Important Notice

This large scale charcoal and oil on canvas by Souza has the detailing and mastery over line which is evident in his works on paper. Souza's characteristic line-work is used to both, delineate and decorate each feature in the present lot. Set against a simple, monochromatic background, each object in the still-life is endowed with the depth and intensity of the artist's trademark, cross-hatching technique.

As a child in Goa, Souza... This large scale charcoal and oil on canvas by Souza has the detailing and mastery over line which is evident in his works on paper. Souza's characteristic line-work is used to both, delineate and decorate each feature in the present lot. Set against a simple, monochromatic background, each object in the still-life is endowed with the depth and intensity of the artist's trademark, cross-hatching technique.

As a child in Goa, Souza was fascinated by the pomp and pageantry of Roman Catholicism. Its rituals, and the ornate objects associated with them, played a large role in shaping this awe. As he explains, the Church "...had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendour of its services... The smell of incense." (Francis Newton Souza, Words and Lines, London: Villiers Publication Ltd., 1959, p. 10)

Over time, Souza found this religious atmosphere repressive, and its puritanical tenets hypocritical. Souza's unresolved relationship of wonder and contempt for Catholicism infiltrated every genre of his work. In his still-lifes, he critically interrogated the notion of divine sanction, and its various interpretations and vehicles. In some of his still-life paintings Souza painted objects including the Ciborium, Chalice and Patens that were clearly ecclesiastical. In others, such as the present lot, Souza presents everyday vessels in a religious context, almost as if they stand on an altar awaiting their part in some liturgical ritual.

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