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Our Lady of Candelaria:
The Virgen
de la Candelaria is named for the feast of
Candlemas, which is traditionally celebrated on February
2. Candlemas celebrates the purification of the Virgin
Mary and the Presentation in the Temple.
The use of stiffened and painted cloth in a
frame santo is uncommon but an example of another such
Virgin is in Santo Domingo Díaz Ordaz. As
in the other church, the cloth has been painted to
resemble polychrome. It is evident that the frame is
more complicated in structure than the usual "A" shape.
The figure is unnaturally high-chested; from the waist
the skirt forms a bell, as it does for the statue in
Santo Domingo Díaz Ordaz. The arms appear to be
part of the frame rather than separately carved units.
The top joints of the fingers of the right hand
are missing. The left hand is clearly not original and
has something of a "rubber glove" look. The stiffened
cloth represents a separate cape and robe. The pattern
is of bold red arabesques on the cape and gold flowers
on the skirt of the robe. The bodice is a simple brown
with gold vertical stripes.
The child figure seems to have been carved of a single
piece of wood and is angled as if it were in a chair.
The hair is arranged in complicated waves, yet the face
is hardly detailed at all.
The crown has the shape characteristic of a Soledad's
crown, and there is a photograph of the Soledad in a
frame before the statue, but the child and the
open-armed stance are inconsistent with the Soledad. On
the wall behind the statue is an inscription noting that
renovation of the Virgin was done in "13 de morzo [sic]
1886" as a gift of the mayordomo Guillermo Valeriano. Presidente
García-Martinez informed us that at the
present time no mayordomía
has special charge of this statue.
Local Name: La Candelaria
Basis for Identification: Identified
as La Candelaria by the Presidente. Full crown
on the adult, the Christ child in the crook of the left
arm, a rosary hanging from the child's left arm. At Teitipac
and elsewhere in the Latin world the Candelaria and the
child carry sceptres. Here the shape of the adult's
right hand and the child's left suggest that sceptres
may have been a part of original composition.
Site: Church of Santa
Ana del Valle.
Location: On a
finely finished and decorated andas
on the altar right of the central altar along the south
wall of the nave (see note).
Media and construction: Frame
construction. Wood, gesso, paint. Hair: On the adult, a
wig; on the child, sculpted hair.
Size: About 3½
feet (105 cm.)
Comparable santos in Oaxaca: Teitipac.
External Links:
Wikimedia Commons:
Statues
of La Virgen de la Candelaria in Mexico
Wikipedia: Virgin
of Candelaria
Christian Iconography: La
Candelaria
Next: On
the same altar, to the right of the Candelaria, is an "Ecce Homo" santo.
Previous santo
Introduction to Santa Ana del Valle
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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