Panaji: The residents of Pune bid farewell to the widow of a Goan artist, Rabindranath Tagore’s pupil who courted controversy by depicting Christian themes in Indian style more than 60 years ago.

The funeral rites of the widow of Ivy Muriel, wife of late Angelo da Fonseca, were held on Thursday at the City Church of Pune, cultural capital of Maharashtra state.

She died on September 1 in Pune after a brief illness at the age of 87.

Her husband Fonseca was considered an Indian Christian Cultural Renaissance artist for presenting Christian themes with Indian ethos.

He died in 1967 at the age of 65 of meningitis in Pune. He married Ivy in 1951 and they have a daughter Yessonda.

Fonseca had to leave Goa following severe criticism for painting Christian themes with Indian settings in pre-Vatican era when inculturation was least encouraged in the Church.

A priest in his native village of St Estevam criticized him for painting the Virgin Mary in a kunbi, traditional Goan sari.

The Portuguese colonial government that ruled Goa until 1961 subsequently condemned and expelled him from its western Indian colony. His paintings are at display in major cities worldwide. There has been a renewed interest in Fonseca’s works, with exhibitions both in India and abroad.

Ivy excelled as a teacher of Hindi and she studied her Masters of Education followed by another MA in English Literature in 1972. She did most of her higher education after marriage.

In 1962 she started a small nursery in a cottage at the Christa Prema Seva Sanga Ashram Shivajinagar, an Anglican Institution, where Fonseca also had his studio. As the school grew in numbers, she found a bigger place where St Francis High School now stands.

Her friends called an iron lady while she was “Fonseca Miss” for her students.

Fonseca started out in medical studies at the Grant Medical College, Bombay, but soon left for J. J. School of Art. In 1930 he left the prestigious Art School, as he felt it had too much of a European/English setting, and joined Shantiniketan in Kolkata (then Calcutta) where he was trained by Rabindranath Tagore. Nandalal Bose was his teacher. Since he was a Christian, many of his paintings incorporate Christ and the Bible. He respected the Virgin Mary and painted her many times.

Fonseca was a prolific and versatile painter; curved on wood, slate, worked on scrolls, stained glass, wax drawings, pencil sketches, baked clay. He has over 1,000 water colors and oils; murals and paintings at places such as St. Xavier’s Collage, Mumbai; Missio Museum, Aachen, Germany, De Nobili College, Pune; and Rachol Seminary, Goato.

He was reportedly influenced by Spanish Jesuit Father Henry Heras (1888-1955), an archeologist and historian in India, who encouraged Indian artists to paint Indian themes rather than Western.

Fonseca returned to Goa in 1931, which was ruled by the Portuguese colonial government led the Dictator Antonio Salazaar.