Our Lady of the Assumption:
The figure is of an elegant young woman
with slender neck, small face and perfect waves of hair.
She looks up at the heavens and her hands are held open
before her in adoration. It seems that the eyes were
carved so as to be best seen from below. The lower lids
are unnaturally prominent.
She wears a tunic of gold polychrome under a robe of
red and gold feathered arabesques. The robe is edged in
a diamond pattern. The mantle is of a blue and gold
design of flowers that meet to form great curving x's.
The crown is not part of the original compostion. It is
very large and decorated with glass jewels and pearls.
It perches perilously on the forehead.
The right foot is placed on the head of an almost
comically human angel. The angels have chubby cheeks and
a pug nose and wear their dark hair in two round braids
over the ears. The eyes of at least two of the angels
have rolled back in their heads. There is no horned moon
visible in the cloud.
Local Name: La Virgen de la
Asunción.
Basis for Identification: On
clouds born by angels. Full crown, flowing hair.
Site: Church of San
Pablo Huitzo.
Location: On a
shelf in the north wall of the nave midway between the
second rib and the apse (see note).
Media and construction: Polychrome.
Metal crown, glass and silver jewels, plastic and
composition beads. Eyes: glass.
Size: About 5 feet (150 cm.)
Comparable santos in Oaxaca: Coixtlahuaca,
Ejutla1, Ejutla2, Mitla2, Tamazulapan,
Teitipac,
Tlacolula,
Tlaxiaco,
Tule.
External Links:
Wikimedia Commons:
Statues
of the Assumption of Mary in Mexico
Wikipedia: Assumption
of Mary
Christian Iconography: The
Assumption of the Virgin Mary
Next: To
the right of this one, a statue of St. John the
Baptist
Previous santo
Introduction to San Pablo Mitla
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.
Actual orientations may differ.
(The nave is the long central section. At the end of
the nave, there is often a half-dome above the area
where the altar is placed; this area is the apse.)
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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