The Virgin and Child

This ivory statuette, representing the Virgin and Child, bears analogies with Cingalo-Portuguese (Sri Lanka) works, and is likely to date from the mid-seventeenth century.

Ivory sculptures were produced in large numbers in Portuguese Sri Lanka (formerly called Ceylon). From the sixteenth century onwards, the four main missionary Orders, the Augustinians, Jesuits, Dominicans and Franciscans, built churches and aimed to convert the inhabitants of India. The ivories would assist in the presentation of Christian imagery, as well as being exported back to churches, convents and private collectors in Europe.