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Our Lady of the Winter Snows by Cristina Acosta Retablo of oil, ceramic mosaic and sterling silver metal leaf with 22kt gold on vintage wood panel. This detail is of the Marian figure as a young indigenous Native American woman who is an integral part of creation, melding with natural landscape and the cycles of life. |
Artist Commentary
The term Marian figure denotes a religious female icon based on Mary, the mother of Jesus (the Christ figure of Christianity). Marian figures are often referred to by name or by the terms Our Lady of... and the Virgin (La Virgen), or the Madonna.
Historically Marian figures accompanied the Spanish when they invaded, immigrated to or settled in a new land bringing their Roman Catholic Christian religious images with them. Those religious images would blend over decades and centuries with the images of the feminine divine that the indigenous people already venerated, often morphing into a "new" Madonna that visually blended the Spanish culture with the existing indigenous (usually conquered) culture.
For centuries the Spanish believed that converting non-Christians to Roman Catholic Christianity was of the highest value. When the Spanish first came to North America in the 1500s, they were financed by a crown anxious to earn both souls and resources for the Spanish empire.
The Guadalupe and La Conquistadora are the most famous of the North American Madonnas. Both of them have a rich history textured with many versions told of their beginnings and the miracles and blessings they have conferred upon their devotees. Since history is mostly "written by the winners," understanding the layers of history, culture and spirituality that comprise the biography of a particular Madonna requires research, respect and sometimes creative leaps of faith or intuition to find missing pieces of the story or to find the way through obscured passages to deeper truths.
