Art

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1996.91.36_1b.jpg (19657 bytes)Felipe de la Espada
San Benito Abad (Saint Benedict the Abbott)
about 1770–1818
painted cedar with glass
34 1/4 x 16 1/4 x 13 3/4 in.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Teodoro Vidal Collection



The influence of European sculpture is evident in the heavy robes, wrinkled skin, and flowing beard of this figure, whose glass eyes render him especially lifelike. The artist, a Puerto Rican of African ancestry, became one of the most respected santeros in colonial Puerto Rico. He probably made this carving of the sixth-century founder of the Benedictine order for a church in the southwestern part of the island near San Germán where he worked.



La influencia europea es evidente en el pesado ropaje, la piel surcada de arrugas y la larga barba de esta talla, cuyos ojos de cristal le dan un aspecto especialmente realista. El artista, puertorriqueño de ascendencia africana, llegó a ser uno de los santeros más respetados del Puerto Rico colonial. Es probable que esta imagen del monje del siglo VI, fundador de la orden benedictina, fuera un encargo para una iglesia del sudoeste de la isla, cerca de San Germán, donde tenía su taller.

 

Copyright © 2001- , Terry Muse 
Revised: January 17, 2002
URL: http://black_and_hispanic.tripod.com/hispanichistory/
Contact: Terry Muse