GOA'S MICHAELANGELO... APPRECIATING THE WORK OF JOSE PEREIRA
A fresco mural by Jose Perrira was unveiled by Alban Couto
at a largely attended function in the Rosary Chapel Fatorda
on April 26, 2008. The site of the mural, titled Creation
Resurgent, is on the large nave of the chapel which has been
largely restored by the efforts of the parishioners and by
donations mainly from the artist Jose Pereira himself.
Creation, the animal world, is being devastated, along with
resources that it enjoys like food and water. It is being
assaulted by human greed that has no consideration for the
ecology and the way of life of people who live in conformity
with the environment. In expressing the theme in vivid colour
and loving detail of children, flora, and fauna as found in
Goa, the overriding figure is that of Christ holding creation
in his protective hands and infusing fresh life into
creation, for all creeds, humanity, and all forms of life.
The parish priest Fr Boulais da Costa presided. Speakers
included Mr Percival Noronha, Dr Francisco Colaco, and
Damodar Mauzo. The third volume on mandos written by Dr.Jose
Pereira, Michael Martins, and Fr Antonio da Costa was
released at the function.
Dr Jose Pereira, in his speech, explained the significane of
his painting and how it embodied the Goan vision of East and
West and the spirituality of the Goan people. Alban Couto
traced the career of Jose Pereira as an artist, the setbacks
he received and finally the triumph of justice and
vindication at Fatorda. Engineer Jose Lourenco whose
dedication and commitment contributed to the success of the
function gave a vote of thanks.
(Jose Pereira is Professor Emeritus of Theology of Fordham
University, New York; taught in various academic institutions
in Lisbon, London, and Varanasi; has published 20 books and
over 140 articles on theology, history of art, on Goan and
Konkani culture, language, literature and music. His
paintings early in his career were part of the Display of
Eastern Art at the Vatican, and his recent works include the
murals at Borda and Fatorda.)
Below is the speech by Alban Couto on the occasion:
Great artists suffer labour pains. Though with less
intensity, we also feel the pains. Till the very last moment
of the unfolding of this fresco masterpiece, Creation
Resurgent, it was not certain that its creator, Dr Jose
Pereira, himself would be here.
His beloved daughter Sophia accompanied him, snatching a few
days leave before she takes her father back to New York. He
arrived in Bombay and in high fever. He was hospitalised;
fortunately the infection has been treated with heavy doses
of intravenous antibiotics.
Even in that condition, he insisted on coming to Goa two days
ago to launch the Bragança Pereia's Ethnography of Goa,
translated by my wife, Maria Aurora. Fortunately again,
doctor's orders forced him down.
It is with great reluctance that the doctors have
let him arrive here in time to witness the
unfolding of his fresco masterpiece. So finally the
saga of Creation has been fulfilled with the artist
himself present. I take it as an auspicious sign, a
divine benediction, for this masterpiece. In
sharing the vision with all of you, permit me to
recount the painful road to its creation, to
justice and fulfillment in this Rosary Chapel at
Fatorda.
The Fatorda Chapel like many of the churches and temples in
Goa is a fulcrum of light. The barreled vault is dramatically
illuminated by light entering through the occuli or eyes of
the façade and the aisle windows, symbolizin,g in the words
of Jose, the three eyes of the Indian divinity Shiva.
It is in this luminosity that fresco painting comes to life;
divine life. The masterpiece of this genre is the Sistine
Chapel and its artist, the great Michelangelo. Both have
inspired our Jose Pereira. He would talk of them in his
student days in Bombay when we first met. A film popular at
that time was 'Agony and Ecstasy' about Michelangelo and his
crusty patron Pope Julius. So if it is ecstasy that you feel
here, forgive me when I talk of the agony.
The comparison of Jose with Michelangelo is not far fetched.
Since his post graduate student days in the fifties, Jose was
astonishing us with his astounding command of the classics in
its original languages -- Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, Persian,
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Arabic, and his beloved
Konkani. He was fluent in them, taking pains to speak and
even sing in their original accents.
I was thrilled by his knowledge, and sometimes embarrassed.
He put my infant daughter to sleep, when nothing could stop
her yelling, by singing in Persian, the poems of Hafiz. But
he almost got me demoted if not sacked when he won a slanging
match of Sanskrit slokas against some of my bosses in Delhi.
Often I dearly wished that his charity could extend to
bureaucrats.
Among the other classics venerated by Jose are Dante, and
the great artists of Ajanta and Ellora whose masterpieces are
a testament that great art and great faith go together, in
fact one is not truly alive without the other.
They may fight as another great contemporary Goan artist,
Newton Souza, showed, using the stark silhouette of the Goan
landscape and violent colours to epitomize the demons that
tore him. But for harmony and peace the artist has to imbibe
the spiritual classics, theological and mystical, St John of
the Cross and the Sufis, and Bhaktis and the ladainhas,
dulpods, and mandos of Goa.
Jose absorbed all this, intellectually and with scholarly
erudition, expounding them in insightful books on theology,
Baroque Art, Hindu-Christian theological concordance, Islamic
Art,and the path breakers on Goan folk music.
He traveled in remote villages in Goa, with a tape recorder
in his shoulder pack, speaking to women and farmers in their
fields and in their homes, and recording their songs and
stories.
Some of this went into his books, but the colour, vivacity,
the fruits of the earth and of their labour, fish, mangoes,
the harvested paddy, the chatter of their gossip and sabhin
mai rosaries went into the frescoes of the Borda Chapel, and
have been transformed into a kind of divine life in Jose's
frescoes in this Fatorda chapel.
But before Fatorda of fulfillment, there was the half tragedy
of Borda of ten years and the complete tragedy of Juhu,
Bombay, almost fifty five years ago.
Borda remains incomplete, inspite of the manifesto agreed to
by the Chaplain, a manifesto which advocate and writer,
Udaybab Bhembre drafted and signed, a manifesto of Goan
support to a great artist attempting to bring his love of
Goa, of its land, of its people, of its many cultures and
creeds, into one unifying vision of peace and harmony.
I urge those who have not seen the frescoes in the Borda
chapel to see them, and to see them again. Before Borda there
was for the artist, the agony of the whitewash of the
frescoes he had done in 1951 on the walls of the cemetery
chapel at Juhu in Mumbai.
His friends including myself saw him then at work
in the hot sun, working with his bare hands, and
with chisel, scapel, turpentine, and paint,
kneading them with lime plaster into the walls,
till his knuckles bled. In Borda too, many years
later, he could be seen prone on a high scaffolding
in the sacristy so that he could enter his brush
into the very pores of the vaulted ceiling.
I often scolded him to take care as he was getting on in age;
and he would retort that Michalangelo when he was no longer
young did the Sistine Chapel high on his back, the paint,
rubble, and dust almost blinding him, but he carried on to
complete the greatest masterpiece of art of all time.
Fortunately, for the Fatorda frescoes, Jose had the
assistance of students of the Goa College of Art who
completed the work from the life size drawings of Jose. The
names of these painters -- Sandesh Shetgaonkar, Sudin
Kurpaskar -- deserve our gratitude as does Jose Lourenço,
who provided technical expertise.
The frescoes of the Juhu cemetery have been ground to dust
and so also has the chapel and the cemetery. At Borda too,
the precursor of the Fatorda masterpiece, he was prevented
from reaching the apotheosis in the ceiling of the Borda
Chapel. This culmination and fulfillment he received in the
Fatorda Chapel. Our gratitude to Padre. Vigario, for being as
good as the Pope to our Michelangelo.
I feel that some good came from the setback at Juhu and at
Borda. Jose was going through a phase of growth and
development, intellectually and spiritually, the milestones
and achievements are captured in his books of national and
international acclaim. His development as an artist and
painter was proceeding in his mind, in the more difficult
regions, the dark nights of the heart and the soul.
He was searching for the beatific vision, like his hero,
Dante, who through Inferno reached Paradiso, and saw a
glimpse, and returned to tell us, of the universal unifier
where the diversities of religion and culture, flora, fauna,
the earth itself are made one, whole, living, and immortal.
His study of Baroque architecture in Goa, Christian and
Hindu, with its play of light and shade from high windows and
vaulted ceilings, the tropical fecundity of flowers, animals,
and fish, by Hindu artisans as decoratives for church.
temple, furniture,and the immanence of divinity in the
plenitude of all forms of life. It is the Incarnation, God
becoming man, here I quote Jose Pereira, "immersing himself
in the human condition, to share their life, to partake of
their nutrition, to become nutrition for them, and thus
fortify them with his divine power."
This vision is beyond words.It is within the reach of the
artist who unfolds it, in power, beauty, and above all peace.
This is not the dance of death nor the Last Judgement, nor
the Inferno in which among the villains are those that
thwarted the great artist. All is compassion, peace,
forgiveness, renewal and hope with children emerging from the
foliage and the benediction of animals.
For me and for his old surviving friends, today is
fulfillment. But Jose this is not the end and this
is not goodbye. There are no farewells and goodbyes
in Goa but comings and comings. Goa and the world
still want more of you. So it is with this hope
that I am proud to be a witness to this masterpiece
of the great intellectual and painter, Jose
Pereira, who has brought into being this unifying
revelation.
Online image of the mural:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/2449072588/sizes/o/
Dr Jose Pereira on Goan architecture:
http://www.india-seminar.com/2004/543/543%20jose%20pereira.htm
Goans, pioneers in Westernisation (Dr Jose Pereira)
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg07325.html
This piece mentions Dr Pereira's work, but only in passing:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1503/eminent-goans.html
A Brahmin among the Yanks: a profile of Dr Jose Pereira
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/msg34435.html
