Carved Bulto of the Virgin Mary as a Crowned Madonna [SOLD]

This is a bulto of the Virgin Mary as a Crowned Madonna. A bulto is an image of a saint carved in wood and polychromed made in the southwestern U.S. and Latin America in the 18th and 19th centuries as Hispanic Catholic Devotional Religious Altar Art.  This Spanish Colonial Painted Carved Wood Santo Statue Bulto of Mary originated in Guatemala and its age is not known.

How does an image of the Virgin Mary become a Crowned Madonna?  Information from the Knights of Columbus website states that the practice of placing a crown on the Virgin Mary's head and that of the child Jesus dates to the beginning of the 1600s. To crown a Madonna, one had to carry out a series of formal steps and write a letter to the Vatican, requesting permission to crown an image of Mary that was considered particularly important for worship. Documentation had to demonstrate the history of religious devotion and the occurrence of miraculous events. The Vatican would then examine this documentation before giving its approval to crown the Madonna — a very exclusive privilege.

The last Madonna to be crowned inside the Vatican Basilica was the Polish Madonna, the Madonna of Częstochowa. She was crowned in 2005 just a few hours before the death of Blessed John Paul II, when pilgrims were praying for the dying pope inside the chapel. When the pontiff heard the news, he seemed quite pleased that the coronation took place in his own Polish chapel.  [Columbia Online Edition, Knights of Columbus]

Although this Carved Bulto of the Virgin Mary as a Crowned Madonna has some condition issues, it is quite attractive, and the condition issues do not seem distracting.

Condition: there is paint loss and abrasion, Mary’s small finger is broken, and there are some homemade putty repairs to her robe.

Provenance: this bulto was purchased from Pachamama Gallery of Santa Fe in 2011, without documentation as to its age.  The owner of the gallery made purchases on annual trips to Guatemala.