We invite you to join Dr. Robert J. Del Bontà, guest curator of Arte Sacra: Roman Catholic Art from Portuguese India, for a virtual tour of the exhibition currently on view at NOMA. Dr. Del Bontà is an independent scholar of Indian art, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1978. Since that time he has published numerous articles, contributed to many scholarly publications, and curated major exhibitions for the Berkeley Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, and the University of Michigan Museum of Art, among others.

In the centuries following the arrival of Francis Xavier, a Catholic missionary, in 1542, the state of Goa in western India became the administrative and economic center of a Portuguese empire that extended west to Africa and east to Malaysia, China, and Japan. The vast trade networks established by the Portuguese and Spanish allowed not only for the spread of Christianity, but also an unprecedented artistic exchange within these colonial empires. This exhibition, from the collection of Dr. Siddharth Bhansali, reveals both the global influence of European seventeenth- and eighteenth-century styles, as well as the transformation of these styles in the hands of Indian artists creating a new visual tradition.

Arte Sacra: Roman Catholic Art from Portuguese India is on view at NOMA March 13th, 2020 – June 20th, 2021.

Virtual programs at NOMA are made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this video do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.