Salvador - Santa Teresa

The Museum of Sacred Art has an important collection of portrait sculpture (in clay, wood, ivory, soapstone and lead) of the 17th-19th centuries. Particularly fine are the sculptured figures and reliquary busts by the Benedictine monk Agostinho da Piedade, which show traces of Indian influence, notably the reliquary bust of St Lucia (c. 1630), one of the earliest examples of silver portrait sculpture in Brazil. The Museum also contains works by the sculptor-monk Agostinho de Jesus and paintings of the Cuzco school and the great colonial painters José Joaquim da Rocha, José Teófilo de Jesus and Ricardo do Pilar, another monk.

The museum is housed in the former convent of Santa Teresa.