Oriental Art in the Collections of the São Roque Museum

Portuguese and English

Descriptive catalog and selected inventory of the oriental art collection, a valuable asset belonging to the collection of the Museu de São Roque da Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Lisbon. “The collection of the Museum and Church of São Roque (as the professed house of the Jesuits in Portugal) – owned by Santa Casa da Misericórdia since 1768 – brings together an important set of objects from the Near East, India, China and Japan that reflect this process of acculturation, resulting from the commercial or cultural relations established between Portugal and the Asian continent”, says Teresa Morna, director of the São Roque Museum. This catalog presents highly exotic pieces that prove the Portuguese presence in these parts and testify to the cultural exchange between Portugal and the Orient. This publication also brings together a set of essays by specialists in the History of Art who focus on the themes of the Society of Jesus and the decorative arts in the Portuguese East, from the reliquary chest of São Francisco Xavier – a masterpiece of 17th-century Goan goldsmithing. , of the Luso-Oriental imaginary – brief characterization, or of the itineraries of the Holy Land – material testimonies of the journeys between the East and Europe in the collections of the São Roque Museum. This revised and updated edition of the oriental art catalog in the São Roque Museum collections also includes an illustrated description of a set of 30 pieces, organized according to their provenance - Palestine (Holy Land), India and Ceylon, China and Japan, selected pieces from a total of 63 inventoried objects.

Author: João Miguel Simões; Maria do Carmo Lino; Maria Joao Ferreira; Nuno Vassallo e Silva; Pedro Dias; Teresa Freitas Morna

Year of publication: 2010
Editor: SCML, Museu de São Roque
ISBN: 9789728761714 (PT), 9789722718903 (ING)