Color print
- Museum number:
- 13-6753
- Permalink:
- ark:/21549/hm21130006753
- Alternate number:
- 13-5888
- Accession number:
- Acc.4724
- Description:
- color photographic print; matted "San Dimas, the "good thief," in the Good Friday procession; March 24, 1978." [matted at PAHMA for exhibition]
- Donor:
- George M. Foster
- Collection place:
- Tzintzuntzan, Michoacán, Mexico
- Verbatim coll. place:
- Mexico, Michoacan, Tzintzuntzan
- Collector:
- George M. Foster
- Collection date:
- March 24, 1978
- Materials:
- Paper (fiber product)
- Object type:
- ethnography
- Object class:
- Color prints (photographs)
- Accession date:
- October 11, 2001
- Department:
- Still and motion photography
- Dimensions:
- matted— height 50.8 centimeters, photo— width 27.9 centimeters, photo— height 35.5 centimeters, and matted— width 40.7 centimeters
- Comment:
- La Soledad, like all Mexican churches and chapels, contains a number of images and pictures of saints, the Virgin, and of Christ. . . . According to tradition, just when La Soledad was completed a horse wandered into the atrium bearing the figure [of Santo Entierro, the most revered of the Christ images], its drivers having become lost. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, the priest placed the image in the newly completed chapel and asked no questions. Subsequently a commission arrived from Pátzcuaro to explain that the image had been destined for one of their churches, and credentials having been properly established, permission was granted for the removal. But when the Pátzcuareños tried to lift it it became so heavy that they could not budge it. During subsequent years others tried to move the image, with the same results. But, curiously, the Tzintzuntzeños were able to carry it about in their processions with the greatest of ease, all of which showed clearly that God had intended the image for Tzintzuntzan, and that it was divine will that guided the steps of the wandering animal. . . . Finally, one on each side of the entry door, are two large crosses to which are permanently impaled life-size wooden figures, nude except for blue silk shorts held up with elastic waist bands. These are the images of the thieves crucified with Christ on Calvary, and are used in the Easter Week celebrations. That to the right of the door is San Dimas, and that to the left, San Gestas (1948)."