Santas: The Feminine Divine
Created February 2021
By Carol Lopez
The Christian faith’s importance expanded due to the Spanish and Portuguese Viceroyalty, much of the art was influenced by Spanish, Italian, and Flemish Renaissance and Baroque paintings, prints, and sculptures. Throughout Christianity, female saints became models of holiness, emotional and spiritual solidarity. Saints such as St.Theresa, St. Katherine, St.Barbra, St. Lucy, St. Anne, and St. Veronica were popular during the colonial times, which produced varying hybrid and new artworks and devotions throughout the colonies. Latin American’s first female saint was St. Rosa de Lima, a Creole (European born in the viceroyalty), is remembered for her piety, chastity, and iconography of crowned thorn roses. This devotion to female saints and Catholicism as a whole, greatly impacted the daily lives and art production of all the inhabitants in the Spanish and Portuguese viceroyalties, up to revolution to the modern-day. This virtual exhibition explores the cultural, political, social, material, and artistic significance and female sainthood in Latin America from the permanent collection of the International Museum of Science.
Click to View the Virtual Exhibit Below
Presented in collaboration with UTRGV Center for Latin American Arts.
To learn more visit FESTIBA page.
Current Exhibits
The Whole World Is a Garden by Mónica Chang
The Whole World Is a Garden by Monica Chang explores a simplistic idea which could easily be overlooked in [...]
Life in One Cubic Foot
From Central Park to South African shrubland to a coral reef in the South Pacific, Life in One Cubic [...]
Mexican and Latin American Folk Art
The International Museum of Art & Science introduces visitors to a variety of the colorful and powerful pieces from [...]
Virtual Exhibits
Ephemeral Decor: Dia de Muertos Objects
El Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a traditional Mexican celebration centered around the memory of [...]
This is a STEMinist
The International Museum of Art & Science (IMAS) has partnered with McAllen Public Utility (MPU) to address the gender [...]
The Virgin Mary: Art, Materiality, and Piety
By Daniel Ymbong The establishment of the Spanish viceroyalties ushered new popular devotions and art production depicting the Virgin [...]
Santas: The Feminine Divine
By Carol Lopez The Christian faith's importance expanded due to the Spanish and Portuguese Viceroyalty, much of the art [...]
Natural Essence
Ceramics have been around for a long time. They can be created by using different types of clay and [...]
Pollinators in Action
The International Museum of Art & Science (IMAS) is excited to announce the winners of its first community juried [...]
