These representations of religious personages are called santos, and their makers, santeros. Flat panel paintings are known locally as retablos, while sculptured forms are bultos. George Kubler, distinguished art historian at Yale, suggests that bultos, because of their greater dimensional realism, are more popular than planar retablos with the Hispanos.[62] Supporting this theory is the fact that bultos in the Abiquiú moradas outnumber prints and retablos two to one.
Perhaps the most distinctive three-dimensional image in any morada is not a santo by definition, but a unique figure that represents death (la muerte). Also known as La Doña Sebastiana, her image clearly marks a building as a penitente sanctuary. Personifying death with a sculptured image and dragging her cart to a cemetery called calvario, the penitentes of New Mexico reflect the sense of fate common to Spanish-speaking cultures, the recognition that death is life's one personal certainty.[63] The figure of death in the east morada hangs in the corner at the rear of the oratory. Placed outside for examination, this muerte (Figure 32) presents a flat, oval face with blank eyes. The black gown and bow and arrow are typical of muerte figures.[64] Turning toward the altar (Figure 11), one sees that death is outnumbered by images of hope and compassion: Jesus, His mother, and the saints who intercede for man.
On the lower step of the altar appear a host of small, commercial products, mostly crucifixes, in plaster, plastic, and cheap metal alloys as well as numerous glass cups for candles. Above the upper ledge (gradin) appear five locally made images of Jesus crucified, El Cristo.[65] At the side of this central Cristo (Figure 33) hangs a small angel, angelito, which traditionally held a chalice to catch blood from the spear wound. Other Cristos, at the Taylor Museum in Colorado Springs and at the Museum of New Mexico (McCormick Collection A.7.49-24) in Santa Fe, repeat the weightless corpus and stylized wounds used by the anonymous santero who, after 1850, made these bultos.
Figure 32. Death (la muerte). Size: 76.2 centimeters high. Date: Early 20th century. Origin: New Mexico, unidentified santero. Location: East morada, back of oratory. Manufacture: Carved and whitewashed wood, glass eyes and wood teeth, dressed in black fabric with white lace border, bow and arrow.
Figure 33. Crucifix with Angel (Cristo and angelito). Size: cross 139.7 centimeters high. Date: Fourth quarter of 19th century. Origin: New Mexico, unidentified santero. Location: East morada, center of altar. Manufacture: Carved wood gessoed and painted, over-painted in oil; crown of thorns, rosaries, crucifix; wooden plank, H-shape platform; black cross with iNRi plaque; angelito with white cotton skirt.
Additional Cristo figures appear on the convergent walls of the east morada sanctuary. There are two pairs, large and small, perhaps dating as late as 1900, one pair to the right (Figures 34, 35), the other, on the Gospel side (plates 36, 37).
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