San Paciencia
Church of San Juan TeitipacOaxaca, Mexico
Wood, gesso, paint; fabric clothing; painted eyes, sculpted hair; approximately 2 feet tall.
Christ at Passiontide, identified for us by our local informant, Sr. Hilario Lopez, as "San Paciencia." (Seated, cheek on hand, in white cotton trousers, dun cape, red rag on head, blood on face as if dripping from forehead).
The church has two exemplars of San Paciencia. They resemble the Dios de la Peña of Tilantongo, Tlacolula, and Tlacochahuaya but differ in several important respects. The Tlacolula, Tilantongo, and Tlacochahuaya figures represent Christ after his torture -- seated, like the San Paciencias, with the right elbow resting on the thigh and the right cheek resting on the right hand. But those figures wear royal capes, the crown of thorns (idealized as an embroidered headband in the case of Tilantongo), and pants of fine material, whereas the clothing of the San Paciencias emphasizes humble poverty.
Like the similarly named Cristo de la Paciencia in Pamplona, Spain, the San Paciencias in Teitipac have a rope yoke hanging from the neck.
The left hand has lost its index finger and the tip of the pinkie. The paint has flaked away from the heel and half the arch of the left foot. The fingers of the right hand are fused, as are the middle fingers of the left. The underlining of the eyes is red. The work suggests a village artist.
More of the Passion
Photo: Claire and Richard Stracke. This photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.