Indian Standing Figure Depicting Saint Joseph with Jesus

He looks down at the child. In this story, he rarely looks anywhere else.

This standing figure of Saint Joseph with Jesus comes from Goa, India, 19th century, in carved and painted wood. Goa was under Portuguese rule for centuries, and local carvers there made Christian images for churches and home altars, blending European models with Indian hands. Joseph carries the infant in the crook of one arm and a spray of lilies, his traditional attribute, against his shoulder. A rust robe with a pink lining falls in deep folds over a cream tunic. The base is painted blue. Twenty-nine inches high.

A quiet subject: a carpenter, carved in wood, holding on.