Saint Mary, her hands steepled in prayer, tramples the seven heads of a monstrous scaly hydra or winged dragon with a curled tail and clawed feet: east meets west in a sculptural blend mixing Chinese, Jesuit and Portuguese colonial themes, carved by Japanese and Chinese Christians in the early 1600s on the granite facade of the ruined Church of St Paul in Santo António, Macau, China.
Ruins of St Paul’s, Santo António, Macau, China: the Virgin Mary tramples the seven heads of a monstrous, scaly winged hydra in a fascinating early 1600s blend, in a former Portuguese colony, of European, Roman Catholic and Chinese religious motifs, culture and art. The sculpture decorates the Baroque granite facade of the ruined former Church of São Paulo, the only part of the structure to survive a disastrous fire in 1835. The Chinese characters beside the artwork explain: “Holy Mother tramples the heads of the dragon.” The former Jesuit Church of Saint Paul, also known as Mater Dei, was built in the early 17th century for the Portuguese men and women who had begun to colonise Macau a few decades earlier. It was once one of the largest churches in Asia, but the fortunes of both the hilltop religious complex and Macau itself declined due to competition from Hong Kong. The fire during a typhoon in 1835 left most of the church in ruins. The south facade, approached by a flight of 68 stone steps, was sculpted between 1620 and 1627 by exiled Japanese Christians and local craftsmen under the direction of the Genoese Jesuit, Carlo Spinola. The carvings include Jesuit images with an Oriental character, such as St Mary protecting a galleon representing the Church as it sales through a storm of sin, and the Devil and a skeleton impaled by arrows. In the early 1990s, calls for the dangerously leaning structure to be demolished were ignored in favour of excavations that revealed the church’s crypt and foundations. Many religious artefacts were found, together with relics of Chinese Christian martyrs and the monastic clergy, including the founder of Macau’s Jesuit College. The facade is now buttressed with concrete and steel to prevent any future collapse.
Size: 2503px × 3739px
Location: Ruins of St Paul’s, Santo António, Macau, China.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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