The Life of Christ and the New Mexican Santo Tradition

tathoUc outllwest 'JljournalefJCisWJJ and udture CATHOLIC SOUTHWEST A JOURNAL OF HISTORY AND CULTURE Volume 7 1996 Published by The Texas Catholic Historical Society with the cooperation of The Texas Catholic Conference and The Texas State Council of the Knights of Columbus EDITORIAL STAFF Editor Managing Editor Book Review Editor Copy Editor Patrick Foley Jesus F. de la Teja Thomas W. Jodziewicz Deborah Bloys Hardin ASSOCIATE EDITORS University of Texas at San Antonio Texas State Historical Association Southwest Texas State University University of Texas, Pan American University of Texas at Austin, Retired Catholic Archives of Texas Felix D. Almaraz, Jr. Roy R. Barkley Elizabeth Makowski Hubert Miller E. Victor Niemeyer, Jr. I<inga Perzynska CONSULTING EDITORS Gilbert R. Cruz Jose Roberto Juarez Dolores Liptak, R.S.M. Rev. James T. Moore Rev. Bob Wright, O.M.I. Glendale Community College, Arizona Texas A&M International University Catholic Historical & Archival Services North Harris College Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio Catholic Southwest: A Journal of History and Culture (ISSN 1048-2431) is published in the spring of each year. Correspondence concerning contribu- · tions and editorial matters should be addressed to the Editor, Catholic Southwest, 1113 ldlewood, Azle, Texas 76020. Correspondence concerning book reviews should be addressed to: Dr. Thomas W. Jodziewicz, Book Review Editor, Catholic Southwest, University of Dallas History Department, 1845 East Northgate, Irving, Texas 75062. All other correspondence should be addressed to: Catholic Southwest, 1625 Rutherford Lane, Bldg. D, Austin, Texas 78754-5105. Prospective contributors should consult the "Guidelines for Contributors" in the back of this volume. The views expressed in this journal are those of the individual authors and not those of Catholic Southwest or the Texas Catholic Historical Society. The journal is sent to all members of the Texas Catholic Historical Society. Regular annual membership dues in the Society are $15. The single issue price is $6. Correspondence concerning membership dues should be addressed to: Texas Catholic Historical Society, 1625 Rutherford Lane, Bldg. D, Austin, Texas 78754-5105. © 1996, Texas Catholic Historical Society Cover: IA Familia Sagrada · Holy Family, Rafael Arag6n, active 1820-1862. Private Collection. Photo by Ross Frank. CONTENTS The Search Continues . . . . 7 Message From the TCHS President 9 In Memoriam Fray Angelico Chavez 11 AFTER TESTEM BENEVOLENTIAE AND PASCENDI By Patrick W. Carey 13 THE LIFE OF CHRIST AND THE NEW MEXICAN SANTO TRAomoN 33 By Ross Frank TOMAS SANCHEZ ON 1HE CLOISTERING OF NUNS: CANONICAL 81 THEORY AND SPANISH COLONIAL PRACTICE By Elizabeth Makowski THE RETURN OF THE FRANCISCANS TO TEXAS, 1891-1931 91 By Felix D. Almaraz, Jr. LYON AND 1HE DISTANT MISSIONS: THE TEXAS STORY 115 By Yannick Essertel SPECIAL NOTE 131 A NEW NAME, AN EXPANDED MlsSION Announcements and Comments 132 Notes from the Society 136 Book Reviews 138 '\·r•I ..,. . , , J,(; I,_ ifi:{-z. Retablo ·Altar piece, Laguna Mission Church. (TM1519). Courtesy of Taylor Museum for SW Studies of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Photograph by Max Barnett. THE LIFE OF CHRIST AND THE NEW MEXICAN SANTO TRADITION Ross Frank· In New Mexico, the tradition of carving and painting santos, statues and retables of religious subjects, has long been celebrated for producing attractive images that convey a sense of simple yet intense religious devotion. From its roots during the last decades of the eighteenth century to the revival and innovation of today's artists, santo-making in New Mexico has undergone recognizable phases of development and transformation. The nature of santo production by local craftspeople, as well as the importance of images of saints to the Catholic religious faith of nuevomexicanos since Spanish colonial times, have overshadowed the important role that the Vecino1 elite played in the origin of the New Mexican santero (saint-maker) and of the early development of his art during the 1790s. The diffusion of santos as an art patronized and used by the "folk" at large took place during a second phase of santo development. This period, from roughly 1820 to 1860, encompassed the careers of most of the identifiable masters of the early flowering of the New Mexican santo tradition: Pedro Fresquis, Molleno, the A J. Santero, Jose Arag6n, the Quill Pen Santero, and Oose) Rafael Arag6n. One aspect of their work, images illustrating the Life of Christ, forms the focus of this article. Images of Christ begin to greatly outnumber portrayals of other religious subjects depicted in santos during the period after 1860 due to the rise of the lay organization now known as IA Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno (Brotherhood of Our Father Jesus Nazarene) as the predominant religious force among the Spanish-Mexican population of New Mexico.2 From the •Ross Frank teaches in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, San Diego. The Spanish word vecino used here refers to the non-Indian settlers of New Mexico. The term, literally meaning "neighbor," took on a meaning that included a sense of belonging to the province in late colonial New Mexican documents. Settlers were commonly referred to by Franciscans or provincial officials as "vecinos" in distinction to "Indios," the inhabitants of the Pueblos, who also represented a type of neighbor. William Wroth, Images of Penance, Images of Mercy: Southwestern Santos in the late nineteenth century (Nonnan: University of OkJahoma Press, 1991), xv. The secular brotherhood of penitentes also emerged in New Mexico during the last decades of the Spanish period. Very little information exists to shed light on the origin or precise date of the beginning of the confratemity called La Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jesus Namreno. The religious movement arose in New Mexico between 1776 and 1833, when Bishop Zubiria made specific mention of the "abuses" of corporal penance practiced by the confraternity at Santa Cruz. See Marta Weigle, Brothers of Ught, Brothers of Blood (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1976), 34-47; S. J. Steele, Thomas J. and Rowena A. Rivera, Penitente Self-Government: Brotherhoods and Councils, 34 Catholic Southwest 3 passing of the santeros of the first generation until about World War I the patronage of the penitentes, as members of the Brotherhood are called, encouraged the production of images related to the Passion of Christ for use in devotion and ritual that centered on the suffering and crucifixion of Christ. In the early decades during the establishment of this locally-produced form of religious art, depictions of the Saints made up the large majority of santos. Images of Christ do appear, especially santos showing the Holy Family, Holy Trinity, and the Crucifixion (see figures 5, 17-22, and 11-12). All told, about twenty different scenes from the Life of Christ appear in New Mexican santos, in many cases only in one or two surviving examples. Compared to other provincial areas of New Spain, the number of 4 different scenes from Christ's life seems large. Figures and paintings of the Saints represented the bulk of religious images displayed in churches and chapels in New Spain and elsewhere among the Spanish colonial possessions. At the same time, considering the breadth of iconography concerning Jesus available to the Catholic world of the late eighteenth century, and the centrality of His life in Catholic observance and catechism, New Mexican santeros employed a remarkably small number of the scenes from the Life and Passion of Christ in their iconographical repertoire. The comparative religious emphasis on the Life of Christ in late colonial New Mexico coupled with the particular scenes chosen for inclusion in New Mexican altars says a great deal about how New Mexicans saw themselves and interpreted their recent history. At the end of the eighteenth century, a generation of settlers experienced changes in their world that altered their very conception of themselves. From this experience they created a world of 1797-1947 (Santa Fe: Ancient City Press, 1985), 1-11; and Fray Angelico Chavez, uThe Penitentes of New Mexico," New Mexico Historical Review 29, 2 (1954): 11~112. 1Wael Arag6n, the last of the group of santeros that defined the early New Mexican santo style, died in 1862. 4see Nonnan Neuerberg, Saints of the California Missions: Mission Paintings of the Spanish and Mexican Eras (Santa Barbara: Bellerophon Books, 1995), for a selection of California Mission santos. For other Spanish colonies see: Yvonne Marie Lange, Santos: The Household Wooden Saints of Puerto Rico (2 vols., Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1975), especially the comparative discussion with New Mexican santos, 75-83; Gloria Fraser Giffords, The Art of Private Devotion: Retablo Painting of Mexico (Dallas-Fort Worth: Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist Univemity/lnteICultura, 1991); PAI Kelemen, Baroque and Rocoa, in Latin America (New York: Maanillan, 1951); Jose de Mesa, and Teresa Gisbert, Pinacotec:a de San Francisco (La Paz: Universidad Mayor de San Andres, 1973); Tony Pasinski, The Santos of Guatemala (Ciudad Guatemala: DIDACSA Centro Cultural, 1990). New Mexican Santo Tradition 35 carved and painted Saints anchored to their own sense of history by analogy with scenes taken from the Life of Christ After defending themselves for decades against intense periods of Comanche and Apache raids on Vecino villages and Indian Pueblos along the Rfo Grande, a Spanish-Pueblo military victory in 1779 ovei: the Comanche leader Cuemo Verde opened the way for a Spanish-Comanche peace six years later. The Comanche connection sprouted into an era of renewed trade with New Mexicans and a military alliance against the most intractable of the Apache bands. New Mexican merchants began to reestablish and expand commercial relations with Chihuahua, the closest substantial market city south of the province, and with the garrisons of the presidios (frontier fortifications) recently established in northern Sonora and Nueva Vizcaya. Sheep, wool, and finished woven textiles represented the mainstay of new burgeoning commercial enterprises. Further, after the hazards to life brought by warfare and a major smallpox outbreak that reached the province in 1781, the population of New Mexico began to grow rapidly, especially among the non-Pueblo villages. Vecino families holding inadequate farmlands to sustain themselves began to bring new lands under cultivation in the 1780s in areas that had previously been too vulnerable to Comanche attack to use. In sum, by the mid-1790s New Mexican Vecino society felt the rewards of peace, a renewed export trade, increased production of agricultural goods and livestock, and the imported luxuries that such prosperity brought. Vecinos in New Mexico expressed their thanks for both their present good fortune and their deliverance from the difficulties of the recent past in religious terms by developing a form of Catholic folk devotion that merged the religious currents that proceeded from Mexico City with a sense of religious intensity and distinction created by their own lived experience. In addition to creating a distinctive folk style, the santeros translated traditional religious personages and scenes into the context of the New Mexican late colonial experience. The beginning of the santero tradition in New Mexico during the last years of the eighteenth-century provides a window into the social and economic forces at work at the foundations of the New Mexican religious devotion that found its full expression and elaboration during the following century. By the end of the eighteenth century, the growth of the Vecino population produced a surge in the construction of new provincial churches and other religious buildings. As settlers from the established areas of Vecino settlement spread out to found new villages, they built churches and chapels, often without any way to obtain an ecclesiastical license, and almost always without a resident priest Due to a chronic shortage of secular priests, 36 Catholic Southwest the Franciscan missionary from the nearest Indian Pueblo attended to the sacraments and the occasional mass in new villages as he had in the older settlements. When the Bishop of Durango, Don Jose Antonio de Zubiria, visited New Mexico in 1833 he authorized over thirty licenses for new 5 churches, chapels, and oratories in all parts of the province. Since Pedro Tamar6n y Romeral had conducted the last Episcopal visitation of New Mexico in 1760, many of these buildings had functioned since the late 1780s or the early 1800s without the benefit of official sanction. Among others, Bishop Zubiria issued licenses to the church at Ranchos de Taos, the church of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe in the plaza of San Fernando de Taos, the chapel also dedicated to the Guadalupe in La Cuesta near San Miguel del Vado, and the church of the "Santuario del Senor de Esquipulas" at Chimayo. Newer Vecino communities built almost all the religious edifices licensed by Zubiria during the 1780-1820 period. Settlers constructed Ranchos de Taos in the late 1780s, and completed the Santuario at Chimayo, the site of the famous pilgrimage, around 1816. In addition to the construction of new religious buildings needed to keep up with an expanding laity, Vecinos undertook a program of reconstruction and refurbishing of long-standing structures on a scale not seen in New Mexico since the beginning of the eighteenth-century, just after the Reconquest. A large share of the new religious art and furnishings lavished on existing churches, new chapels, and oratories came from the hands of Vecino santeros, who during this era established a new artistic tradition in the province. The building and refurbishment of New Mexican religious structures, the flowering of religious folk-art, and the growth of the Penitente organization, directly reflected patronage made possible by increased late colonial economic activity. Important support and patronage for many of the projects of building and redecoration came from members of the emerging Vecino commercial elite involved in the trade with Chihuahua. The patronage of Don Antonio Jose Ortiz provides an outstanding example of the connection between provincial economic development and the cultural enrichment that followed. Antonio Ortiz came from a well-established Vecino family. His great-grandfather, a sergeant from Zacatecas, entered the province with 5ubro extraordinario de gobiemo. Illmo. Senor D. Jose Antonio de Zubiria, Obispo de Durango, Visita, 19 Il 1833. Archivo de Cabildo, Archivo Catedral de Durango, Durango, Mexico 54:15R-18V (hereafter cited as ACD:CB). New Mexican Santo Tradition 37 6 Governor Vargas bringing with him his family of six. His father served as lieutenant (teniente) in the presidia at Santa Fe. In April 1750, he married Gertrudis Paez Hurtado, daughter of Vargas' Teniente General, Juan Paez Hurtado. Born in 1734, at the age of twenty Antonio Jose married Rosa Bustamante, the daughter of Don Bernardo de Bustamante y Tagle, who served as Lieutenant Governor in 1722-1731 under his close relation, 7 Governor Juan Domingo de Bustamante. Ortiz rose to prominence in Santa Fe in the 1770s, becoming patron of the fiesta held by the Confraternity of La Conquistadora in 1m, and after 1776, perpetual majordomo of the organization. The moriey that Ortiz lavished on religious donations came from a profitable career as a merchant and public official. In 1778 Antonio Jose Ortiz, the alcalde mayor of Santa Fe, attempted 8 unsuccessfully to win the tithe contract for New Mexico. A glimpse of his commercial activities in the trade to Chihuahua appears in the alcabala (sales 9 tax) records for 1783. Ortiz paid the tax on fifty serapes that he carried in the annual convoy from New Mexico. Two years later he successfully bid for the tithe and held it for the 1785-1786 biennium. At that time he held the title of 10 captain of the Santa Fe militia in addition to his position as alcalde mayor. When Governor Concha wrote his instructions to his successor in 1794, he commended Alcalde Mayor Don Antonio Jose Ortiz as the man "in whom 11 resides the necessary knowledge of all of the inhabitants." He recommended that incoming Governor Chac6n seek the advice of Ortiz on the appointment of future alcaldes mayores. Beginning in the 1790s, until his death in 1806, Ortiz provided patronage 12 for a number of projects of religious renewal. Before 17'17, work funded by 'Fray Angelico Chavez, Origins of New Mexico Families (Santa Fe: Historical Society of New Mexico (William Gannon), 1954), 247-250. 7 Marsha Bot, The Anonymous Artist of l.Jzguna and the New Mexican Altar Saeen (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1980), 38. 8Fray Augustin de Morfi, "Account of Disorders, 1778," in Coronado's l.Jznd: Essays on Daily Life in Colonial New Mexico, ed. Marc Simmons (Albuquerque, 1991), 144-145. 9 Alcabalas, Archivo General de la Naci6n, Mexico D.F., Mexico, 61:20V (hereafter cited as AGN:AC). 1 °rregones for the 1785 tithe contract. Varios, Archivo Hist6rico de Catedral de Durango, Durango, Mexico, 32:86, 7 (hereafter cited as ACD:VA). 11 1nstrucci6n fonnada por el coronel Don Francisco de la Concha, Govemador que ha sido de la Provincia de Nuevo Mexico para el subcesor el teniente coronet Don Fernando Chac6n, Chihuahua, 28 VI 1794. Historia, Archivo General de la Naci6n, Mexico D.F., Mexico 41:11, paragraph 24, 344V-345R (hereafter cited as AGN:HI). 1 2see Bol, Anonymous Artist, 38-43; and George Kubler, Religious Architecture of New Mexico (Colorado Springs: The Taylor Museum, 1940), 79 and 100-101. Catholic Southwest 38 Ortiz had begun on a new chapel dedicated to San Jose attached to the parish church of San Francisco in Santa Fe. As portions of the church had deteriorated almost to ruins, Ortiz had the structure renovated. He had already repaired and refurbished the Rosario chapel attached to the parish church, the San Miguel chapel in Santa Fe, and the mission church at Pojoaque Pueblo, close to his ranch. In 1798, Ortiz petitioned the Bishop of Durango for permission to build a private chapel (oratorio) near his house due to his poor health. He received the license for a finished oratorio the following year. At the same time, part of the parish church collapsed and Ortiz undertook to repair the damage. By 1804, structural work had progressed to the point that of. awaiting the ceiling beams (vigas), when lightning struck. Ortiz had to begin the project again. This time he tore down the existing walls and had the church considerably enlarged. In the early years of the nineteenth century Don Antonio also constructed a second private chapel at his ranch at Pojoaque. The patronage of Don Antonio Jose Ortiz illustrates the natural connection between the New Mexican economic boom and the late eighteenth century renewal of provincial religious buildings. The· cultural ramifications of religious patronage ran even more deeply, encouraging the development of a direct religious expression of the late colonial Vecino experience. Again Don Antonio provides a fine example. Ortiz supplemented his considerable program of construction with gifts of interior decoration and furnishings calculated to make the buildings more attractive and serviceable to meet the ~ligious needs of his family and the Santa Fe community. In a letter to the Bishop of Durango in 1805 he listed some of his donations: The sanctuary and high altar [of San Francisco] have been renewed by me, also the chapel of our Lady of the Holy Rosary and the chapel of St. Joseph, in which your Lordship has granted me the privilege and grace to have, all, from their foundations to their conclusion, sanctuary, and other ornaments have been placed by me. The sanctuary of the chapel of St. Michael outside of the Parish I made myself. I have given various jewels to the parish church, not only in adornment but in services to the Mission of San Diego at Tesuque, I have made the principal sanctuary at 13 the mission of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Pojoaque. The ornaments and adornments mentioned by Ortiz link his patronage to a corpus of santos made by the Laguna Santero, one of the earliest and most influential saint-makers working in New Mexico. 1 3eo1, Anonymous Artist, 41, translation from Col Jose D. Sena, ''The Chapel of Don Antonio Jose Ortiz." New Mexico Historic.al Reuiew 13, 4 (1938): 350. New Mexican Santo Tradition 39 In employing the artisan now known as the Laguna Santero to create major pieces of Church furniture for his projects of renewal, Ortiz and his family circle determined the direction of the development of religious art in New Mexico. Other documentary sources and inscriptions on the works confirm that Ortiz commissioned the altar screen for the sanctuary in the chapel of San Miguel, a large reredos in the mission church at Pojoaque, an altar screen in the chapel of San Jose in the Santa Fe parish church, and 14 similar ''adornment" for the sister chapel of Nuestra Senora del Rosario. The artist who crafted the altar screen in the San Miguel chapel in Santa Fe also most likely fashioned altar screens at the Indian Pueblos of Laguna, Acoma, and probably the altar screens at Zfa and Santa Ana Pueblo, judging 15 from the similarity of stylistic elements. Patronage from the Ortiz family and business associates equally active in the renewed commercial economy accounted for the known altar screens carved and painted under the artistic direction of the Laguna Santero. Scholars have named this anonymous artist after the altar screen he completed in the Laguna mission church, his last and best-preserved monumental work. The Alcalde Mayor of the Laguna district, Don Jose Manuel Arag6n, commissioned both the Laguna and Acoma altar screens, and Vitor Sandoval and his wife, Dona Maria Manuela Ortiz, donated the ones at Zia and Santa Ana. Both groups of patrons had family or business connections to Don Antonio Jose Ortiz. Second cousins Maria Manuela Ortiz 16 and Don Antonio belonged to the same wealthy Ortiz family. The will of Don Antonio Jose Ortiz included the goodly sum of forty-eight cows due to him, at the time in the hands of Jose Manuel Arag6n as the result of a partido contract. The Laguna Santero worked in New Mexico from 1796 until about 1810. The dates of his active career come from archival documents, inscriptions found on panels, and dates supplied by a dendrochronological analysis of 1 4Bol, Anonymous Artist, 42-43. Tuid., 50-95; and E. Boyd, Popular Arts of Colonial New Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1974), 155-162. 16 An identification of the relationship between Don Antonio and Dona Maria follows: Marla Manuela Ortiz was the second child of Jose Reano II and Ana Marfa Ortiz. Chavez, Origins, 265; and see, "Proceedings regarding debt owed to the estate of Juan Reano," Santa Fe, 13 XI 1762. Spanish Archives of New Mexico, Series II, New Mexico State Records Center, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 9:410-444, 1W# 559 (hereafter cited as SANM II). Ana Maria Ortiz was the second child of Francisco Ortiz and Francisca Montoya (the fust died in infancy). Chavez, Origins, 249. Since Francisco Ortiz was the brother of Nicholas Ortiz m, Antonio Jose Ortiz's father, Don Antonio Jose Ortiz and Dona Marfa Manuela Ortiz were second cousins. 1 40 Catholic Southwest the wood used by the artist17 During this period of fourteen years or so, the Laguna Santero completed the eight major commissions of Ortiz, Arag6n, and Sandoval-Ortiz, and in addition left a number of retablos, paintings on hide, reliefs made of gesso, niches for statues, and some bultos (threedimensional statues). Recently, restoration of the church at Santa Cruz de la Canada reclaimed an altar screen made by the Laguna Santero. He also probably worked on the church of San Francisco at Ranchos de Taos, at least for a time. The Laguna Santero also established a workshop·· of painters, wood carvers, and carpenters to execute commissions under his direction. The short span of his career in the province and the fully-formed style apparent in the earliest of his works have led to the suggestion that Antonio Jose Ortiz contracted with this artist from Mexico who returned a few years after the death of his primary patron. Despite the brevity of his activity in New Mexico, the Laguna Santero bridged the gap between style and technique current elsewhere in New Spain and an artistic expression stimulated by the needs and sensibilities of Vecino society. Although perhaps not a Vecino by birth, he created an original New Mexican vocabulary of religious imagery that continued to evolve long after the end of his active career in the province. The artistic production of the Laguna Santero established a number of stylistic interpretations of the baroque tradition of New Spain. These in turn directed the development of a provincial industry, producing religious images for churches, chapels, oratories, and private homes during the 18 succeeding generation. In general, the Laguna artist translated the complicated architectural structure and exuberant decoration of eighteenth century Mexican religious furnishings into a simplified form carved in the soft woods available in New Mexico (principally pine and cottonwood), or painted on a flat surface in two-dimensional perspective. In the altar screen at Laguna (see Plate 1) the artist has brought together a number of innovations begun in earlier works to create a unified provincial style. The architecture of the altar screen blends three-dimensional, painted 17 Boyd, Popular Arts, 155-169; William Wroth, Oiristian Images in Hispanic New Mexia, (Colorado Springs: The Taylor Art Museum, 1982), 69-71; and Bol, Anonymous Artist, 97. All cite an unpublished dendrochronological study of New Mexican retablos of William S. Stallings, Jr. located in the archives of the Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, c. 1951. See also Wroth, ibid., 98-200, Appendix II. 1 The following discussion of the style of the Laguna Santero is based on Bol, Anonymous Artist, 51-113; Boyd, Popular Arts, 15>169; Wroth, Christian Images, 69-71; and Thomas J Steele, Santos and Saints: The Religious Folk Art of Hispanic New Mexico (rev. ed., Santa Fe: Ancient Oty Press, 1982), 1-43. New Mexican Santo Tradition 41 and carved Salomonic pillars with painted, flat boards forming arches, to create niches for the display of the patron saint, San Jose, in the center, flanked by Santa Barbara and San Juan Nepomuceno (Nepomucene) on the right and left, respectively. In the earlier altar screens made for San Miguel Chapel and the mission church at Pojoaque, the altar screen forged a similar architectural space meant to house either sculptures of saints or oil paintings imported &om Mexico, or occasionally, from Spain. These altar screens conformed to the basic desigr_t and function of their contemporary counter19 parts in Mexico and Spain. Beginning with the altar screen at Zia, and gaining maturity with the works at Acoma and Laguna, the santero began to supply not only the architectural &ame, but also the saints, painted on wood panels and inset as if they were separate works just like the works generally imported &om Spain. Scholars have postulated that the Laguna master also fashioned bultos to serve as the focal point for his altar screens, 20 but apparently no documented large figures have survived. The integration of the picture of the Saint with the Spanish tradition of elaborate architectural &ames for santos altered the function of the screen, merging the two elements into single visual unit The image of the Sajnt now included a large &ame made up of decorative conceits in a complementary style. Formerly, a completely separate architectural structure set off the central image in contrast to its elaborately ornamented architectural space. The achievement of the Laguna Santero, unifying the baroque elements and the central religious image in a single, consistent form, created one of the basic ingredients developed by the succeeding Vecino santo tradition. Individual retablos of saints depicted in gesso relief fashioned by the Laguna Santero or his workshop also demonstrate the new form. The concept took on new life in the hands of indigenous Vecino santeros that followed. Figures 2, 5, 9, 10, 14, and 18 show the architectural and ornamental &ame merged with the figure of the saint as each subsequent artist developed and extended the principle. The Laguna Santero translated other aspects of prevailing Mexican baroque styles into forms that communicated in two dimensions, eschewing the complication of three-dimensional perspective. In the Laguna panel, the 19 See Joseph A. Baird Jr., Los Retablos del Siglo XVIII en el Sur de Espana, Portugal, y Mexico (Mexico: Universidad Nacional Aut6noma de Mexico, 1987). ZWilliam Wroth, Christian Images, 69; and on 92 Wroth identifies a niche with a auciflxion scene inside with two sculptured witnesses as the Laguna Santero's bulto style. Wroth compares this piece to the niche in Boyd, Popular Arts, 119, figure 98. See also Larry Frank, The New Kingdom of the Saints (Santa Fe: Red Crane Books, 1992), chapter 4, plates 38 and 39, for bultos possibly related to the Laguna Santero's production. 42 Catholic Southwest robes of the figures of the Trinity that form the crest (remate) and that of San Jose below appear as a simplified version of the swirling, naturalistic movement and detail that provided sentiment to Mexican baroque painting. As a result, the figures seem to lack mass, and their clothes appear merely decorative, rather than enhancing the scene with a sense of emotion created by movement. The faces of the saints also lack the intense baroque naturalism that would give them emotive power, providing instead a sense of solemn detachment. Finally, the decorations that fill most of the remaining space have become two-dimensional emblems instead of the exuberant baroque foliage. The fresco-like painting on the side walls at Laguna seem like a patterned tapestry, but they still remind one of the plant motifs sculpted on the exterior walls at the entrances of the cathedrals of Chihuahua and Durango, or of the more elaborate growth decorating the Retablo Mayor of the chapels of San Pedro and Los Arcangeles in the cathedral of 21 Mexico City. The demand for religious images among a growing Vecino population, coupled with the innovation of a new artistic vocabulary developed by the Laguna Santero and his contemporaries, created an indigenous santo industry before the turn of the eighteenth century. The Laguna Santero provided both a coherent artistic style adapted to New Mexican conditions, and a workshop of followers with some training gained from the master. Another early santero, known as Molleno, worked in the early nineteenth century, and probably received his training as an apprentice of the Laguna · Santero (figures 18 and 19).22 The santero Don Pedro Fresquis also began his career in the 1790s, making santos in a style independent of any influence from the Laguna Santero.,a Fresquis represented one of the earliest Vecino craftsman catering to popular, rural demand for religious images, and in this regard straddles the first and second phase of santo development. His work often drew directly on imagery from popular European prints and engravings imported throughout New Spain. Fresquis painted with thin, flowing lines and the precision of a draftsman. He rendered the conventional perspective found in the European prints that he used as models into flat, two-dimensional forms. By borrowing cross-hatching and other techniques from Spanish and Flemish prints, Fresquis created an illusion of space in the foreground of 21 Clara Bargellini, IA Catedral de Chihuahua (Mexico: Universidad Nadonal Aut6noma de Mexico, 1984), plates 1~32 and 98-99; and Baird, Los Retablos del Siglo XVIII, plates 42-43. Daoyd, Popular Arts, 349-365; Frank, Kingdom, 93-95. See also Steele, Santos and Saints, 13-14. ~yd, Popular Arts, 327-340; Frank, Kingdom, 37-43; and Wroth, Christian Images, 171-184. New Mexican Santo Tradition 43 these works (figures 3, 6, 14, and 17).:u The technique earned the santero the name of the Calligraphic Santero" before the identification of Fresqufs as the artist responsible for this style. The wide range of the religious subjects that Fresquis depicted, and the iconography he drew upon, also attest to the influence of imported materials. Much of the literature emphasizes the development of the New Mexican santos as an itinerant folk tradition. Oral histories reflect a New Mexican folk conception of santos as spiritual agents with genuinely human attributes. The Saints could be persuaded to intercede on behalf of an individual or community. Stories abound in which vecinos converse, argue, and cajole with a santo and reward or punish the image according to his or her 25 performance. As we have seen, the beginnings of the santo industry relied heavily on commissions from wealthy patrons or newly established Vecino communities to fashion larger altar screens and individual bultos and retablos for the furnishing of religious buildings. Religious patronage of the arts functioned in a manner similar to that of Mexico City or a provincial capital, albeit on a smaller scale. Even Pedro Fresquis, who did supply santos for a broader range of patrons, executed important works for the New Mexican elite. In addition, he executed altar screens at Nambe Pueblo and the San Pedro and San Pablo Chapel in the village church at Chamisa. Pedro Fresquis painted a major altar screen for the church at Truchas around 1818, and received a commission from the family of Antonio Jose Ortiz for a wooden collateral for the 26 Rosario chapel mentioned above. He designed the altarpiece to house the statue of Nuestra Senora del Rosario, known as La Conquistadora in New Mexico, held to have been first brought to the province by Fray Alonso de 27 Benevides in 1623 and again by Governor Vargas during the reconquest. 11 ~ also discussion of the effect of prints on New Mexican santeros in Yvonne Lange, "In Search of San Acado: The Impact of Industrialization on Santos Worldwide,n El Palacio 94, 1 (1987): 1~24.; and Yvonne Lange, "Lithography, an Agent of Technological Change in Religious Folk Art: A Thesis:' Western Folklore 23, 1 (1974): 53-57. 25 0n the itinerant folk tradition of New Mexican Santeros see Roland F. Dickey, New Mexia> Village Arts (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1949), 135-186; and Jose E. Espinosa, Saints in the Valley: Christian Sacred Images in the History, Life, and Folk Art of Spanish New Mexia, (rev. ed. 1967, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1960). A channing rendition of the dominant picture of the santeros is given by Paul Horgan, The Saint Maker's Christmas Eve (New York: Fanar, Staus and Cudahy, 1955). For examples of oral tales of working with santos, see Lorin W. Brown, in Hispano Folk-life in New Mexico, ed. Charles L. Briggs and Marta Weigle (Albuquerque, 1978), 128-140. »-soyd, Popular Arts, 330. 27 Fray Angelico Chavez, I.a Conquistadora (Paterson: Sl Anthony Guild Press, 1954). 44 Catholic Southwest Documents also mention work executed at the churches of Santa Cruz de la Canada and Chimayo. Molleno completed the altar screen in the side chapel dedicated to Nuestro Senor de Esquipulas at the Church of San Francisco, Ranchos de Taos, between about 1815 and 1817, and may also have painted the original main altar. Restoration work on the main altar screen at Santa Cruz has revealed three layers of attributable work. The bottom layer of painting, now visible, came from the hand of the Laguna Santero. On top of that, a Fresquis image of the Guadalupe appeared, and Rafael Arag6n produced the final layer on which he painted another Guadalupe. This discovery shows the continued use of master santeros to renew important religious pieces, as well as an interesting chronological relationship among 28 these artists. The Rosario, Santa Cruz de la Canada, and Ranchos commissions demonstrate the continuing connection between the Vecino elite and the early development of the santero tradition, and the passing of the mantle of innovation from the Laguna Master to native Vecino craftsmen. Although smaller, individual retablos and bultos became common during the next generation, catering to a truly popular demand for religious images, and to patrons of fewer mecll)S, commissions proved an important source of support for santeros well into the nineteenth-century. Numerous altar screens commissioned from nineteenth century santero Jose Rafael Arag6n appear in religious buildings throughout the Rio Arriba region, including those at the Pueblo mission of San Lorenzo de Picuris (completed by 1826), the private Duran chapel at Talpa near Taos (1838), and a public chapel in 29 C6rdova near Santa Cruz de la Canada (1834-1838). He also repainted at least two altar screens at the Santa Cruz de la Canada church. Rafael Arag6n' s retablos are shown here in figures 4, 5, 8, 10, 13, 15, 16, and 22. The innovation of the Laguna Santero and of Pedro Antonio Fresqufs in creating a Vecino language of religious imagery occurred through a process of "form-splitting'' (Formenspaltungen) common elsewhere in colonial Latin 30 America and in Europe during the Middle Ages. The term, introduced by ~I, Anonymous Artist, 11~117; Wroth, Olristian Images, 93-94; Frank, Kingdom, 37. 3eoyd, Popular Arts, 395-407; and William Wroth, The Chapel of Our Lady of Talpa (Colorado Springs: The Taylor Museum of the Colorado Fme Arts Center, 1979), 54-58. See also the work done by Jos~ Arag6n (no relation to Jose Rafael Arag6n, called Rafael Arag6n to avoid confusion) for the church at Arroyo Hondo (circa 181.8) discussed in Robert L Shalkop, Am>yo Hondo (Colorado Springs: Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 1976), 5-10. Jose Arag6n emigrated from Spain, but his technique and style are purely vecino. 30 George Kubler, "lndianism, Mesti7.aje, and lndigenismo as Classical, Medieval, and Modern Traditions in Latin America," in Studies in Ancient American and European Art: The New Mexican Santo Tradition 45 German art historian Adolf Goldschmidt in 1936, referred to artists using other artifacts as models for new art, instead of creating entirely different forms from nature. For our purposes, form-splitting describes the transmission and translation of fashions current in the metropolitan centers to distant regions. The early New Mexican santeros also employed "form-splitting'' since they used styles current elsewhere in New Spain as their models. Since the process of replication always preserved elements from a long series of antecedents, this phenomenon accounts in large part for the aspects of santo form and style that appear to derive from the seventeenth or early eighteenth century, or even from medieval Spain, instead of contemporary 31 Mexico. While involving the replication of European antecedents, at times to the point of mimicry, the method that New Mexican artisans used to compose their own works depended on their ability to create and innovate in order 32 to make their santos appeal to a lay audience and their Vecino patrons. In the process, santeros made their saints New Mexican: santeros changed religious scenes in order to place them in a context meaningful to the Vecino laity; they chose to depict religious events that resonated with the experience of life in New Mexican villages; and they emphasized a particular tone of religious devotion and piety that reached its emotional peak in the selected scenes of Christ's life portrayed in New Mexico. The prints of scenes of the Life of Christ that circulated in Spanish America during the eighteenth century reflected two different modes of representation. Out of the Renaissance arose a conventional portrayal of the Roman world in the time of Christ that became the basis for the setting of scenes from His life. At the same time, Flemish and Italian artists had both established traditions that altered the Renaissance conventions, translating the neo-Roman context into scenery and clothing that better reflected regional cultural norms. Collected Essays of George Kubler, ed. Thomas F. Reese (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 77-78. Kubler provides the example of "the tendril-like proliferation of Plateresque scrollwork in provincial hands, when we compare Acolman with Yurutia in Mexico," as a New World equivalent to the process that took place in medieval art described by Goldschmidt. :nFor various interpretations of this point, see Cristine Mather, "Works of Art in Frontier New Mexico," in Colonial Frontiers, ed. Christine Mather (Santa Fe: Publication of the Museum of International Polle Art, 1983), 21-2.5; Bol, Anonymous Artist, 101-102; Wroth, Christian Images, 36; and Steele, Santos and Saints, 1-27. ~ Carolyn S. Dean, "Copied Carts: Spanish Prints and Colonial Peruvian Paintings." Art Bulletin 78, 1 (1996): 98-110, for an example for which the author makes a similar point. Figure 1: uz Anunciaci6n · Annunciation (Luke 1, 26-35), A. J. Santero, active c. 1820-1840. Mary stands at prayer as the Archangel Gabriel kneels, pointing to the Holy Spirit above, "blessed art thou among women."(28) By the fifteenth centwy, most examples of the Annunciation depicted the Angel on the left facing Mary, suggesting that a print formed the source of the A. J. Santero's d esign. The artist placed a native flower in Gabriel's hand, replacing a lilly or rose that normally represented the virtue, joys, and sorrows of the Virgin. Only one other santo of the Annunciation has been located. Private collection. Photograph by Ross Frank. Figure 2: LJI Visitaci6n · Visitation (Luke 1, 36-56), A. J. Santero, active ca. 1820-1840. Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias, greets Mary as the Mother of the Lord. The Archangel Gabriel has informed Zacharias that his wife will bear a son Oohn the Baptist) who will prepare the people for Christ. Joseph holds a branch encompassing both a symbolic cross and the thorns of the Passion. The damaged inscription mentions "M ..." (presumably Maria) and "Senora Isabel" (Eliz.abeth). This retablo ably illustrates the complex subjects and iconography preferred by the A. J. Santero. No other example of the Visitation survives made by a New Mexican santero. Private collection. Photograph by Ross Frank. Figure 3: La Huida a Egipto · Flight into Egypt (Matthew 2, 13-23), Pedro Fresquis, 1749-1831. After Joseph's second dream, in which the Lord tells him to flee with Mary and the Christ Child from Herod's power (the Massacre of the Innocents), the Holy Family makes their way into Egypl According to one legend illustrated here, the Holy Family came upon a palm tree in the desert which provided shade, and at Joseph's command bowed down to allow Mary to pick its fruit. Not having palm trees in New Mexico, Fresquis has substituted an even more exotic fruitbearing canopy. The bird perched on top of the tree bears a crown, an allusion to Christ's place at the right hand of God, and the Holy Spirit as shown in the Annunciation. Courtesy Spanish Colonial Arts Society, Inc. Collection on loan to the Museum of New Mexico, Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 4: LA Huida a Egipto · Flight into Egypt (Matthew 2, 13--23), Rafael Arag6n, active 1820-1862. This version of the subject focuses on Mary and the Christ Child during their journey, rather than the narrative of a legend. An holy figure leads the way (either an angel or Joseph's son from his first marriage, later known as James the Elder), and Joseph brings up the rear. Perhaps the foliage painted on the Junette represents the story of the palm tree. Courtesy Charles D. Carroll Bequest to the Museum of New Mexico, Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM. Photography courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 5: l.a Familia Sagrada · Holy Family, Rafael Arag6n, active 1820-1862. One of the favorite subjects of New Mexican santeros depicting, Mary, the young Christ, and Joseph stand upon pedestals framed by curtains. The earthly trinity occupies the horizontal plane while the Holy Spirit in the traditional; form of the dove represents the Holy Trinity coming down from the heavens (Matthew 3, 16). In this manner the Holy Family connects iconographically with the vertical form of the Trinity shown below. Note the feet of the three Holy figures. They appear clad in medias de Jana, woolen stockings without feet worn under the heel up to the knee for warmth. These stockings represented an important New Mexican export item to Chihuahua, Sonora, and other parts of Northern Mexico, beginning in the 1790s. Private Ccllection. Photograph by Ross Frank. Figure 6: LA entrada en Jerusalen · Entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21, 1- 11; Mark 11, 1- 10; Luke 19, 29-40; John 12, 12-19), Pedro Fresquis, 1749-1831. Christ rides an ass (a horse in New Mexico) in the fashion of a triumphant Roman emperor or general as he enters Jerusalem as the Lord's Anointed and the Prince of Peace. The scene prefigures the Ecce Homo, in which a few days later the same admiring audience condemns Christ to death before Pilate. The artist's rendered the horse's hooves as human feet with shoes or sandals. Private Collection. Photograph by Ross Frank. Figure 7: Cristo a la Columna · Christ at the Column (Matthew 27, 26; Mark 15, 15; John 19, 1), Anonymous (Southern Colorado 7), second-half of the nineteenth century. Christ stands with his hands fastened to the column during his scourging by Roman soldiers. This image saw more frequent use during the 17th and 18th centuries due to popular writings that described Christ's secret sufferings after his capture. In New Mexico the image accorded well with the Penitente emphasis on the events of Christ's Passion. Private Collection. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 8: Santo Nino de la Pasion · Christ Child of the Passi-On, Rafael Arag6n, active 1820-1862. The young Christ as flagellant at the column shows His wounds prefiguring the Crucifixion. He appear.; to hold a spoon, and the top of the column holds a font in which Christ washes. The devotional scene connects the sacrifice of Christ to the redemption of all of those baptized into the faith. In New Mexico, santeros also commonly depicted the Infant Jesus of Prague (El Nino de Praga), a 17th century devotional image based on a contemporary manifestation of the Christ Child (TM 1673). Courtesy The Taylor Museum for SW Studies of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 9: Ecce Homo · Behold the Man Oohn, 19, 5), School of the Quill Pen Santero, active 1830s-1850s. This devotional image bears the title El Senor Ecce Homo, and shows Christ contemplating his condition after the Flagellation and before the Road to Calvary. Ordinarily, the Ecce Homo scene shows Pilate presenting Christ to the people with the words, "Behold the man!" Alternatively, Christ appears as a devotional image, standing and with His hands bound together. An example of this type of Ecce Homo survives in the collection of The Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (fM592). The eighteenth-century Novice santero created the retablo, which has much more in common with contemporary Mexican retablos than the later example in figure 9. Here the santero has actually portrayed another common devotional image, that of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, and labeled it an Ecce Homo. This scene appears identical to another retablo fashioned by the Quill Pen Santero that does not bear any title (see figure 23). Courtesy Spanish Colonial Arts Society, Inc. Collection on loan to the Museum of New Mexico, Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 10: Nuestro Padre Jesus Naz.arena · Our Father Jesus of Naz.arene [Bearing of the Cross) (Matthew 17, 28-32; Mark, 15, 17-21; Luke, 23, 26-31; John 19, 1&-17), Jose Arag6n, active 1820-1835. Few New Mexican depictions of the Bearing of the Cross survive from the eaxly part of the nineteenth century. Beginning in the 1850s, santeros frequently made bultos (figures in the round), such as the one shown in figure 13, especially for the confraternity of Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno. This brotherhood, commonly referred to as Los Penitentes, used life-size santos in their private observances of the Passion during Holy Week, and to adorn their meeting places (moradas). For this reason , Nuevomexicanos identified all images of Christ during the final stages of His Passion as Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno, even though in Spain and other of her former colonies the term only applies to Christ bearing the Cross. In a morada the figure would generally weax a red or purple cloth robe over the painted gesso. Here Arag6n has painted Christ in a red robe holding the foreshortened Cross. Both the cord worn around His neck and the marks of the Crucifixion that appeax on His hands identifies this as a devotional image that prefigures the Crucifixion. Private Collection. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. r Figure 11: Cristo Crucificado · Crucifixion (Matthew 27, 33-50; Mark 15, 2Jr.40; Luke 23, 33-48; John 19, 17-37), Jose Arag6n, active 1820-1835. The Blessed Virgin Mary and San Jose (Saint Joseph) attend Christ on the Cross in this example of the Crucifixion, by far the most familiar image from the Cycle of the Life of Christ fashioned in New Mexico. The Virgin Mary appears as Nuestra Senora de los Dolores (Our Lady of the Sorrows), with the sword that represents The Seven Sorrows in her breast. Saint Joseph wears a halo that may also symbolize his trade as a carpenter. The artist amplified the drama of the scene by providing curtains and chandeliers, as if revealing the Crucifixion occurring inside of a public space, such as at the altar of a Church (TM 2824). Courtesy The Taylor Museum for SW Studies of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 12: Pietti · Piela (Matthew 27, 57-61; Mark 15, 43-47; Luke 23, ~56), Quill Pen Santero, active 1830s-1850s, or follower (active in the 1870s). This retablo represents the only known New Mexican example depicting Mary holding the crucified Christ, the classic image of the Pieta. The scene shows the Anna Christi, the instruments of the Passion, arranged haphazardly around the central figures: the crown of thorns, nails and ladder appear on the left; to the right, the cross, sash or shroud used in the Deposition. The Virgin holds Christ laying in the shroud, or sepulcher, another instrument of the Passion. The painted lunette at the top of the retablo, now partially obscured by damage to the surface, may contain the dove of the Holy Spirit proceeding down towards the body of Christ. Courtesy Cady Wells Bequest to the Museum of New Mexico, Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 13: Santo Entierro · Christ in the Sepulcher (Matthew 27, 62-66; Mark 15, 43-47; Luke 23, 50-56; John 19, 38-42), Jose Arag6n, active 1820-1835. This life-size figure of Christ laying entombed represents an early piece made for the Penitentes. The Christ figure has articulated joints at the shoulders, elbows, and knees, made possible by leather strips that hold the limbs together. The Penitentes used flexible bultos such as the example shown here, to reenact the final stages of the Passion of Christ during the Easter. Private CDl/ection. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 14: Cristo Crucificado y los Animas de/ Purgatorio · Christ on the Cross and the Souls in Purgatory, Pedro Fresqufs, 1749-1831. The descent of Christ into purgatory to redeem the Prophets of the Old Testament developed during the Middle Ages to explain how the righteous who lived before the coming of Christ escaped damnation. Here Christ descends to Purgatory while on the Cross, shedding His blood in a graphic demonstration of redemption of the devout waiting below for His arrival. In print books illustrating the Cycle of the Life of Christ, this scene appears after the Entombment and before the Resurrection. The scene marks a unique subject for New Mexican santeros, and the painting of the Crucifixion suspended in mid-air and the fervent prayer of the souls below gives it an unusually animated quality, even for Fresqufs. Harwood Foundation of the University of New Mexico, Taos, NM. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 15: Resurreccion · Resurrection (Matthew 28, 1-8; Mark 16, 1-8; Lu ke 24, 1-9; John 20, 1- 10), Rafael Arag6n, active 1820-1862. Christ ascends towards the heavens accompanied by angels, as the moment of His resurrection from the sepulcher appears below. Using this form of narrative, Rafael Arag6n achieves the effect of the explosion of power of Christ's resurrection to which he adds the ethereal effect of Christ and he angels painted in grisaille (gray monochrome relief). One of the soldiers set to guard the sepulcher stands bewildered to the right, dressed in the uniform of a Mexican officer of the period. Apart from the setting of the scene, which the santero used to great effect to emphasize the miraculous, the unusual architecture of the foreground is fashioned of implements of the Passion- p resumably the column and whips used in the flagellation of Christ. In addition, the Christ Child sits atop a cloud-like continuation of the painted frame, holding a flowering staff and making a gesture of benediction. Shown here as Salva/or mundi (Savior of the world) in Franciscan theology, the Christ Child embodies the innocence of His youth even as destiny will bring him to rule at the right hand of God. Private Collection. Photograph by Ross Frank,. Figure 16: Cristo ante San Tomas · Christ before Saint Thomas Oohn 21, 24-29), Rafael Aragon, active 1820-1862. The devotional image of Christ, showing the wounds of the Crucifixion and instruments form the Passion, derives from His appearance before Saint Thomas after the Resurrection. After asking the saint to touch the wound in his side, Christ said, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." The simpler devotional version of this scene formed the Christ Child of the Resurrection (or Redemption). Courtesy Spanish Colonial Arts Society, Inc. Collection on loan to the Museum of New Mexico, Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 17: LJl Santfsima Trinidad· The Holy Trinity, Pedro Fresquis, 1749-1831. The image of the central concept of Catholic docrtine derived from the connection made in Western medieval thought between the Dream of Abraham (Genesis XVIII, 1-3), in which the Lord visited him in the form of three men, and the three aspects of the Lord of Christianity: the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit The three men have identical heads and torsos proceeding from a common platform or pedestal. Pope Benedict XIV forba de this particular iconography in the depiction of the Trinity in 1745 in favor of showing three separate human beings, but in New Mexico it persisted well into the 19th century. This work shows many of the characteristics of Fresquis' style: eyes with round pupils in almond-shaped lids (when open); continuous lines connecting the eyebrows to a long, narrow nose; a frontal view of the figures; and swirling, intertwining scroll, or plant motifs used to decorate unfilled space, often incised through the surface of the gesso. Private Collection. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 18: I.a SanUsima Trinidad· The Holy Trinity, Antionio Molleno, active c. 1800-1845. The three persons each have separate bodies in this Trinity, but the santero has introduced a number of unusual iconographical elements. Each figure holds an emblem to distinguish the person of the Trinity represented: the sun signifies God, the Father; and the dove identifying the Holy Spiril Ordinarily, a lamb distinguished Christ the Son (see figures 21 and 22), but here Molleno has placed a skull in His right hand, and the flowering staff held on His shoulder as if bearing the cross-the two symbols of Calvary. This retablo illustrates Molleno's style in: the three-quarter view of his faces created by shading one side of the face and the nose; the long fingers on curiously rounded hands; and the abstract bodies shaped by swirls of free-flowing areas of color. In Molleno's hands, the globe of the world at the feet of the enthroned figures has become a complex mass of abstract decoration. This example comes from the middle phase of his career, and it represents his only known Trinity "in the horizontal" style. Private Collection. Photograph by Ross Frank. Figure 19: w Sant£sima Trinidad· The Holy Trinity, Antonio Molleno, active ca. 1800-1845. A work in Molleno's middle style like figure 18, this Trinity shows the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a vertical format, emphasizing the distinct nature of the three persons, rather than the mystical symbolism of their unity. Although this composition of the Trinity received the approval of the Church after 1745, Molleno was the only New Mexican santero who generally depicted the "vertical" style of The Holy Trinity. Gift of the Historical Society of New Mexico, Museum of International Folk Ari, Santa Fe, NM. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 20: La Santfsima Trinidad· The Holy Trinity, Jose Arag6n, active ca. 1820-1835. The retablo shows the typical older iconography of the Trinity still current in New Mexico: the three identical persons proceeding out of the globe of the world. Jose Aragon used the more traditional symbol of the Lamb of God to represent the Son than that employed by Molleno in figure 18. The santos fashioned by Jose Arag6n normally share eyes made up of a black dot crowned by a gently curving upper eyelid. Faces appear in three-quarter view, the nose composed of a single line which proceeds up to connect to one eyebrow. Unlike Fresquis or Molleno, Jose Arag6n employed decoration incorporated into the scene, not just as a technique used to fill space. Simple decoration make up the borders, such as the one in this retablo fo the Trinity. Private collection. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 21: La Santfsima Trinidad· The Holy Trinity, Jose Arag6n, active ca. 1820-1835. Jose Arag6n also produced at least one example of the official, "vertical" style of the Trinity with a very different iconographical arrangement than the one fashioned by Molleno shown in figure 19. The dove of the Holy Spirit proceeds down from the heavens to God the Father. He holds the dead Christ in his arms in a literal depiction of the Lamb of God after His sacrifice. This depiction of Christ relates to the scene of the Deposition, where attendants lift the body of Christ down from the cross after the Crucifixion (TM 391). Courtesy The Taylor Museum for SW Studies of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 22: La Sant£sima Trinidad· The Holy Trinity, Rafael Arag6n, active 1820-1862. An example of the Trinity made by Rafael Arag6n in the anachronistic format of three identical-and here very young-persons. The three hold the flowering staff symblolizing everlasting life. A cartouche below the figures reads "Jesus," although it should more properly read "Trinity," or "Christ." Distinguishing characteristics of Rafael Arag6n's style include: an abbreviated nose line with a dark line forming the nostrils and light lines or only shading describing its length; lines above the eyelid to indicate the fold of the upper eyelid; very little attempt to depict depth in the scene or to indicate spatial relationships among its elements (fM 391). Courtesy Spanish Colonial Arts Society, Inc. Collection on loan to the Museum of New Mexico, Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Figure 23: Nuestro Senor de /os Dolores · Our Lord of Sorrows (Psalm 68, 21; Romans 8, 17; Corinthians 5, 2), Quill Pen Santero, active 1830s--1850s, or follower (active in the 1870s). Unlike the portrayal of the Ecce Homo (see figure 10), Christ as the Man of Sorrows does not depict a particular event. Detached from all aspects of the world, the image of Christ who through His suffering has brought Redemption, seeks to establish a direct connection between the figure and the devotion of the viewer. Christ's air of contemplation of His own travails, and His reflective look towards the spectator, seeks to invoke a commitlment to fo llow in his footsteps and to share in his suffering through compassion. Courtesy Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, NM. Photograph by Ross Frank. Figure 24 & Figure 25: #Santo Hiob" · "Saint Job" Oob 30, 19-26), Anonymous, c. 1880s. The paint on The santero who fashioned both of these bultos painted in oil instead of tempra, indicating a probable date after 1880, when oil paints became widely available in New Mexico due to the arrival of the railroad. Iconographically, these two bultos follow that of the retablos of the Man of Sorrows shown above in figures 9 and 23. However, in both cases their owners identified the person depicted as "Santo Hiob" (Saint Job) when they sold the retablos to their present owners in the 1950-{50;. The style of the two works appears identical, and quite similar to that of the retablos of the Man of Sorrows shown above. It is possible that they are from the same hand, and represent the bulto style of the School of the Quill Pen Santero. At some point in the past, New Mexicans made the connection between Christ and Job, both exemplars of patience and faith under adversity and great suffering. Figure 24: Private Collection. Photograph by Ross Frank. Figure 25 (TM 1580): Courtesy The Taylor Museum for SW Studies of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Hunter Warren. Table 1. Christ and the New Mexican Santo life Stages Birth of Jesus Annunciation of Mary Visitation Joseph's sorrow, Joseph's first dream Journey to Bethlehem Nativity Annunciation to the Shepherds Adoration of the Shepherds Adoration of the Magi Childhood of Jesus . Circumcision and Naming of Christ Presentation of Christ in the Tempie Massacre of the Innocents Flight to Egypt Christ Disputing the Doctors Christ's · Works of Christ • • • ' • • • • • • • • • • • Christ and the Centurion Christ Turns Water into Wine-Marriage in Cana Christ Feeds the Multitudes-the Loaves and the Fishes Christ Walks upon the Water-Navicella Christ Heals the lame Man-Pool at Bethesda Christ Heals the Blind (and others) The Announcement of the Passion Raising of Lazarus Christ at the House of Simon Christ is Anointed at Bethany Christ's Entry into Jerusalem Christ Purges the Temple (Money Changers) Judas Receives 30 Pieces of Silver Last Supper Christ Washes the Disciples' Feet Christ's Agony in the Garden Betrayal-Kiss of Judas-Arrest Christ Before the Sanhedrin-Anna and Caiaphas • • • • Calling of the Apostles Zacchaaeus in the Tree Christ Gives Peter the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven Sermon on the Mount of Olives Christ Blesses the Children Temple Tribute-Peter Finds a Coin Christ and Mary Magdalene Christ with Mary and Martha The Woman of Samaria at the Well Christ Delivers the Woman Taken in Adultery Mlniclesof Christ,, Christ • Baptism of Christ Temptation of Christ Transfiguration of Christ Adulthood Passion of • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Table 1. Christ and the New Mexican Santo IJ.feStages p~onof Christ , (c:cint'd.) C:l'ildfixiOII 'Deposition ' '& , , ,, Entombment DfM>li<!RAI, Images- Mocking of Christ Christ Before Pilate Christ Before Herod Flagellation of Christ Crowning with Thoms-{second mocking) Pilate Exhibits Christ-Ecce Homo Pilate Washes his Hands Repentance and Death of Judas Bearing the Cross-Road to Calvary Preparations for Crucifixion-<nailing to the cross) Christ on the Cross Centurion Offers a Sponge Wound with the Spear Deposition-Descent from the Cross Anointing of the Body Lamentation Piel~ Holy Sepulchre-<fntie,ro , Entombment) Christ's Descent into Limbo-<Purgatory) Triumph of Christ Christ in the Kingdom of DeathCTinieblas · Days of Chaos) • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Resurrection Apparition of Christ Before Mary Christ Before Mary Magdalene The Appearance at the Sea of Tiberias The Disciples of Emmanuel Christ's Appearance Before Thomas The Ascension Appearance in the Mountains & the Mission of the Apostles-Pentecost • • Christ as Second Person of the Trinity Christ in Judgment Christ Enthroned • • • • • • • • Christ with the Arma Christi Man of Sorrows Veronica's Veil The Blessed Savior Christ as the Good Shepherd Solitary Crucified Christ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • The columns indicating the relative frequency of the scene among European prints indicated is based on a tabulation of the images found in cycles of the Life of Christ and the Passion published by the Plantin Press. This press had a monopoly on the his press had a monopoly on the distribution of religious prints in the Spanish colonies of the "New World," and were the source of much of the religious art produced in the Americas. The print cycles are published in Mauquoy-Hendrickx, Les Estampes des Wierx (3 vols., Bruxelles: Biblotheque Royale Albert I", 1978). 72 Catholic Southwest New Mexican santeros undertook a similar project of translation, selectively altering details in conventional European prints which did not fit 33 well with perception or reality in New Mexico. In the retablo of the Resurrection shown in figure 15, Rafael Arag6n chose to portray one of the Roman soldiers who witnessed the miracle. He wears the dress uniform of a Mexican soldier of the 1830s or 1840s: a military jacket with decorative red trim; short dark trousers angling over the knee; and white stockings meeting fancy black shoes. In an example of The Holy Family also by Rafael Arag6n (see figure 5), Mary, Joseph, and the young Jesus wear medias de lana, a variety of knee-high, footless woolen stocking that represented one of the 34 products made by Vecinos for trade and export. On the other hand, a santero often retained items foreign to the New Mexican experience when they could more powerfully communicate a sense of divinity or of the miraculous. In the A. J. Santero's interpretation of the Annunciation (figure 1), the Archangel Gabriel sports boots and a crown worthy of an important Roman military figure, clearly derived from the European convention found in the print used as the model for this retablo. Although changes in clothing to match the prevailing fashions in New Mexico represent the most obvious alterations of European models, other details also underwent the process of selective reinterpretation in order to make them speak to Nuevomexicanos. In The Flight into Egypt (figure 3), the palm, which according to legend bent itself to offer its coconuts to Mary, has become an equally exotic flowering tree, but of a type more likely to bring recognition from a Vecino audience. The version painted by Rafael Arag6n (figure 4) uses the palm tree mixed with ordinary flowers in order to create a decorative pattern in the foreground of the scene. In figure 1, even while retaining the Archangel's Roman-style boots, the A. J. Santero substituted a flower that a New Mexican audience could read more easily for the traditional lily or rose presented by San Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. The symbolic meanings associated with these flowers in their European setting-the white purity of the lily and of the Virgin Mary, and the red color and thorns of the rose presaging Christ's blood-meant little to a province without those examples readily available. The white flower with petals turned red combined the European varieties, but kept their symbolism 11 Artists in other Spanish colonies translated elements of conventional visual imagery into a local idiom. For a discussion of this process relating to Puerto Rican wooden santos, which the author dubs "creolization," see Lange, Santos, 83. ~ Simmons, "Footwear on New Mexico's Hispanic Frontier," in Southwestern Culture History: Collected Papers in Honor of Albert H. Schroeder, ed. Nancy Fox (Santa Fe: The Archeological Society of New Mexico, 1984), 10: ~2.;1. New Mexican Santo Tradition 73 intact. Four drops of red blood roll down the stem of the bouquet to make explicit the reference to the foretold Passion. Another form of imagery selectively tailored for a New Mexican religious palate lay in the choices made by santeros and their patrons about which subjects to portray. Until Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, the Pope and the King of Spain routinely granted the franchise for publishing religious material intended for distribution in the "New World" to the Plantin Press in Antwerp.35 mustrations for Bibles, missals, and breviaries contained illustrations composed of woodcuts and etchings drawn from the cycles of prints of Christ's life and the lives of the saints popular in Europe. Many became models for religious art fashioned in the colonies. In New Mexico, santeros used these printed sources and the nineteenthcentury illustrated books, broadsides, and novenas imported from independent Mexico as guides for the composition of scenes and religious iconography. The scenes of the Life of Christ chosen from among those in the print cycles commonly available provide a key to understanding the Vecino religious sensibility that emerged during the late decades of Spanish colonial rule. The information in Table 1 compares the scenes illustrating Christ's life that appeared in New Mexico in the period from 1790 to 1860 with those 36 found in the cycles of prints associated with the Plantin Press. The two right-hand columns indicate the frequency with which a particular scene appears in the common European sources, while the left column shows its incidence in New Mexico. Remarkably few of the biblical scenes from the childhood of Jesus or of the Works or Miracles of Christ appear in the European print sources. Given the relationship between these print cycles and the content of religious art in New Spain, it comes as no surprise that 37 these subjects also do not appear in Mexico or New Mexico. Artists in New Spain did not always utilize the scenes that appeared &equently in the European sources. The Annunciation, Visitation, and ~leman, Baroque and Rococo, 213; and Boyd, Popular Arts, 80-81. See Mauquoy-Hendrickx, Les Estampes des Wierx (3 vols., Bruxelles: Biblotheque Royale Albert r, 1978), for a representative sample of cycles of the Life of Christ and the Passion. The categories are from Gertrud Schiller, lamogra,ny of Christian Art (London and New York: Lund Humphries and The New York Graphic Society, vol. 11966, vol. 2 1968; and Gertrud Schiller, lkonographie der christlichen Kunst, vol. 3 (Gerd Mohn: Giitersloher Verlagshaus, 1971). 37 The comparison of subject matter found elsewhere in Mexico is based on the analysis of Gloria Fraser Giffords, The Art of Private Devotion: Retablo Painting of Mexico (Dallas-Fort Worth: Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist UniversityAnteiCultura, 1991), 44-46. 36 Catholic Southwest 74 Adoration of the Magi, subjects relating to the conception and nativity of Jesus frequently depicted in European prints, received little attention from santeros either in New Mexico or Mexico. The Annunciation made by the A. J. Santero (figure 1) represents one of only two known examples of that scene. The retablo of the Visitation (figure 2), also by the A. J. Santero, so far remains unique among New Mexican santos. New Mexican artists followed Mexico in their disinterest in portraying the Nativity, and the Adoration of the Magi, unlike those in Puerto Rico for example, where the subject became 38 quite popular. Of the scenes from Jesus' childhood, santeros in Mexico and New Mexico favored only the Flight into Egypt (see figures 3 and 4). That New Mexico and Mexico shared an interest in honoring the Flight into Egypt alone of the scenes from Jesus' childhood points to a major theme in provincial religious devotion of late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century central and northern Mexico. In a dream the Lord tells Joseph to flee Judaea with Mary and Jesus to avoid destruction by Herod. They depart by night for Egypt leaving Herod to wreak vengeance on the innocent children of Bethlehem. The Flight into Egypt represents the Lord's protection of the family of the faithful. A similar theme representing the family as a unit with religious significance connects the Flight into Egypt to santos of the Holy Family, Holy Trinity, and the Crucifixion, the other popular scenes painted on retablos in both Mexico and New Mexico. In both places, santos depicting the Holy Family abound, such as the New Mexican example in figure 5. Here, the three members of the Holy Family on the earth intersect the Holy Trinity in the person of the child Jesus. The Holy Spirit descends from God the Father above, which completes a cross that organizes this composition and which Jesus mirrors by his pose. In some retablos of the Holy Family, God the Father or a dove (symbolizing the Holy Spirit) appears at the top of the scene. The numerous versions of the Trinity among New Mexican santos (figures 17-22) also involve notions of the family. The Holy Spirit proceeds from Father to Son, and if some New Mexicans believed that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph made up the Trinity, the view aptly expresses their tightly 39 woven concept of religion and family. Finally, the most frequent type of Crucifixion made by New Mexican santeros also emphasized the family. Santos of the Crucifixion often show Christ on the Cross flanked by Mary (as Nuestra Senora de los Dolores) and San Jose (see figure 11). The composition ~ge, Santos, 78, 80. 39 Cited in George Mills, The People of the Saints (Colorado Springs: Taylor Art Museum, 1967), 57. New Mexican Santo Tradition 75 of these scenes recalls the earthly and heavenly organization of the Holy Family and Holy Trinity. In representations of the Passion of Christ and its aftermath, New Mexican santeros parted ways with artists in northern and central Mexico. Few Mexican retablo artists showed interest in painting scenes from the Passion, the Road to Calvary, the Entombment, or other events from His life. Mexican and New Mexican artists both illustrated Christ's Entry into Jerusalem, perhaps because it represented the one event from the Passion that showed a triumphant Jesus before his death. Mexican santeros did fashion images of the Holy Family, the Crucifixion, the Trinity, and La Ver6nica (El Rostro Divina), but chose to emphasize the devotional aspect of these subjects rather than display any interest in depicting an event. In contrast, New Mexican santeros embraced a series of scenes from the Passion, Crucifixion, and Glorification of Christ and, in translating these images into a New Mexican context, developed a powerful mix of historical and devotional representation that expressed the distinct tenor of the Vecino religious impulse shaped by experience. The images that New Mexican santeros chose from Christ's life and death emphasized His physical and emotional suffering and eventual spiritual triumph. New Mexicans excluded scenes that involved important ancillary figures. For example, in Christ's Descent from the Cross after the Crucifixion (Deposition), the figures of John the Baptist and the two Mary's play a critical role in the narrative and meaning of the event. Although the Deposition commonly formed a part of the European print cycles, it did not appear among the Vecino productions. Alternatively, a santero often arranged a historical event in such a way as to exclude secondary figures. Scenes of the Flagellation Christ, such as those shown in figures 7 and 8, do not depict His tormentors, only the result of their actions. No mocking crowd accompanies Christ in retablos and bultos of the Bearing of the Cross (figure 10). In the retablo El Santo Ecce Homo" shown in figure 9, Pontius Pilate does not appear to present Jesus to the people. As a result, a solitary figure, who symbolizes a particular moment in Christ's life, challenges the viewer to empathize directly with the experience represented in the scene. Although the reduction of a historical event to a devotional image took place frequently in Catholic imagery, as well as in the imported prints that reached the provinces, New Mexican santeros made their own devotional pieces out of subjects by simplifying compositions that ordinarily supported more elaborate narratives. Not only did New Mexican santeros tend to create devotional representations out of events in Christ's life, but they intended their santos to elicit a 11 76 Catholic Southwest different religious response from their audience than did santeros in other parts of Mexico. Mexican devotional retablos, particularly those representing Christ, emphasized a sentimental connection between the viewer and the event depicted based on empathy, reflecting the general trend of contemporary source materials. New Mexican santos of Christ's Life sought to extend the viewer's emotional response to the solemn visual portrayal of Christ's profound suffering, and to use it to invoke a variety of reflexive analogies that linked events in Christ's life to the historical past of the province. The image of Christ in figure 9 represents one example of iconographical innovation employed in order to set a particular devotional tone. In spite of the caption provided by the artist, this retablo depicts Christ as the Man of Sorrows, rather than "El Senor Ecce Homo." After the Flagellation and Mocking of Christ, Pontius Pilate presented Him to the Jews with the words "Behold the Man," and asked them to pass sentence on Jesus for calling himself Son of God. European and Mexican versions of the Ecce Homo show either Pilate exhibiting Jesus to a crowd, or Jesus standing alone with this hands bound showing the wounds of the Flagellation. Spanish depictions of 40 the Man of Sorrows show Christ in a posture identical to that of this image. Instruments of the Passion and Crucifixion also indicate the devotional iconography of the Man of Sorrows, not an event from the cycle of the Passion. A ladder, spear, nails, and cross appear inside of the frame surrounding the central figure. Christ holds the scourge and wears the crown of thorns and the rope around His neck that bound Him. Despite the iconographical confusion wrought by the Quill Pen Santero, the retablo presents a clear religious message to the viewer. The bearded Christ sits, his legs in front of him, with his knees drawn up towards his chest He folds his left hand across his lap, and balances his right elbow on his knee with his cheek placed on his palm, supporting the weight of his head. He wears shorts or a loincloth and has bare feet. Lines of blood drip from the wounds that cover his body, and he appears to contemplate his unhappy situation with intense concentration. As he does so, Christ looks directly at the viewer as if accepting the suffering and misery of the world so that the faithful among the onlookers can seize at the chance given them to choose their own salvation. Figure 23 also illustrates a Man of Sorrows. Here the artist has simplified the composition greatly; so much so that he had to fashion an elbow stand that miraculously sprouts from the frame of the picture in order to support «wThe Christ as the Man of Sorrows" (at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts) by Luis Morales (El Divino) provides an excellent example (slide catalog number 221, 1987, 3rd edition). New Mexican Santo Tradition 77 Christ's right hand. Comparing Christ's throne in the two retablos (figures 9 and 23), the santero abandoned the detail of the scene shown in figure 9, intended to suggest a three-dimensional perspective, in favor of an abbreviated, two-dimensional version. In reducing the scene to essentials, the santero focused on the key elements representing Christ's demeanor that give His contemplative look its emotive power. In the retablo of the Piela (figure 12), also painted by the Quill Pen Santero or his follower, the imagery makes use of more sophisticated symbolism to extend the connection between Christ and human observers of the santo. Mary holds the dead Christ in her arms as if he were the child Jesus. At the same time, the instruments of the Passion that decorate the edges of the scene and the sad smile of the Virgin combine to emphasize the sacrifice of the Son of God that achieved the salvation of mankind. In an unusual twist on the standard iconography of the Lamentation or Pieta, the artist painted Christ as if interred in the arms of Mary. His sepulcher appears as Her womb. In this manner the sorrow brought by Her sacrifice challenges the viewer to understand and appreciate the insignificance of his or her own earthly misery and suffering in comparison. The symbolism used by Pedro Fresquis in the retablo shown in figure 14 implicated nuevomexicanos far more directly than in the previous examples. The santo depicts an event that entered the corpus of Christian religious doctrine and art during the Middle Ages. In order to save the righteous who lived before the Crucifixion, Christ descended from his position at the right hand of God into Purgatory in order to bring these souls into Heaven. Here Christ descends while on the Cross. In this interpretation, Fresquis consciously linked Christ's sacrifice at Golgotha with the redemption of those in Purgatory. One of the supplicants on the left holds a chalice in order to catch the blood that drips from the Cross, a reference to the angel commonly included in scenes of the Crucifixion who holds a vessel for the identical purpose. This detail completed a metaphor that had particular significance for New Mexicans; the blood of Christ shed on the Cross to save mankind functions as a symbol for the Descent, the act of the Savior that redeemed those in Limbo. For the devout Vecino who contemplated this image in the early nineteenth-century, the metaphor extended logically to their recent historical experience. The relative comfort that they enjoyed following two generations of warfare and disease, and the consequent suffering and misery that they had experienced, seemed analogous to Christ's redemption of the lost souls from Purgatory. For Jesus and Vecinos alike, sacrifice represented the price of redemption. Catholic Southwest 78 A single santero carved the two extant bultos (statues) of the Man of Sorrows shown in figures 24 and 25, like the related retablos of the "Ecce Homo" and Christ as the Man of Sorrows (figures 9 and 23). Comparing the features of these figures of Christ with the two retablos done by the Quill Pen Santero, one can speculate that the bultos might have come from the same hand or a related school or workshop. However, even though the iconography of the two bultos clearly identifies them as images of Christ as the Man of Sorrows, in both cases the nuevomexicanos who transferred these bultos to their present owners identified them as "Santo Jo'," Saint Job.41 Job, who had lived a blameless and upright life, was tested by Satan with God's permission to determine the strength of his faith. His calamities mounted rapidly. The Sabeans carried off his plowing oxen and asses in a raid, then lightning struck his sheep and their shepherds. Finally, a great wind killed all of his sons and daughters. As Job did not renounce his faith or the justness of his fate even after suffering these trials, Satan covered Job's body from head to toe with boils. The bulto here shows his affliction. As a patriarch of the Old Testament, it took the Counter-Reformation's search for new and powerful devotional images to bring Job into the fold of Christian saints. In the early sixth century, when Pope Gregory the Great published an explanation of the Book of Job that established the patriarch as an exemplar of Christian patience, Job became known as the patron of syphilitics. Job does not often appear in the 42 art of eighteenth or early-nineteenth centuries New Spain. On the face of the matter, Job represents an unusual subject to attract the attention of itinerant saint makers. More unusual still is the use of the Man of Sorrows iconography to bring Job into monumental form, as a Saint. Christ's wounds literally became Job's boils. 41 Figure 2.5 is shown and desaibed in Mitchell A. Wilder and Edgar Breitenbach, Santos: the religious folk-art of New Mexico (Colorado Springs: The Taylor Art Museum, 1943), plate 12; and on 44-45 of Robert L. Shalkop, Wooden Saints: The Santos of New Mexico (faylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Feldafing: Buchheim Verlag, 1967). Figure 2.5, the man sitting on the ground, came from J.P. Flores in Pladtas, New Mexico, in the 1960s. The Flores family owned the figure from the time it was fashioned, and J.P.'s father had passed on the name of the Santo to his son. Information from the present owner, personal communication, 24 July 1989. 42 See, however, the use of Job by Fray Toribio Motolinfa, Historia de los indios de la Nueva Espana (M~co: Editorial Porrua, 1984), 58-59, to describe the patience and faith that the Nahuatl and other Indians of the Central Valley of Mexico exhibited when sick or receiving medical treatmenl New Mexican Santo Tradition ' 79 Something in the cultural language of the period brought Job into the religious purview of New Mexicans, and effected the transformation from Christ to Job in the mind of the villagers who commissioned the figures. In Catholic doctrine Christ and Job both function traditionally as exemplars of patience under adversity, which exposed them to great physical and emotional suffering. Christ, however, came to earth as the Son of God, consciously bearing the destiny imposed on him and accepting the sacrifice of his life among men, but at the same time sharing the divinity of the Father. Job, on the other hand, could claim only to have lived as an upright, prosperous farmer and rancher, a status which New Mexicans could easily comprehend. The last decades of the eighteenth century prepared the ground for an identification with "Santo Jo'." Epidemics, years of warfare with hostile Indians and the resulting death and impoverishment added to the general difficulty associated with life in a remote frontier province and forged the cultural pattern that led to the appearance of the image of Saint Job in New Mexico as a symbol of adversity. At the same time, a marked improvement of material conditions in the province towards the end of the century served to complete the identification with the saint. Just as God restored to Job his family and twice as much property as he owned before he faced his trials, during a time of relative prosperity in the early eighteenth century New Mexicans came to see the period between 1750 and 1790 as the test of their collective faith. The images of Saint Job represents the personification of torment from warfare and disease (figures 24 and 2.5). The boils covering Job's body look like the sores from bursting smallpox pustules. Job sits alone on his perch, looking miserable, resigned, and completely self-absorbed. He draws the viewer into his predicament, evoking a mixture of compassion and selfidentification. Bearing his afflictions on earth with human suffering, striving to emulate the patience and faith embodied by Christ, in Saint Job New Mexicans found comfort in a mortal example that resonated with their own experience. During the last decades of Spanish rule, Vecinos created their own religious and cultural expression that grew from a specific set of dramatic events, moved by powerful and fleeting demographic and economic forces, and rooted to a particular moment in New Mexican history. The scenes from the Life of Christ created by New Mexican santeros marked the artistic expression of a flowering of religious activity among Vednos that culminated in the Penitente movement which reached preeminence after the middle of the nineteenth-century. The Penitente emphasis on reliving the suffering 80 Catholic Southwest and redemption of Christ, taken to the extent of the elaborate reenactment of the Passion and ritual of flagellation, represented a popular religious movement that grew logically out of the meaning and iconography of the early santos. The development of Penitente spiritualism and iconography exemplified the articulation of the powerful, self-confident, Vecino worldview that had emerged from the changes and ordeals of the preceding century.