NEW MEXICO Retablo, Nuestro Senora Del Carmen

NEW MEXICO, fine, early & rare :

NUESTRA SENORA DEL CARMEN
“Virgin of the Scapula”; “Our Lady of Mount Carmel”
Retablo, attributed to

PEDRO ANTONIO FRESQUIS (1749- after 1831)
or his Tailler/workshop*
(* considered the earliest santero born in New Mexico, Fresquis is believed to have had apprentices or assistants who worked in a taller, or workshop {1}
Tempera & gesso on hand-adzed pine pane, height 16” x 8” ,
Title painted lower left “del Carmen”

Veneration of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is said to have Old Testament roots. Praying at Mount Carmel , to save Israel from drought, Elijah the prophet saw the answer to his prayers in a cloud that swelled in size. This sign was interpreted as a promise of salvation--from present danger--along with a greater future salvation through a Virgin mother to come.

The New Testament Carmelite order traces its roots to an Old Testament community of hermits on Mount Carmel since the days of the Prophets; by the 1190’s a group of European men, pilgrims or Crusaders, were living in community as a religous order, at the Well of Elijah on Mount Carmel, naming Elijah and the Virgin as their models. The order was renewed when the Virgin appeared to Saint Simon Stock, General of the Order, in 1247 and presented him with the scapula. The Carmelite orders, monks and nuns, spread devotion to the brown scapula “Our Lady’s triple promise to assist us in life and death and to bring us as soon as possible to the gate of Heaven.{2} ”

In this retablo, mother and child each hold a scapula in outstretched hands.

Provenance : Estate of George Thomas Riggs

References
{1} C. Carrillo & T. Steele. A Century of Retablos: The Janice & Dennis Lyon Reed Coll of New Mexico Santos, 1780-1880; Arizona, Phoenix Art Museum and Hudson Hills Press, 2007.
{2} T. Steele. Santos & Saints. Santa Fe, Ancient City Press, 1994 Revised ed.
{3} Wikipedia (Scarf-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religion; Copsey, R et al. Carmel in Britain : studies on the early history of the Carmelite order [1992-2004])

# 1803 ...................................... SOLD