Three-Person Trinity

1750-1800

García, Fray Andrés (active 1747-1779)

Albuquerque, NM, USA, University of New Mexico Art Museum (current location)

This wood sculpture represents the Trinity—the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. In Spanish America, this way of evoking the Trinity, with three, nearly identical bearded men, persisted long after the imagery had been banned by the Pope in the early 17th century.

God the Father sits at the center of the Trinity, he is crowned and his robe bears a small painting of the sun. The figure of Christ is often distinguished by the stigmata. Here, however, he appears at left and holds the staff and wears upon the chest of his robe, the image of a lamb—both attributes of Christ as Good Shepherd. At right the dove upon the Holy Spirit's robe is his common symbol, the one favored to represent him in Europe. It also appears in paintings throughout Spanish America. The ring surrounding the figures refers to the heavens studded with celestial stars. The orb beneath their feet is the earth.

This work has been attributed to a Franciscan friar, Andrés García. He was born in Puebla, Mexico, and sent to New Mexico to work in the missions of northern New Spain in 1747. While it was not necessarily common for friars to create images for their churches, several religious sculptures by García’s hand are known. Today, García is considered a notable carver of small religious statues; at the time he worked, however, his images were not praised by other friars.

Andrés García, who is thought to have created this image, used wood, covered with gesso and paint. This combination of materials represents a popular choice for religious sculptures made in New Mexico in the late 18th century. It measures 16 3/4 x 8 x 6 3/8 in. (42.6 x 20.3 x 15.6 cm).

This sculpture, like many from New Mexico, probably never left the region. Created in northern New Spain, perhaps for a local church, the sculpture today belongs to the collection of the Museum of Art at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Representations of the Trinity as three similar figures had their origins in Europe, and while the iconography fell out of favor there, it survived in Spanish America. This particular image shows how widespread the iconography became—appearing in northern New Spain in the second half of the 18th century. Many religious items for the churches of New Mexico would have been imported from Mexico City, along the Camino Real; others, such as this one, were created by local friars and other sculptors to meet the needs of New Mexico’s missions, churches, and worshippers.

Reproduced courtesy of the Mary Lester Field and Neill B. Field Collection, University of New Mexico Art Museum.

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

Farago, Claire and Donna Pierce, eds. 2006. Transforming Images: New Mexican Santos In-Between Worlds. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.

Walch, Peter. 2001. “Three-Person Trinity.” In University of New Mexico Art Museum: Highlights of the collections. Pp. 29. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Art Museum.