Santo-bulto
Medium
watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite on paper
Dimensions
overall: 56.2 x 40.6 cm (22 1/8 x 16 in.) Original IAD Object: Figure: 30 1/2"high; base 11/16"thick
Classification
Index of American Design
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Index of American Design
Accession Number
1943.8.6926
Art Historical Context
**Santo-bulto** is a captivating 1938 rendering by Eldora P.ini, part of the esteemed Index of American Design (IAD). Created in watercolor, colored pencil, graphite on paper (56.2 x 40.6 cm), it documents a traditional *santo-bulto*—a carved wooden figure of a saint, rooted in Spanish colonial folk art traditions of the American Southwest, particularly New Mexico. The original stands 30 1/2 inches high on a 11/16-inch-thick base, evoking the devotional wooden statues venerated in Hispanic Catholic communities. Lorenzini's work emerged from the IAD, a Federal Art Project under the Works Progr...