Important Notice

Lot 10

Though his studies of the human figure are probably his most well-known works, Souza’s oeuvre also included several magnificent landscapes and still lifes. Informing the artist’s work in all these genres, however, is the uneasy relationship he had with religion, specifically Roman Catholicism, throughout his life.

As a child in Goa, Newton Souza grew up in awe of the Catholic Church. As he grew older, however, the artist gradually... Though his studies of the human figure are probably his most well-known works, Souza’s oeuvre also included several magnificent landscapes and still lifes. Informing the artist’s work in all these genres, however, is the uneasy relationship he had with religion, specifically Roman Catholicism, throughout his life.

As a child in Goa, Newton Souza grew up in awe of the Catholic Church. As he grew older, however, the artist gradually became aware of what he perceived as the pretences and hypocrisy of his religion, and ever since, his life and work were marked by the tension he constantly experienced between an adherence to his faith and an urge to harshly criticize it.

In this still life, Souza presents Catholicism as nothing deeper than decorative vestment and ceremony – an ornamental faith based on words and objects rather than people. As the critic Yashodhara Dalmia explains, Souza’s still-lifes like this one “reflect liturgical practices and often consist of sacred objects or biblical references” (The Making of Modern Indian Art: The Progressives, Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 92). Instead of mocking its priests and saints, as he does in several of his figurative canvases, here the artist questions the rituals and symbols of the Roman Catholic Church. With his characteristic strong line and a less frequent, even unusual intensity of decoration and detail, this piece from 1961 was painted at the zenith of Souza’s fame in London, a period in which he repeatedly invoked religious themes to question divine knowledge and organized faith.

Also admitting somewhat naive fascination with the pageantry of the faith, which might explain the ornamentation and detail of this canvas, the artist says, “The Roman Catholic church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services. The priest dressed in richly embroidered vestments, each of his garments from the biretta to the chasuble symbolising the accoutrements of Christ’s passion.” (Edward Mullins, Souza, 1962, p. 42)

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