Altar flower decoration

The most common floral decorations found on Indian church altars consisted of palm branches and flowers arranged in a vase. The branch is related to the palms borne in the processions held on Palm Sunday (recalling Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem), in both the West and the Portuguese East. Such arrangements are known in Portugal as altar palms; in Goa they came to be known as ramalhetes (bouquets) in memory of the flowers with which Christians adorned the palm branches.
Utterly changed from its original form, this altar flower decoration has fanciful wood cut-outs and carvings painted in soft colours and gilded. Two garlands stand out, flanked and topped by stylized acanthus leaves, whose stalks are bound by a waving ribbon and cross each other before meeting the base. The latter comprises an elegant pedestal with identical plant decoration, resting on an irregularly shaped double plinth.