Carved Penitente Processional By Marco Oviedo

Marco Oviedo, Chimayo, NM

Wood, Paints | Item 2051

Here we see a storyteller by Marco Oviedo, showing a penitentes procession during Holy week. Self flagellation is represented by one figure and the death cart being carried by another figure. The Hermanos Penitentes were a religious brotherhood which flourished in the mountain villages of northern New Mexico from the mid-eighteenth to the late-nineteenth century. The figures are all hand cut out of wood and then painted. Everything is pegged onto a base board that looks like the undulating actual ground. Notice the oversized hands of the leader in black clothing. These exaggerations help to carry the energy of the piece.