19th C. Spanish Colonial Carved Wood Santos - Corpus Christi & Two Friars

Latin America, Mexico. Three carved wood santos, including a corpus of Christ carved for a crucifix, shown with head inclined and legs bent, and two robed saints in monastic habits with knotted cord belts, each carved with a tonsured head and a collar or cowl at the shoulders. The taller saint shows a darkened, charred surface from exposure to fire, likely from altar candles or a church fire. Figures of this type were carved for church altars and carried in religious processions, and traces of gesso and pigment remain overall. Santos carving spread across the Spanish colonial world, from Mexico and Guatemala to the Andes and the Philippines, as missionary orders required affordable images for parishes far from cathedral workshops. Local santeros carved in soft native woods, coated the surface in gesso, and finished it in polychrome and gilding, often adding glass eyes, wigs, and removable textile vestments. The two cowled figures here, with rope belts and habits, likely represent Franciscan or Dominican saints, Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Anthony of Padua being the most commonly commissioned. Stripped of paint, such figures reveal the sculptor's underlying tool work: the flattened backs, the doweled arms, the economy of cuts that suggests a full body beneath cascading cloth. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 204262

Estimate:$250

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