A figure of The Christ Child as Saviour of the World (Salvator Mundi) delicately carved in elephant ivory with traces of polychromy, standing over an orb, symbolising sovereignty over the entire world. On top of a stepped ebony base typical of Buddhist and Hindu “idols”, the Child makes the sign of blessing with his right hand, while grasping with his left a silver processional cross in miniature (originally, a silver or gold crucifer banner). Its production stems from the religious context and is a natural development of this type in Ceylonese ivory carving of which this is a very fine Mannerist-style example. It incorporates the most important features of this imagery which distinguish it from later Goan production: the egg-shape globe under the Child’s feet is carved from the same ivory tusk as the rest of the image, and the gure is depicted with an empty left st intended for holding a crucifer ban- ner in precious metal. The long-lasting impression left by devotional ivory carvings made in Ceylon for the Portuguese was witnessed rst-hand by Jan Huygen van Linschoten (1563-1611), the author of the famous Itinerariopublished in 1596. When Linschoten was in the service of the Portuguese archbishop Vicente Fonseca in Goa, the prelate was given an ivory sculpture of the Cruci ed Christ about forty five centimetres in length, which the author describes as having been produced in such an excellent and industrious way that his hair, beard, and face seemed as natural as if that of a living being, and so nely carved, with limbs so well proportioned that one would fail to see similar pieces made in Europe. Stemming from an ivory carving tradition which was promptly exploited by the Portuguese, whether by missionaries keen on commissioning the images they so desperately required for the indoctrination of new converts, or even by courtly o officials of the Portuguese State of India, the production of Catholic images in Ceylon achieved huge fame and prestige all over Asia, having been the starting point and centre of dissemination for an industry that, from the island’s loss to the Dutch in 1658, probably moved to Goa.1
1 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 Mar m no Ceilão. «Ingenuity and Excellence»: Ivory Art in Ceylon", in Nuno Vassallo e Silva (ed.), Mar ns 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.
