The
Christ
Child, possibly a home-made rendering of the Santo
Niño de Atocha:
The flat-topped red hat has a gold band and
is held to the chin by a string. The hair is waist-length
and brown. The figure carries a basket and sits on a red
chair in a capacious off-white robe embroidered in gold,
with three gold buttons at the neck.
Basis for Identification: This
appears to be the Santo Niño de Atocha, who is
typically represented seated on a chair, with long hair,
a broad-brimmed hat, a basket in one hand and a
traveler's staff in the other. Here
we
have no staff, but the right hand is curled as if to
hold one.
It is also just possible that this
could be the Virgin Mary: the hair is much longer than
the Niño
figure's usually shoulder-length style; the hat is gaily
colored (the Niño's is usually
brown) and is consistent with the broad-brimmed hats on
adult Virgin Mary statues in Achiutla,
Yanhuitlán,
and Xoxocotlán,
all of which also wear white.
Site: Church of San Juan Bautista
Coixtlahuaca.
Location: In a
glass case set into the bottom center of the retablo in
the second bay in the north wall of the nave
(see note).
Media and construction: Wood,
gesso,
paint, fabric robe, wooden chair.
Eyes: glass, with lashes. Hair: wig.
Size: About 12 inches (30 cm.)
Comparable santos in Oaxaca: Achiutla
(with Sacred Heart), Coixtlahuaca2,
Huitzo
(boy, not infant), Teotitlán, Yanhuitlán1
(in case with crucifix), Yanhuitlán2.
External Links:
Google Images: Santo
Niño
de Atocha
Wikipedia: Santo
Niño
de Atocha
Next: In
the same retablo, a
statue of a female saint who may be St. Lucy.
Previous santo
Introduction to San Juan Bautista
Coixtlahuaca
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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