Name of Object:

St. Francis Xavier Preaching in Goa

Location:

Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

Holding Museum:

Lisbon's Holy House of mercy / Museum of São Roque

Original Owner:

Society of Jesus

Current Owner:

Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa / Museum of São Roque

Date of Object:

c. 1619

Artist(s) / Craftsperson(s):

André Reinoso (c.1590, Province of Beira, Portugal–after 1641) and his collaborators

Museum Inventory Number:

Inv.096

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

H: 104 cm; w: 165 cm

Workshop / Movement:

Naturalistic tenebrism, Iberian painters

Provenance:

Church of São Roque

Type of object:

Painting

Period of activity:

Before 1623–1641

Place of production:

Portugal

Description:

The set of 20 paintings portraying the life of St. Francis Xavier (1506–1552) form the back-piece to a large chest-of-drawers in the sacristy of the 16th-century Church of St. Roque, and are the work of the Portuguese proto-Baroque painter André Reinoso and collaborators. Installed in 1619, three years before the official canonisation of St. Francis Xavier on the 12th March 1622, the set of paintings form part of a religious “propaganda” exercise to highlight the life and work of the great Jesuit missionary, which it was hoped, would speed up the process of his canonisation by the Catholic Church. The paintings were inspired by the first Portuguese biography of the saint written by Father João de Lucena (Histórica da Vida do Padre Francisco Xavier, e do que fizerão na Índia os mais religiosos da Companhia de Jesus) published in Lisbon in 1600.
The scene featured here shows the saint ardently preaching in the cosmopolitan city of Goa shortly after his arrival there in 1542. The picture has particular interest from an ethnographic viewpoint in that it shows the variety of oriental customs as well as recording different social classes. In the picture a crowd of new converts: men, women and children, as well as Portuguese noblemen watching on horseback, surround the saint. The background scene features a landscape fashioned in the Italian style.

This oil on canvas painting, part of a set of 20, is attributed to the Portuguese proto-Baroque painter André Reinoso (c. 1590-1641). Commissioned by the Society of Jesus for the sacristy of the Jesuit Church of St. Roque, this and other paintings of the set form the back-piece to a large chest-of-drawers installed in 1619, three years before the canonisation of the great missionary of the Far-East, St. Francis Xavier.

How date and origin were established:

This painting, as well as the other ones that make up the painted cycle dedicated to the life of St. Francis Xavier, was attributed to André Reinoso by the Art Historian, Prof. Vitor Serrão, after a thorough research on Reinoso’s life and his works, in the decade of 1990.

How Object was obtained:

Church of São Roque, Sacristy (Lisbon), the work commissioned by the Society of Jesus to the painter André Reinoso and his collaborators.

Selected bibliography:

Lucena, J., Historia da Vida do Padre Francisco Xavier (…), 1600, 2 vols, Lisbon, 1959.
Serrão, V. A., Lenda de S. Francisco Xavier pelo pintor André Reinoso, Lisbon, 1993.
Caetano, J. O., Pintura – Séc. XVI ao Século XX, Colecção de Pintura da Misericórdia de Lisboa, Tomo I, Vol. V, Museu de São Roque, Lisbon, 1998.
Serrão, V. A., “A série seiscentista da Vida de São Francisco Xavier do antigo Colégio do Espírito Santo em Évora: a iconografia xaveriana à luz de uma singular narração policénica”, Revista Oriente, No. 3, Lisbon, 2005.
Henriques, A. M. M., São Francisco Xavier – Vida e Lenda, Museu São Roque, Lisbon, 2006.

Citation of this web page:

Antonio Meira Marques Henriques "St. Francis Xavier Preaching in Goa" in "Discover Baroque Art", Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://baroqueart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;BAR;pt;Mus11_A;15;en

Prepared by: Antonio Meira Marques HenriquesAntonio Meira Marques Henriques

SURNAME: Meira Henriques
NAME: António

AFFILIATION: Lisbon’s Holy House of Mercy/Museum of São Roque

TITLE: Museum Curator

CV:
António Meira Henriques graduated in Philosophy and Theology at the Milltown Institute of Theology in Dublin, Ireland in 1977. He did his MA in Theology at the University of Santa Clara in California, USA. António has been a Curator at Lisbon’s Holy House of Mercy/Museum of São Roque since 2001, frequently collaborating with the Education Department at the Museum. His research interests focus on the history of the Society of Jesus and religious Iconography.

Translation by: Ian Rowcliff
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: PT 18