Santa Rita de Casia

NameRetablo

Artist Artist unrecorded

Place collectedNew Mexico, United States, North America

MediumTempera, gesso, pine wood

Dimensions18.5 to 19 cm x 13 cm, 1 cm thick

Credit LineMuseum of International Folk Art, Gift of the Historical Society of New Mexico, A5.1952.74

Object numberA5.1952.74

ProvenancePurchased with a lot of retablos from Julius Gans.

DescriptionFigure has usual black habit with torpedo sleeves and usual attributes, plus the red stigmata mark on her forehead, often omitted from New Mexican santos of this Saint. Homely, oversized head has fine red lines between brows and lower rim of upper eyelids. Background is unusual in that it is solidly painted in red instead of having a border and light background. Further, the red area is not filled with flat color, but instead was brushed in small strokes (easily done in using tempera over yeso but seldom seen), in varied tones of red and yellow. This impressionist painting makes the background vibrate instead of being flat. It may have been done to produce an effect of rays of light, or even of drapery as strokes at both sides of panel are vertical while at top they are in a shallow horizontat curve, ending in right and left upper corners from which other strokes fan out to meet the lower verticals; the usual course of the painted swags on many retablos.