Jose Dolores Lopez Cordova New Mexico Hand Carved Wooden Virgin Mary Bulto

Unauthorized reproduction or use is strictly prohibited by law.

Dolores’ son, George (1900-1973), carried on Dolores’ legacy until his own death in 1973 and today the Lopez name lives on through multiple succeeding generations of contemporary New Mexico wood carvers following in Dolores’ storied footsteps. Today, Jose Dolores Lopez’s devotional art pieces are important fixtures in the permanent collections of numerous prominent museums such as the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., The Taylor Museum in Colorado Springs and The Museum of International Folk Art, The New Mexico Museum of Art, The Harwood Foundation Museum and The Albuquerque Museum in New Mexico.

This figure is a very beautifully-rendered depiction of The Virgin Mary. She is standing with her hands clasped in prayer in front of her holding a rosary, her customary cloak of the virgin blue cloak wrapped around her shoulders. Her posture is composed and peaceful, her gaze is direct to the point of being spellbinding, her face deeply pious with holy faith. There is a lovely rich, dark, aged color and patination to the hand-carved Aspen or pine wood of the figure which adds to its timeless nature. The quality of the carving and the beauty of all the individual decorative elements and details are simply exquisite and they speak importantly and eloquently to the extraordinary spirit of devotion and dedication in which Lopez originally created and infused this piece.

The Bulto measures 7 1/2" in height and it is 2" in width at its widest point and about 1 1/2" in depth at its deepest. It is in generally very good original condition, particularly for its century-plus of age, with some very small damaged areas.

The very tip of the figure’s nose was broken off some time ago, there is some minor abrasion to the top of the figure’s head and some minor chips along the lower edge of the cloak and a very small breakage to one of the figure’s feet.

These types of small damages might be consistent with some degree of indigenous New Mexico village wear and use.

In the ancient, centuries-old, deeply Hispanic deeply-traditional, isolated high-mountain villages of northern New Mexico, one’s household saint was one’s protector, companion and helper in all aspects of life and if something bad and unexpected or preventable should befall you or a member of your family this misfortunate was sometimes taken out

fairly or unfairly on the family saint.

An exceptionally rare and beautifully hand-carved

wooden devotional figure or “Bulto” of The Virgin Mary

by Jose Dolores Lopez, Cordova, NM, c. 1920-25

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This piece is literally one of the Holy Grails of historic New Mexican Hispanic devotional artwork and Folk Art.

The incredible work of the renowned historic northern New Mexico wood carver, Jose Dolores Lopez (1868-1937),

is among the most difficult of all New Mexico artists to find. Referred to by family members, other artists, friends, neighbors and admirers alike simply as “Dolores”, Lopez was a visionary genius.

A carpenter by trade, he started his artistic wood carving career in a most unusual way in 1917 when he suffered from

a deep depression after his oldest son, Nicudemus, was drafted into the Army for World War One. He was unable to sleep and found that whittling small pieces of wood helped alleviate his insomnia. Lopez was a deeply religious man, a devoted member of the local “Hermandad", or Penitente Brotherhood and he soon began focusing his carving skills on making saints and other religious figures and tableaus, as well as other implements such as church chalices, crosses and other fixtures as well as animals and birds, small pieces of furniture, picture frames and occasionally household doors.

With some help from the promotional assistance of Santa Fe art luminaries Frank Applegate and Mary Austin and their newly-formed Spanish Colonial Arts Society and Spanish Market, Jose Dolores Lopez’s unique, elaborately-detailed style of chip-carved, unpainted wooden Devotional art and other decorative objects quickly created an entirely new and important sub-category of New Mexican Folk Art which is known today as “The Cordova Style” of wood carving after the tiny Northern New Mexico village where Lopez was born, worked, lived his entire life and died.

At left, Jose Dolores Lopez, c. 1930. At right, San Antonio de Padua in Cordova, NM, the Lopez family's village church.

Left photo source and © National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Right photo source and © Joe Vogan Photography.

The Bulto might have been tossed outside onto the woodpile for a few days to “punish” it or an arm or a foot might have been broken from it as a form of penance. Antoher distinct possibility that might explain the wear and small abrasions on the figure as well as the especially rich sort of deep soft patina that comes to wood pieces from being handled extensively is this; frequently, Hispanic villagers would carry their small saint figures with them when they travelled or went about their daily business outside their home for spiritual and physical protection like amulets. These saints were often carried in small leather or hide pouches and taken out and handled and held in the hands extensively. Another possibility is smoke residue from having wax candles burning nearby.

This information is not casual folklore, rumor or inflated legend. It comes from direct and frequent conversations

with one of our longtime personal friends and colleagues who was one of the world’s leading authorities and author on and collectors of New Mexico Devotional artwork, the late Larry Frank, who lived for decades in a “Morada”, or old Penitente Brotherhood Meeting house, in the tiny old Hispanic village of Arroyo Hondo north of Taos and whose unparalleled collection of New Mexico Devotional art now resides in Santa Fe’s Palace of the Governor’s Museum.

The Bulto is unsigned which is not at all uncommon with Dolores’ early work, or possibly the pencil signature on the figure’s base might have worn off over time. It was unquestionably made by Jose Dolores Lopez and has every identifiable characteristic of his uniquely personal style of work. Dolores' true artistic “signature” is completely unmistakable, in the same way that no one could handle paint quite like Leonardo da Vinci, no one could carve wood quite like Jose Dolores Lopez. As a good comparison, see the very similar Jose Dolores Lopez figure shown at center below which does bear the artist's pencil signature.

This is only the sixth Jose Dolores Lopez wood piece we have ever had in the past 40 years of actively looking for them—as we previously mentioned, they are extraordinarily rare and this particular piece is one of the most unique and finely done that we have ever seen. It is a small and precious artistic gem.

Whether it is displayed on a table or a shelf or nicely nestled inside a historic New Mexico tinwork and glass nicho

or in an adobe wall niche, this figure looks out-of-this-world beautiful. It is truly “otherworldly" in its superb artistry, history and devotion; worthy of an honored place in any Fine Art, Ethnographic Art or Folk Art collection, anywhere, and particularly appropriate in New Mexico or elsewhere in the American Southwest.

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