This exceptional sculpture, impressive for both its dimensions and its weight, as well as for the technical mastery of its execution, is a tour de force of Portuguese India made jewellery, only comparable to a small number of other extant examples connected to Jesuit Religious Houses in Goa and to one other sculpture at Evora Cathedral.

Portraying the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception with the Child, and entirely made in silver, it was most certainly created for a wealthy patron or a major religious institution. Furthermore, due to its truly exceptional artistic merits, it has survived the destiny of many such pieces which were dismantled and melted to be recast into other, more modern objects.

 

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