1988, pp. 155-177, ref. p. 171.
5 On this temple, afterwards relocated to Kandy, see Anuradha Seneviratna, Śrī Da adā Māligāvā. The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. History and Architecture of the Temples, Colombo, Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2010.
6 On the donation, see Paulo da Trindade, Chapters [...], pp. 57-8; and Martin Quéré, “Christianity [...]”, p. 172.
