'Los Penitentes'
Brandon Maldonado
oil + acrylic on wood
22 x 11"
 
Los Penitentes
This is a piece about the Hermanos Penitentes. At the bottom left I depicted the style of wardrobe worn by Penitentes in Taxco, Mexico. To his right is a Penitente dressed in a style which is more typical to brothers of Northern New Mexico. While he is shown with a cactus pad on his back, a method of penance in which the cactus needles would inflict paint on the practitioner, this is something more common to Mexican Penitentes. The central image of God the Father is referencing a few odd depictions by the Classic period santero known as Molleno. In more than one case, Molleno painted a baby Jesus with a beard, symbolically representing him as a child in his father’s arms but with the recognizable bearded face of the adult Jesus Christ. The winged depiction of God the Father is also an odd depiction and is something not part of the accepted traditional iconography but can be found in a side altar at the Santuario de Chimayo.