Saint Francis Xavier before the map of his missions

This small-scale religious painting depicts Saint Francis Xavier Before the Map of His Missions or, alternatively, Saint Francis Xavier Embarking for Asia.

Born in Spain, Francis Xavier (1506-1552), along with Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) and four other companions, co-founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and became a key missionary figure in Asia. In 1541, he travelled from Lisbon to India, preaching in Goa before expanding his efforts to Southeast Asia and Japan, where he was renowned for converting many to Catholicism. He died in 1552 on Shangchuan Island, off the Chinese coast, while attempting to enter the mainland. Though he never entered China, his missionary legacy had a major impact on the spreading of Christianity throughout Asia.

Conceived as an allegory to the widespread nature of Saint Francis Xavier’s missionary role, the painting depicts the Saint, haloed and holding a crucifix in his right hand, with a map of Asia presented by five figures, four of whom represent continents. Africa depicted as a standing, black-skinned man wearing a single pearl earring and holding an axe. Also standing is Asia, a fair-skinned male youth wearing long red tunic and a feather ornamented turban (in the Safavid and Mughal style), proudly grabbing a lance in his left hand. Europe, represented by a kneeling female in the foreground, is richly attired and jewelled, her braided hair, neck and pink tunic hems adorned with pearls. At her feet lies a cornucopia of plenty, from which spill gold and silver coins. Behind her, a kneeling and turbaned dark-skinned man, armed with a bow, represents America.

The fifth figure, depicted as and older turbaned Ottoman man standing next to the Saint, and presenting the map to Him, is possibly intended to represent one of the local pilots commonly recruited by the Portuguese in the early exploration of the various regions featured on the map. On the left background a ship about to depart, in which a figure climbs a mast to unfurl its sail.

The present painting reproduces an engraving by Cornelis Bloemaert II (1603-ca. 1689), after an original composition by Jan Miel (1599-1656). The print was published as the frontispiece of Daniello Bartoli’s 1667 edition of the first part of his widely circulated and influential book Dell’historia della Compagnia di Gesû, which focused on Jesuit missionary activity in Asia. Bartoli (1608-1685), who served as rector of the Collegio Romano, the main Jesuit university, intended this section of his book to cover the Jesuit experience in the Far East, including Japan and China, since their settling there in the mid-sixteenth century.

Bloemaert’s print was copied in 1703 by the Mexican artist Juan Gonzáles in a highly elaborate and large enconchado (inlaid with mother-of-pearl) painting and frame (113.0 x 91.0 cm), which is now in a private collection.[1] In his adaptation of the Flemish print, Gonzáles added labels next to the allegories of the four continents. The kneeling female figure is identified as Europe, while the other kneeling figure behind her, whose garments are now accurately depicted as made from feathers, is labelled America. The standing youth featuring a feather aigrette is identified as Asia, but the older turbaned figure holding the map remains unlabelled. It has been suggested that the original print did not intend to depict the four continents, and that the figures instead represented the diverse peoples encountered by Francis Xavier in Asia.[2] However, considering the customary attributes in the original print—such as the cornucopia with a sceptre spilling onto the grass in the foreground—this interpretation is rather problematic and unlikely.

Faithfully copied from Bloemaert’s print, our painting on canvas was likely produced in Portugal or Spain during the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, and probably intended for one of the many Jesuit houses across the Iberian Peninsula. Created by a skilled painter using vivid, bright colours, its artistic quality is somewhat overshadowed by its iconographical rarity and significance.

A similar style of painting can be found in a set of works on the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola from Coimbra Cathedral (Sé Nova), once the city’s Jesuit college church.[3] Dating from around 1640, this group was painted by Domingos da Cunha, nicknamed o Cabrinha (1598-1644), and closely follows contemporary engravings by Jean Baptiste Barbé (1578-1649), after Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). At around the same time, and based on earlier models, the painter Manuel Henriques (1593-1654) produced, for the same Jesuit college and church[4], a set of paintings on the life of St. Francis Xavier. Both groups are now displayed in the sacristy of Coimbra’s Jesuit church, alongside other devotional paintings similar in character and artistic significance to our Saint. Francis Xavier Before the Map of His Missions.