I’m so glad I didn’t miss this museum! It is in a rambling adobe house (built room by room, according to the former owners’ whims and needs) and is chock-full of several different collections — Navajo and Pueblo jewelry, Pueblo pottery (including prehistoric), Hopi and Zuni kachina dolls, textiles, basketry, historic and contemporary santos (religious images) and much more.
Millicent Rogers herself, who began the collection, was a fascinating, beautiful, and obviously very talented woman. Like Mabel Dodge Luhan and Helene Wurlitzer, she seems to have been “called” by the high desert landscape and the spiritual qualities of this place. She died at the age of 50, after a life plagued by illness. A letter she wrote to her son Paul, just before her death, in which she tells him not to mourn because she feels her commitment to the New Mexico earth will only bring her closer to heaven, is among the most tender and eloquent pieces of writing I have ever read. Another of my favorite things at the museum was a selection of her own illustrations of a Hans Christian Andersen tale, which she did for her children.
Within a room of retablos (images on wooden boards) and bultos (free-standing religious images) was this rather gruesome representation of Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno:
According to the accompanying label, this and other images of Our Father Jesus the Nazarene were produced for use by the confraternity of Los Hermanos Penitentes. The figures have moveable joints at the shoulders and elbows so that they can be placed in different positions. These images are part of the ritual re-enactments during Holy Week, and dressed in appropriate garments during the rest of the liturgical year.
I’m not sure if this one is wearing Holy Week garb or other “appropriate garments.”
Interesting that they are all women. And I think this Jesus looks very Feminine.
Hmmm…with that black beard? Michael, maybe you have been celibate for too long! Hurry up and come to New Mexico!
[…] Millicent Rogers and her museum motherwit – March 28, 2007 […]