COLLECTION NAME:
Santo Collection
Record
Creator display:
Brito, Frank Sr. (American santero, 1922-2004)
Creator note:
SCAS Master's Award for Lifetime Achievement, 1996 (woodcarving)
Creator role:
creator
Date display:
1992 circa
Title:
Santa Librada
Title:
Saint Liberata
Title:
Saint Uncumber
Title:
Saint Wilgefortis
Description:
Crucified female figure with dark hair, wearing a black robe over a white dress with a green and red decorative motif.
Note Fr. Steele:
"[Brito] was awarded the Master's Award for Lifetime Achievement, Spanish Market 1996."|Articles: Tradicion Revista 2/4 p.92; 3/4 p. 1
Inscription:
Incised in back: Frank Brito|Label affixed to back: St Librada / Help cure the sick / Was crucified by / Unbelievers. / Hand carved -Pinewood / Frank Brito
Location name:
New Mexico
Materials display:
paint on carved wood (plant material)
Material name:
paint
Material name:
wood (plant material)
Source name:
Thomas J. Steele, S.J.: The Regis University Collection of New Mexico and Colorado Santos.
Subject term:
Wilgefortis (Legendary saint)
Work type:
bultos
Work type:
sculpture (visual works)
Exhibition note:
Denver, CO: Museo de las Americas, Feb-June 2007.
Acquisition note:
1992
Accession number:
RU0164
Measurements display:
49.8 x 29 x 7 cm
Santo Subject:
Santa Librada (Saint Liberata, Kümmernis, Uncumber, or Wilgefortis)
Santo Subject Type:
Female Saints
Feast Day:
July 20
Patronage:
Patronage: A penitential saint for women.
Note:
Reputedly the daughter of a Portuguese king, one of nine sisters born of a single birth, she wished to devote herself to Christ; her father, who at first had tried to kill all nine and subsequently wanted to marry them off to his advantage, was somewhat thwarted when Librada grew a beard, so he had her crucified. The whole tale grew up, it seems, from a misinterpretation of an early-medieval clothed crucified Christ; see Hippolyte Delahaye, The Legends of the Saints (1961; original 1907); Roland Dickey, New Mexico Village Arts (1949), p. 157; José E. Espinosa, Saints in the Valleys (1967; original 1960), pp. 93-94. A crucified woman in long robes, with a hood or long hair; in New Mexico she never sports a beard, unfortunately.
Rights text:
IN COPYRIGHT - EDUCATIONAL USE PERMITTED