Abstract

SACRISTAN RAMIREZ, Carolina. Atonement of Christ at the Whipping-Post: Scents, Chants and Novo-Hispanic Paintings. An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2022, vol.44, n.121, pp.91-120.  Epub July 31, 2023. ISSN 0185-1276.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iie.18703062e.2022.121.2793.

In eighteenth-century New Spain, smell and hearing were as import- ant as sight to comprehend the meaning of the depictions of Christ in prison. This article proposes a new reading of paintings based on that subject that highlights the interconnections between those senses during the ejercicio del aposentillo, a collective religious practice aimed at making amends to Christ, that the Mercedarian friar Francisco Javier Herrera describes in the devotional booklet titled Tiernos lamentos. The printed booklet specifies the offering of perfumes and aromatic objects whose symbolic connections with the painting are revealed through singing devotional songs. In that fashion, the ritual favored a process of “activation of the religious images” based on the believers’ involvement. The text also deals with questions related to the persistence and changes in the aposentillo, especially in the nineteenth century.

Keywords : Christ in prison; Divine Prisoner; aromas; devotional songs; Francisco Javier Herrera; New Spain; eighteenth century.