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Here is a Santo from my collection that presents San Jos\u00e9 with a staff and holding the Christ child on his hand. This old and obviously beloved carving was collected in the 1990s from a Chatino village on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca. Why would someone sell such a treasure, one might ask. Large numbers of Indians had converted to the Protestant faith, and they were instructed by their pastors to divest themselves of religious images, so they sold off their Santos. The Protestant concern about such images is that they tend to function as intermediaries between the worshiper and God. Thus we find a bare cross in the sanctuary of Protestant churches and Christ on the cross in Roman Catholic churches.<\/p>\n
This San Jos\u00e9 has lost one if his feet.<\/p>\n Isn’t this a sweet carving of the Infant Jesus.<\/p>\n The thread is, of course, meant to prevent Christ from falling off the Saint’s hand.<\/p>\n Jesus was said to be precocious.<\/p>\n This figure is 14 inches tall.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Next I will include two masks\u00a0from Michoac\u00e1n that depict San Jos\u00e9 . You may have seen these in my posts in September, 2017. The first even has hand made glass eyes in the manner of the Santeros tradition.<\/p>\n https:\/\/mexicandancemasks.com\/?p=10583#more-10583<\/a><\/p>\n In Michoac\u00e1n, the dancer wearing this mask is also called Ter\u00e9piti, or Grandfather.<\/p>\n This mask is 10 inches tall, 6 inches wide, and 3\u00bc inches deep.<\/p>\n Here is a second example of one of these Tar\u00e9piti, Grandfather, or San Jos\u00e9 masks.<\/p>\n The wig is made from goat tails. This mask lacks glass eyes.<\/p>\n This mask is 10 inches tall, 5\u00bc inches wide, and 3\u00bd inches deep.<\/p>\n Now I will look closely at this Peruvian head in multiple views. I will begin by repeating the frontal view that you saw earlier.<\/p>\n This is such a beautiful head that I think mere words are insufficient and unnecessary. Feast your eyes.<\/p>\n This is the serene smile that I am talking about.<\/p>\n The hole on the back of the head may have held the foot of a wire halo.<\/p>\n This head is 9 inches tall, 5\u00bd inches wide, and 6 inches in depth.<\/p>\n The head was connected to the body by a dowel peg.<\/p>\n I bought this next mask from Spencer Throckmorton in 1996. I’ll call it a mask of a Spanish Soldier, as it appears to be a junior version of an Alvarado mask from the Guatemalan Conquest dance. I include it here as an example of what happens when you ask a Santero (a carver of Saints such as our featured head) to make a mask; he makes one that looks like a Saint. It even has glass eyes. Many of the masks in Guatemalan dances appear to have been carved according to the Baroque traditions exemplified by Spanish wooden saints and their derivatives in the Americas. I don’t have a Peruvian example to illustrate this.<\/p>\n For example, look at the finely carved ears on this mask.<\/p>\n This mask is exquisitely carved. It measures 7 inches tall, 6 inches wide, and 3\u00bd inches in depth.<\/p>\n The initials ET are carved on the back, the trademark of a well-known Morer\u00eda (mask rental establishment) in San Cristobal, Totonicapan, Guatemala.<\/p>\n In next week’s post- a reader has sent photos of old masks from Guatemala for us to examine.<\/p>\n Bryan Stevens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In early November, 2019, I became enamored of what appeared to be a rather old wooden head from a broken Santo figure. The seller stated that it was from a convent in Peru that was being restored during the first … Read More <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n