Our Lady of Carmen

1600-1700

Name(s) currently unknown

La Paz, BOL, Casa de Murillo (current location)

This small sculpture shows the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel, identifiable by her clothing. At her feet are the souls of two figures in Purgatory, pleading for her intercession so that they might ascend to Heaven.

Mary is a dressed figure, her body being essentially an armature for clothing. The only parts that are highly finished are her head and pegged hands. For the visible parts of her body, the artist used an elaborate painting technique called encarnación, which mimics the complex coloration of human skin. One of the hands was broken off in the past, and has been replaced with a much cruder one. As Our Lady of Carmen, the Virgin wears a brown tunic and white veil and carries a tiny scapular, which are connected badges worn on the body by the devout. The elaborately worked clothing would have been replaced when it grew old or worn. At her feet, the naked figures represent souls in purgatory, praying to Mary for their release into heaven.

This is a composite work of wood, maguey, gesso, paint, embroidered textiles. The figures’ bodies would have been made of wood and maguey—both probably local materials, then covered with gesso and paint. The clothing of the Virgin, here embroidered with gold and silver thread and stitched with sequins, would have been replaced from time to time (when it was old or in need of repair). Her crown and jewelry could also have be changed. Images of this type, depicting saints, angels, Christ and the Virgin Mary, were common in Bolivia in the late 17th and into the 18th centuries.

Viewers of this sculpted group were meant to identify with the naked, pleading souls. At the time the sculpture was made, Catholics believed that most souls spent some time in an otherworld called Purgatory, a place between heaven and hell, atoning for their worldly sins, before being allowed to dwell in heaven.

Reproduced courtesy of the Museo Casa Murillo, La Paz

Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.

Palmer, Gabrielle. 1987. Sculpture in the Kingdom of Quito. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press.

Palmer, Gabrielle. 1993. La escultura en la Audiencia de Quito. Quito: Municipio de Quito.