This talk is co-sponsored by the University of Lincoln’s Medieval and Early Modern Research Group (MEMSRG) and The Historical Association – City of Lincoln Branch. It is part of the MEMSRG Annual Medieval and Early Modern Week event.
Location: Minerva Building, MB0312 (Co-Op Lecture Theatre)
Accessible seating available
About the Talk
Christian architecture and the arts and crafts of early modern Goa awed visitors at the time; the viceregal Portuguese capital in India boasted up to 100 churches at its peak. The city sits on seven hills, as Lisbon and Rome do, and due to its evangelical mission and the strong presence of religious orders, it was known as the ‘Rome of the East’. The city underwent a gradual process of depopulation that started in the seventeenth century, and today only some of its monumental churches and basilicas have survived the passage of time. The literature has chiefly focused on studying the circulation of European architects, artists, craftsmen and their patrons and how transregional design trends that originated in Europe were implemented in the city of Goa and the wider region. Scholarship has demonstrated, however, that the Goan baroque developed in parallel terms with other coeval designs and structures elsewhere in Europe and the Americas, and some key recent attention has been paid to the patronage of the Goan clergy. This paper considerably expands existing literature by exploring the role of Goan makers (artists, architects, and builders) in the arts and crafts of early modern Goa.
About the Speaker
Dr Laura Fernández-González, FSA, FRHisSoc, is Associate Professor at the University of Lincoln, UK. Laura is an architectural, urban and art historian with expertise in the Iberian world, c. 1400-1950. Her monograph, Philip II of Spain and the Architecture of Empire (PSUP, 2021) was commended with an Honourable Mention in the 2022 Eleanor Tufts Awards. She has recently edited a roundtable article entitled ‘Race and the Built Environment in the Iberian World, c. 1400-1800’ for the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. She is currently working on a couple of projects that explore port cities of the Iberian World and architecture and building trade in colonial Peru.
Image Credit:
Interior, Church of St Francis of Assisi, Old Goa. Photo: Laura Fernández-González.
