19th C. Guatemalan Wooden Figures - Animas Solas (pr)

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Fine Antiquities / Asian / Ethnographic Art

By Artemis Gallery

Aug 30, 2018

Set Reminder 2018-08-30 10:00:00 2018-08-30 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Fine Antiquities / Asian / Ethnographic Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/fine-antiquities-asian-ethnographic-art-3402
Featuring classical antiquities, Asian, ancient and ethnographic art from cultures encompassing the globe, plus fine art. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Latin America, Guatemala, ca. 19th century CE. A beautiful pair of matched, hand-carved wooden figures, each depicting a standing, praying figure who has his/her lower body engulfed in flames. One figure is male with a handsome beard and a balding head, and the other is a woman with a delicate face and long brown locks of hair. Nude save for their conflagrant clothing, each figure boasts a pair of stunningly naturalistic glass eyes, hand-painted with hues of white, topaz, and black, and set inside the faces before being adhered to the rest of the head, with faint white paint trails imitating tears. The figures are painted in naturalistic tones of beige and dark-brown, with hues of red, orange, and yellow comprising the surrounding serpentine flames. A gorgeous set of finely-crafted religious statues! Size of largest (male): 4.5" W x 8.25" H (11.4 cm x 21 cm).
  
  These carvings represent two figures from "Las Cruz de Animas" or the Cross of Souls. The figures are known as "las animas solas" (or lonesome departed ancestral souls) pleading for salvation while awaiting judgment in the flames of purgatory. These souls are a poignant example of religious art representing a subject that was a popular cult of devotion throughout Mexico and Central America during the 19th century.
  
  Santos played an important role in bringing the Catholic Church to the New World with the Spanish colonists. These religious figures were hand-carved and often furnished with crowns, jewels, and other accessories, usually funded by religious devotees, and were used as icons to explain the major figures - Mary, Christ, and the saints - to new, indigenous converts. Likewise, they served as a connection to the Old World for Spanish colonists far from home. They became a folk-art tradition in the Spanish New World, from modern day Guatemala to as far north as New Mexico and Colorado. Many of them were lovingly cared for over the years, with repairs and paint added as they aged, and played an active part for a long time in the religious life of their communities.
  
  Provenance: ex-private Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA collection; ex-Ron Messick collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #138115

  Condition

  Female has loss to one finger. Both figures have surface wear and abrasions commensurate with age, small chips to pigmentation on bodies and flames, some nicks to flames, arms, ears, bodies, and heads, with fading to some areas of pigmentation. Light earthen deposits throughout. Old inventory labels beneath base of male figure.
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