bore images of Yankee ships, eagles, and likenesses of 

 Franklin and Washington). A fourth piece of local 

 tinwork (Figure 31) in the east morada oratory is a 

 niche for a small figure of the Holy Child of Atocha, 

 Santo Nino dc Atocha. This advocation of Jesus, like 

 that of His mother in the Guadalupe image, further 

 indicates Mexican influence. ''' The image of the 

 Atocha is a product of local craftsmanship. 



These representations of religious personages are 

 called Santos, and their makers, \anteros. Flat panel 

 paintings are known locally as rctahlos, while sculp- 

 tured forms are hultos. George Kubler, distinguished 

 art historian at Yale, suggests that bultos, because of 

 their greater dimensional realism, are more popular 

 than planar retablos with the Hispanosf'- Supporting 

 this theory is the fact that bultos in the Abiquiii 

 moradas outnumber prints and retablos two to one. 



Perhaps the most distinctive three-dimensional 

 image in any morada is not a santo by definition, but 

 a unique figure that represents death [la muerte) . Also 

 known as La Dona Scbastiana, her image clearly marks 

 a building as a penitente sanctuary. Personifying death 

 with a sculptured image and dragging her cart to a 

 cemetery called calvario, the pcnitentes of New Mexico 

 reflect the sense of fate common to Spanish-speaking 

 cultures, the recognition that death is life's one personal 

 certainty.''^ The figure of death in the east morada 

 hangs in the corner at the rear of the oratory. Placed 

 outside for examination, this muerte (Figure 32) 

 presents a flat, oval face with blank eyes. The black 

 gown and bow and arrow are typical of muerte fig- 

 ures.'''^ Turning toward the altar (Figure i I'l , one sees 



61. Stephen Borhegvi, El Santuario de Chimayo (Santa 

 Fc, 1956) ; also E. Boyd, Saints and Saint Makers (Santa 

 Fe, 1946), pp. 126-132. 



62. George Kubler, in Santos: An Exhibition of the Reli- 

 gious Folk Art of New Mexico with an Essay by George 

 Kubler (Fort Worth. Tex.: /Xmon Carter Museum of Western 

 An, June 1964). 



63. A fuller discussion of the penitente death cart and 

 further illustrations are found in Mitchell .\. Wilder and 

 Edgar Breitenb.ach, Santos: The Religious Folk Art of Neu 

 Mexico (Colorado Springs, 1943), pi. 30 and text. Relevant 

 to this study is the death cart with immobile wheels recorded 

 by Henderson, p. 32 [see ftn. 64]. as having been used in 

 processions before 1919. It is likely that this is the same cart 

 described above in the storage room of the east morada (Fig- 

 ure 22) ; it is important because its measurements and con- 

 struction details are nearly identical to the death cart in the 

 collections of the Museum of New Mexico, reputed to have 

 come from Abiquiii. 



64. Alice Corbin Henderson, Brothers of Light (Chi- 

 cago, 1962), p. 32, describes a muerte figure: chalk-white 

 face, obsidian eyes, black outfit. 



that death is outnumbered by images of hope and com- 

 passion: Jesus. His mother, and the saints who inter- 

 cede for man. 



On the lower step of the altar appear a host of small, 

 commercial products, mostly crucifixes, in plaster, 

 plastic, and cheap metal alloys as well as numerous 

 glass cups for candles, .■\bove the upper ledge (gradin) 

 appear five locally made images of Jesus crucified. El 

 Cristo.'^'^ At the side of this central Cristo (Figure 33) 

 hangs a small angel, angelito, which traditionally held 

 a chalice to catch blood from the spear wound. Other 

 Cristas, at the Taylor Museum in Colorado Springs 

 and at the Museum of New Mexico (McCormick 

 Collection A. 7. 49-24) in Santa Fe, repeat the weight- 

 less corpus and stylized wounds used by the anonymous 

 ^antero who, after 1850, made these bultos. 



.\dditional Cristo figures appear on the convergent 

 walls of the east morada sanctuary. There are two 

 pairs, large and small, perhaps dating as late as 1900, 

 one pair to the right (Figures 34, 35) , the other, on the 

 Gospel side ( plates 36, 37 ) . 



To the far left stands an important image: the 

 scouraged Jesus (Figure 38) prominent in penitente 

 activity as "Our Father Jesus the Nazarene" (Nuestro 

 Padre Jesus Nazareno) . By 1918, Alice Corbin Hender- 

 son '"■'"' reports, this same figure appeared in penitente 

 Holy Week processions at Abiquiu. She claims it was 

 made originally for the Mission of Santo Tomas. E. 

 Boyd points out stylistic traits shared by this Abiquiu 

 bulto and the rctablo figures in the San Jose de Chama 

 Chapel at nearby Hernandez, which was the work of 

 santero Rafael Aragon, active from 1829 to after 

 1855.'"'" Symbolic of man's physical suffering, the image 

 of the Jesus Nazareno is essential to penitente enact- 

 ments of the Passion. 



On the left side of the east morada altar, two carved 

 images represent the grieving mother of Jesus as "Our 

 Lady of ,Sorrows" (Nucstra Scnora de los Dolores), 

 one image (Figure 39) in pink equipped with her 

 attribute, a dagger: the other (Figure 40), like many 

 processional figures, has been constructed by draping a 

 pyramidal frame of four sticks with gesso-dipped cloth, 



65. E. BovD, "Crucifix in Santero Art," El Palacio, vol. LX, 

 no. 3 (March 1953), pp. 112-115. indicates the significance 

 of this image form. 



66. He.nderson, pp. 13 (red gown, blindfolded, flowing 

 black hair), 26 (red gown, bound hands, made for mission), 

 and 43-46 (tall, almost life size, blindfolded, carried on 

 small platform in procession from lower [east] morada, horse- 

 hair rope). 



67. Boyd, in litt., Nov. 13, 1965. 



138 



BULLETIN 250: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



