Rhizomatic perspectives on arborescent motifs

This chapter illustrates the circulation of arboreal motifs across the Portuguese colonial network with special attention to images of the Tree of Jesse and the previously unnoticed contribution of Joachimite and Franciscan literature in the formation of the iconography under investigation. The study also discusses comparable floral allegories in the later Jesuit literature from Portuguese India as primary sources that support the proposed interpretation of the iconography. The chapter sheds light on the entangled nature of visual, oral, and written culture in the missionary context of South Asia, as well as the practices of visual meditation that informed the fruition of the statuettes.