Santos in Oaxaca's Ancient ChurchesA study of santos in 16th-century and other churches in Oaxaca, Mexico
By Claire and Richard Stracke Funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation In the church of Santa
Elena de la Cruz, Xoxocotlán Angels |
Other Santos at
Xoxocotlán |
El Sagrado Corazón The face and hands have a rubbery look but the veins glow through realistically.
Local Name: El Sagrado
Corazón. Basis for Identification: Christ with heart on sunburst, cruciform halo, stigmata. Site: Church of Santa Elena de la Cruz, Xoxocotlán. Location: In a glass case on the second of the altars between the north entrance and the apse (see note). Media and construction: Fabric
clothing. Eyes: glass, with
lashes. Hair: wig. Size: About 5½
feet (165 cm.) Comparable santos in Oaxaca: Achiutla, Cuilapan, Huitzo, Tamazulapan, Teposcolula, Yanhuitlán, Zimatlán. External Links: Seated Young Boy The santo is seated in a throne-like wooden chair on the altar of El Santo Nazareño, above. There is an engaging balance in the design of the whole. The raised right hand and uplifted face correspond to the raised left foot, which seems to have originally rested on some object. The carved folds of the robe lead the eye upward toward the face. This may be a representation of Christ in the Temple, considering the robe, the sphere (perhaps a mappa mundi), and the chair.
Basis for Identification: Chair, sphere in left hand, fingers of right hand positioned as if about to make the sign of the cross. Site: Church of Santa Elena de la Cruz, Xoxocotlán. Media and construction: Wood, gesso, paint, carved robe. Size: About 2 feet (60 cm.) Previous santo Introduction to Xoxocotlán Note: On this site, references to the cardinal directions always assume that the main altar is at the east end of the church, the narthex or entry area at the west end, and the two walls of the nave on the north and south. (The nave is the long central section.) Actual orientations may differ. The photo shown here is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
license. You are free to share or remix it on two
conditions: first, that you attribute it to the
photographers, Claire and Richard Stracke, without
implying any approval of your work on their part;
second, that if you alter, transform, or build upon
this photo, you may distribute the resulting work only
under the same or similar license to this one.
|