Santos in Oaxaca's Ancient ChurchesA study of santos in 16th-century and other churches in Oaxaca, Mexico
By Claire and Richard Stracke Funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. In San Juan Teitipac: Christ carrying the Cross |
Christ Carrying the Cross
(?) |
Christ Carrying the Cross (?): Basis for Identification: The
crown of thorns, streaming blood, and purple robe would
be consistent with identifying this as an "Ecce Homo"
(see "Comparable santos," below). But in that
iconographic type the hands are usually crossed at the
chest or waist, whereas this statue's arms seem
positioned for carrying the cross, so it we prefer to
identify this santo as Christ Carrying the Cross. (The
other santos of Christ carrying a cross that we visited
in Oaxaca all had the streaming blood; all but
Cuilapan's had the purple robe, and the crown of thorns
was included on Achiutla's and Zimatlán's.) Site: Church of San
Juan Teitipac. Location: Left of a free-standing retablo along the south wall of the nave (see note). Media and construction: Wood, gesso, paint, fabric robe. Hair: wig. Size: Life-size. Comparable santos in Oaxaca
(carrying the cross): Achiutla,
Cuilapan,
Tlaxiaco,
Yanhuitlán, Zimatlán. External Links: Next: Also
along the south wall, a
crucifix in a glass case Introduction to San Juan Teitipac 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. |