Nativity from Oaxaca

Nativity from Oaxaca

Guillermina Aguilar Alcantar

Octolán de Morelas, Oaxaca, Mexico

Painted clay

The clay figures in this colorful Nativity were all hand formed by Guillermina Aguilar Alcantar. Alcantar comes from a family of famous Mexican potters. She has received numerous awards for her art and was featured, together with her sister Irene, in the book Grandes Maestros del Arte Popular Mexicano (Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art) by Candida Fernandez De Calderon. Mary holds a small blanket for the Christ Child, who wears a loin cloth. The blanket has an incised design in the center—perhaps a rose, one of the symbols commonly associated with Mary. Joseph holds a white flower, possibly a lily, an emblem that originated from a story in Jacobus de Voragine’s 13th-century book, The Golden Legend. A winged angel dressed all in white, perhaps the angel Gabriel, holds a distinctive staff, and wears a headpiece with an incised cross or star-like design at the center.

On loan from the Knights of Columbus Museum, Inc. Collection, New Haven, Connecticut