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La Virgen del Carmen
Cuilapan, Oaxaca,
Mexico
La Virgen
del
Carmen (Child,
scapulars, bib, crown; white garments).
Wood, gesso, paint.
Bald beneath wig, glass eyes, closed mouth; fabric
garments; approximately 5 feet tall.
This Carmen is different from the traditional and the statue may
originally
have represented a different saint. The garments are not brown but
white
brocade trimmed in gold; yet the bib, reaching to mid-calf, marks them
as unquestionably the Carmen garments. Only the virgin has a scapular;
traditionally both figures have one. Finally, the fine features and
sheen
of the face make the statue seem older than other Carmens.
In the same
case
is a small
statue kneeling at the virgin's feet. it is of a full-bearded male
dressed
in polyester garments. It wears a white veil held on with a round coil
such as is depicted in modern Biblical illustrations. It wears a green,
collared robe and a long gold wrap in apparent imitation of the robe
and
mantle of the older, larger statue that stands to the right of the case
and which we identify as Saint Joseph. This would make the glass case a
niche for the Holy Family.
Photographed at the
site by Claire and Richard Stracke
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