An exceptional sculpture of Baby Jesus, the Good Shepherd, both for is technical quality and its carving fineness, like a jeweller carving with an enormous minutia.This sculpture relates to the evangelical episode of Good Shepherd or the Parable of the Lost Sheep. As usual in this sculptures of Indian origin, the Baby Jesus is sleeping. From Buddha he receives the ecstatic attitude, looking away with half-closed eyes, the fingers over the temples and the face resting on the right hand. Such contemplative position bears a great symbolism, reminding us when Buddha attained the enlightenment, after 49 days of meditation seated under the fig tree.
The five upright leafy branches, symbolising the Tree of Life, are particularly rare survivors in a piece of this period, as they are often missing or damaged due to negligence and the passing of time. They slot loosely at different heights into the mount that serves as background for the vertically developing composition. On the larger central branch, crowning Jesus, the half-length figure of God The Father, wearing the papal tiara and holding an orb in His left hand and blessing with His right, emerges from a cloud. Suspended on his chest the dove of the Holy Spirit.
The Baby Jesus, sitting on the top of the mountain, dress a shepherd’s vestment carved as a diamond tip, girdled in the waist with a drawstring with a laced knot, and displaying his attributes (the shoulder bag and gourd), wears galligaskins and sandals. He is seated with the legs crossed in the usual Buddha meditation position, on the top his flock spreaded in a pyramidal hill where the many sheep symbolize the Souls scattered all over the World. On the left shoulder the Baby holds one small ram, and another one lays on his lap, sustained by his hand. The curly locks of his hair on his face, the slightly hooked nose and the beak like mouth are typical traits of the indo-Portuguese art of the seventeen century.
The mountain is sectioned in three levels covered by palm leaves. Although unequivocally framed according to a Christian matrix alluding to Mount Calvary (Golgota) it is also possible to perceive some references pertaining to the Hindu sacred Mount Meru. It has in fact been suggested that the terraced structure can possibly relate to the Gopuram, the stepped towers that function as gateways to Indian Hindu temples.
Three sheep are on the middle terrace, two eat foliage and in the middle one of them suckles a lamb.
On the upper level the Fountain of Life (Fons Vitae) spurts the Water of Redemption that is being drank by the birds of Paradise.
At the lower level, carefully carved, the cave with Maria Magdalene lying on the right side, she is identified by her long hair, evoking unkempt a solitary life closeness to the Lord. She is depicted dressing in a long tunic, and with the left finger points an open Book of Holy Text – The New Testament - in the lower front, typifying the written support for meditation about the life of Jesus. The Cross of Christ to her right – wich according to legend was left by the Archange Michael – is placed on a rock. On the either side of this cave two lions protect the Saint.
The composition sits on a socle with a carved indented frieze.