Our Lady of Mount Carmel:
This Carmen is different from the
traditional and the statue may originally have represented
a different saint. The garments are not brown but white
brocade trimmed in gold; yet the bib, reaching to
mid-calf, marks them as unquestionably the Carmen
garments. Only the virgin has a scapular; traditionally
both figures have one. Finally, the fine features and
sheen of the face make the statue seem older than other
Carmens.
Local Name: La Virgen del Carmen,
more formally Nuestra Señora de
Monte Carmelo.
Basis for Identification: Scapular,
bib, crown, holding child who wears a
crown.
Site: Basilica of
Santiago Cuilapan.
Location: In a glass
case on a wooden altar along the north wall of nave
(see note).
Media and construction: Wood,
gesso, paint, fabric garments.
Hair: bald beneath wig. Eyes: glass. Closed
mouth.
Size: About 5 feet (150 cm.)
Comparable santos in Oaxaca: Coixtlahuaca
main altar, Ejutla, Etla, Guelavia, Huitzo, Teitipac, Teposcolula,
Tlaxiaco,
Xoxocotlán,
Zaachila,
Zimatlán.
External Links:
Wikimedia Commons:
Statues
of
Nuestra Señora del Carmen in Mexico
Wikipedia: Our
Lady of Mount Carmel, Virgen
del Carmen.
Christian Iconography: Our
Lady of Mount Carmel
Saint Joseph
In the same case
kneeling at the virgin's feet is a
small statue of a full-bearded male dressed in polyester
garments. The headpiece is a round coil such as is
depicted in modern Biblical illustrations. It wears a
green, collared robe and a long gold wrap in apparent
imitation of the robe and mantle of the older, larger
statue standing to the right of the case that we
provisionally identify as Saint Joseph.
Comparable santos in Oaxaca: Achiutla,
Santa Ana del Valle, Cuilapan1, Cuilapan2, Mitla1,
Mitla2, Ocotlán,
Díaz Ordaz, Teitipac, Teotitlán,
Zimatlán.
Next: On
the same wooden altar, a statue of an
unidentified saint, possibly St. Joseph.
Previous santo
Introduction to Santiago Cuilapan
Santos Home Page
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.
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