Lecture Four Fall 2014

Nuestra Señora de Los Dolores, Antonio Molleno follower, 1800-40 Originally named the Chili Pepper santero Regis collection, Ru52 Feast day: Friday before Palm Sunday and September 16

• Mary standing with her hands folded with a sword or seven swords piercing her heart.

• She is wearing a red gown a cowl and sometimes wearing a crown.

• A single sword of sorrow caused by crucifixion of her son Jesus and the sword pierces her heart

• Compassion for others in sorrow; help with children, help in childbirth.

• Father Steele created the tin resplandor (halo) and sword, but the holes where already there.

Nuestra Señora del Rosario Our Lady of the Rosary composite bulto José Aragón/José Benito Ortega, 1820-1907 Regis Collection, RU-JM 199

• Feast day October 2

• The Virgin Mary depicted in a bell-shaped gown holding the Christ Child in one arm and a rosary in her other hand.

• She is often represented crowned. This representation of the Virgin is often prayed to in times of death, when a rosary is customarily recited soon after the deceased has passed away.

• Patronage: Acceptance of death in the family (saying the rosary is a central part of velorios [wakes] for the dead where the crucifix of the rosary is the key to the gates of heaven); for peace, for help in danger and protection from accidents.

• Ortega has reworked Aragon’s bulto, the little 1880’s-style high top “ pegged shoes and the base are Ortega’s contribution.

Our Lady of Saint John of the Lakes Nuestra Señora de San Juan de los Lagos 1820-40 Antonio Mollen Regis Collection RU 82

• Feast day February 2

• Identified by her jeweled crown, hop skirt and a tall candle on each side.

• In 1542, a Spanish priest, Father Miguel de Bologna, brought an image of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception to the town of San Juan de los Lagos, Mexico.

• Years later—in 1623—the legend recounts that the daughter of Tarascan Indian parents fell gravely ill, and her death was imminent.

• However, after the parents earnestly prayed to the Virgin, their daughter was saved.

• Since then it has become a major pilgrimage site that draws hundreds of thousands annually.

El Camino Real

The distance between Santa Fe, and Mexico city is a little over 1200 miles and took over 4 months

to travel. The distance between Santa Fe and Chihuahua is about 550 miles The distance between Santa Fe and Missouri is a little over 900 miles and took 2 to 3 months to travel

Isolation

• Physical

Seat of Government

Commerce and Good

services

• Cultural

Language

Customs and ritual

• Spirituality

Churches

Priests/sacraments

Age of enlightenment

This PERIOD of CHANGE is characterized by

three REVOLUTIONS:

the INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (circa 1760s)

“The Industrial Revolution brought about the

most significant shift in the way people lived

since the Neolithic agricultural revolution ten

thousand years earlier.”

Invention of the camera

Changed the trajectory/roll of art and the artist

Day of God Paul Gauguin

Oil on Canvas, 26” x 36”

• Was critical of materialism of industrial society.

• His transformation from a stockbroker to a full-time painter and artist came after the financial crash of 1882.

• At the age of 35 Tired of living in a western society he left his pregnant wife and 3 children

• Moved to Tahiti in search of a dream of earthly paradise

• And away from the disease of civilization.

• He went to live and paint in a remote village

• Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) • Les Demoiselles D 'Avignon

(1907)

The Young Ladies of Avignon

Peter Paul Rubens

Three Graces

Picasso – Portrait of Ambroise Vollard

•Cubist aim of representing the

world as seen from a number

of different viewpoints.

• Cubist wanted to convey a

feeling of being able to move

around within the painting.

Veronica’s Veil Pedro Antonio Fresquis Denver Art Museum

• Like the cubist this work is seen from a number of different viewpoints.

(Butterfly Maiden) Kachina Hopi, painted wood

ca. 1920 19" x 9 1/2" x 4 1/2"

• The Santeros used the same materials to make their santos that the Pueblos used to make their kachinas and tablitas.

• Kachina Dolls: Kachina dolls are carved to look like friendly spirits and were used by Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo Indians.

• They are given to children to protect them from evil spirits.

Tablitas (headdress) used for dance ceremonies

Crucifix Jose Benito Ortega Denver Art Museum

• Crucifijo & Angelito, 1880-1907 José Benito Ortega Regis collection RU 97 & 203

• Many of the Santeros did come from a Native American culture or mestizaje of Spanish and Native American.

• Santos do come from a culture different European/American mainstream

Blackfeet Par fleche,

Rawhide, pigment, 1885, 21” x 14”

•A pack or bag (envelope) that was used for carrying personal goods in nomadic Native American societies.

•Women created these objects By stretching rawhide in the sun to dry

•Women then paint pigments of earth powders Painted with repetition of geometric shapes (triangles) and earth colors.

New Mexico Santeros

• About a dozen artists, some known by name, others by their style or location of particular works.

• These anonymous artists are identified and named based on their preferred saints, their unique styles, or the places where they practiced their art

Why is difficult to distinguish the art of one santero from another?

• They all created the same or similar subjects.

• They all used the same materials. (pine boards, cottonwood roots, pigments)

• They copied each other or where an apprentice of one another

• They had the same sources for inspiration which were the imported paintings, engravings that they saw in prints and prayer books

• They incorporated the same iconography to symbolically portray sacred subjects that guaranteed the validity and power of an image

Things to look for to identify santeros:

• Use of line (roundness or angularity)

• Use of shape (geometric or organic)

• Proportion (size of head to body)

• Direction of head (front view or ¾ profile)

• Facial features

Early Santeros/Pre- Golden age 1750-1790

• Captain Bernardo Miera y Pacheco Fray Andrés García

Spanish born Mexican born

Transition and the Golden Age, 1796-1860

• Laguna Santero -1796 -1808, Stylistic Bridge

• Antonio Molleno –follower of Laguna, 1800 -1845

• Quill Pen Santero- follower of Antonio Molleno, 1830 -1850

• Pedro Antonio Fresquis – first native born santero , 1790 -1830

also known as the Truchas master and the calligraophic santero

• José Aragón- 1820 1835

• Arroyo Hondo Santero – follower of Jose Aragón, 1820’s -1830’s

• José Rafael Aragón – 1820 -1860

• Santo Niño Santero – follower of José Rafael Aragón, 1830 -1860

Serving the Brotherhood (Penitente Santeros), 1860-1907

• José Benito Ortega- 1858 1941, also known as the Mora santero and or flat santero

• José de Gracia Gonzales – 1835 -1901, born in Chihuahua

• Juan Ramón Velásquez- 1830 1902

Anonymous Attributed to Franciscan F Crucifixion with Mourning Figures of Mary and John 18th century • A number of artists (Franciscans) who

were working in New Mexico executed images on tanned buffalo, elk, and deer hides.

• The Franciscans recreated the images they needed to teach and inspire their followers.

• Hide is a poor support to paint on.

• Not many hide painting have survived

• The mourning figures of Mary and John the disciple at the foot of the cross are posed with prayerful or wringing hands that identifies them.

• The symbolic theme of angels catching Christ’s blood in a chalice first appeared in the fourteenth century.

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San Rafael Arcángel Saint Raphael the Archangel Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco 1780

• Capitan Bernardo Miera y Pacheco is among the first "true" santeros, those artists active from ca. 1750-1790

• He laid a foundation and provided primary prototypes for the New Mexican-born artists who would follow.

• Captain Bernardo Miera y Pacheco was a cartographer by trade and lived in New Mexico from 1756 until his death in 1785.

• He used oils as well as tempera (water color) to paint on canvas, bultos and retablos and sold his work to native converts.

• He work resembles mainstream Renaissance and Baroque art.

Stone altar screen now at the Church of Cristo Rey, Santa Fe, NM, 1761, Capitán Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, commissioned by Governor Francisco Antonio Marín del Valle and his wife María Ignacia Martínez de Ugarte

• Originally at the chapel of Our Lady of Light or La Castrense, a Military chapel on the plaza

• It was carved in low relief with local stone, gessoed and painted

• It was the first instance of estípite column.

• The idea of columns separating panels holding separate saints was copied by later santeros.

• This altar screen was the model that the other santero used

Santo Hierarchy

• The first dated work by a santero living in New Mexico,

Saint Anthony of Padua San Antonio de Padua Fray Andres Garcia 1748-78 Regis Collection RU 85 Feast day: June 13

• Fray Andres Garcia served in New Mexico from 1747 to 1779, where he renovated several churches and provided them with images, altars, pulpits and confessionals.

• Like Miera y Pacheco worked in the prevailing styles of the day.

San Jose church, Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico

San Jose church, Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico

• Unknown by name, this santero is identified from a large altar screen at the mission church at the Pueblo of Laguna.

• He is credited with making more large-scale Colonial art than any other santero.

• The significance of the Laguna Santero is his position as a stylistic “bridge” between the eighteenth-century imitation of European styles and the new regional style of New Mexico.

• estípite column

• This altar has been cleaned and repainted and has lost most of its original painting

San José Laguna Santero A Century of Retablos The Janis and Dennis Collection of New Mexico Santos, pg 71

• The rich colors found in Mexican baroque paintings of red, blue, various shades of grey, black, with certain areas appearing as pinkish grey.

• The faces have downcast eyes and he uses white paint to decorate and highlight clothing

• The upper eyelid extends in a straight flat line with the thick lower eyelid rounded

• The pupils of the eyes are surrounded by an envelope of white that give depth

• Three-quarter length portraits are also stylistic characteristics

• Long nose that is often modeled by shading, giving the effect of depth

• He painted large scale hands and The hands have elegant, long tapered fingers and one thumb is usually rendered with a crooked shape

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Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception

Antonio Molleno Kingdom of the Saints pg 99

• Follower of Laguna santero

• Work for almost 50 years

• Worked in three distinct styles

• His early works (approximately 1815-1820) closely resemble those of the Laguna santero

• During his 1st period

Aspects of realism are exhibited as are the use of dark and colored backgrounds, elegantly decorated garments, and a wide range of colors.

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San Geronimo Saint Jerome Antonio Molleno/Chili Pepper santero

• This period is characterized by elongated simplified figures with the use of decorative floral motifs as space fillers in the corners of the retablos, resembling acanthus leaves found on early engravings

• A three-quarter perspective with a black line that forms the right side of the face.

• Like modern cartooning

• Minimal use of color

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Our Lady of the Suburb of Querétaro, 1830-50 Nuestra Señora del Pueblito de Querétaro Quill Pen Santero Regis Collection RU 210

• Molleno disciple

• His work is characterized by sharp delicate lines that appear to have been made with a quill pen or sharp instrument

• His use of what appear to be Pueblo Indian designs has led some scholars to suggest that he was of American Indian heritage.

• His production was limited, and his retablos are among the rarest in New Mexico.

Saint Raymond Nonnatus San Ramón Nonato Quill Pen Santero (1820-1850s) wood, gesso, tempera, and varnish ca. 1850 • Acoma pottery

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Cristo Crucificado : Crucifixion Pedro Antonio Fresquís late 18th - early 19th century The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Museum,

• First native born santero , 1790 -1830

• Aka: Truchas master and calligraphic santero

• His early work has some Baroque traits:

• Dark background with dramatic lighting

• Sgraffito-scraping away lines in moist paint to expose the different colored surface beneath.

• He deals with background with stylized floating flowers or stylized trees that stand on top of tiling

• Crucifix have a well develop loin cloths with large bows

• Large head in proportion to their bodies

San Antonio de Padua Pedro Antonio Fresquis A Century of Retablos The Janis and Dennis Collection of New Mexico Santos, pg 41

• Sometimes uses single halos for more than one figure

• He worked with back ground using stylized floating flowers or stylized trees that stand on top of tiling

• He has a penmanship-like line in his pieces

• Most figures present themselves in frontal view

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Flight into Egypt Pedro Antonio Fresquis late 18th or early 19th century

• His dark background disappears in his later work

• Never signed his work except a few initials on horses on a few panels

• Very few narrative paintings in colonial New Mexico

• Sketchy other worldly plants and tree

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San Pedro Saint Peter José Aragón Pg 131

• He could read and write and signed his work.

• A prolific artist who made hundreds of retablos and bultos, Aragón signed many of his works, unlike most santeros of his era.

• He was well educated a maybe from Spain or Mexico.

• Greater tendency to work from engravings

• Cross-hatching

• In general, José Aragón’s style is characterized by delicate features, almond shaped eyes, plump cheeks and well-proportioned figures.

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Saint Ignatius Loyola, 1820-65 San Ignacio de Loyola, José Rafael Aragón, 1820 -65 Regis collection RU 144

• José Rafael Aragón, considered the greatest and most prolific New Mexican Santero.

• He was arguably the finest and most talented santero of his era.

• He was active for more than forty years, from 1820 to 1862

• Shared characteristics with Jose Aragon but worked later who may or may not of been related.

• He created most of the altar screens for the communities along the High Road to Taos.

• It is probable that he worked with family members and other artists, as in a taller or informal guild.

Our Lady of Guadalupe Nuestra Señora Guadalupe José Rafael Aragón New Kingdom of the Saints pg 227

• His sculptural figures are noted for his creative decorative motifs, color contrasts, elongated and graceful proportions, delicate features and a distinctive bump on the nose.

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Santo Niño de Praga, 1830-40 (Holy Child of Prague) Regis Collection RU 404 Feast day: June 13

• A child dressed in a full robe, usually red, almost always wearing a crown, and holding a globe with a cross on top.

• He is a celebration of the childhood and kingship of Jesus.

• Help with those who are lost and held captive

• Santo Niño Santero frequent depictions of the Christ Child:

Santo Niño de Praga

Santo Niño de Atocha

Santo Niño Perdido

Santo Niño Santero

Saint Joseph Jose Benito Ortega aka: flat santero and the Mora santero Denver Art Museum

• José Benito Ortega, the last of the late 19th-century santeros, traveled throughout northern New Mexico and southern Colorado

• He making santos for small chapels, village homes, and Moradas for Penitentes (members of a religious brotherhood) from the 1870s to the early 1900s.

• His figures were often created from scrap mill board and widely available calico rags, upon which he applied prepared gesso.

• Since Ortega used milled work, most of his work has a flat appearance but the head, hand and feet are carve and pegged

• Faces are very expressive

• Funny looking feet and hand

Saint Joseph San José Patriarca José Benito Ortega (1858-1941) wood, gesso, and polychrome ca. 1880 • Retablos become more provincial or

to revert to the near primitive

• His retablos push so far in the direction of stylized similar to Matisse

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