During the Portuguese colonial period a number of statuettes like Christ as the Good Shepherd were made in Goa, probably by Indian sculptors trained in Portuguese-related artistic tradition. Christ is shown as a boy tending sleep; in a cave below a woman reclines, reading. She is sometimes identified as Mary Magdalene, or as St. Catherine of Alexandria who is associated with Goa because it was on her feast day 1510 that the Portuguese took possession of the city.

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