Monja Coronada

Some of the most complex texts of female colonial lives in New Spain are recordings of nuns. In that era, women were not encouraged to work or write because of New Spain's hierarchical caste system. (1) Because of this, convents offered democratized education sources for women. Today, the texts produced in that era are a window to colonial life and traditions. From the sixteenth century through the eighteenth century, it was an honor for families to have at least one family member give their life to God. (2) This environment led to the creation of traditional ecclesiastical portraits like "Crowned Nun" paintings. (3)

Crowned nun paintings depict their sitters in either sober or intricate regalia to commemorate their devout life. Sometimes the portraits were commissioned by wealthy families when the female family members promised the start of their religious profession, and they were commissioned again upon their death bed. (4) In other cases, the congregations created them to honor the life of an honorable nun, to celebrate an anniversary or a martyrdom. These paintings were often the only memory families owned of their daughters before they left to start their lives in a secluded convent. (5)

The sculpture "Monja Coronada" by Susana Ramos Honold is a modern representation of Colonial New Spain's crowned nun paintings at the moment of their death bed. Notice the materials of the sculpture. Some of the fabric and trim are part of blessed colonial regalia chosen and sculpted by the artist. Among the many treasures this piece encompasses, located at the bottom of the sculpture, in the cartouche, there are colonial letters from anonymous nuns addressed to God that the artist discovered by dismantling an antique pal from a chalice set of a Mexican colonial church. These beautiful nun letters hidden in the pal, profess the love and fervor of nuns to God and the importance of their unseen actions as offerings for eternal life.

Like the nuns living in service to God, the sculptures of Susana Honold Ramos display intricate details and innumerable textures that are a delight to the viewer. Her display of the Crowned Nun lying on her death bed is not only a portrayal of the death of a life of service but of a life blooming into another life. With the multiple flowers, the artist portrays both death and rebirth, a promise that catholic nuns seek, knowing that they will attain eternal life with their savior one day. It is no wonder that among the many blossoms chosen in the piece, the artist assigned in the hand of the sculpture, blossoms from the bridal headdresses of three faithful generations from her family: Rosela Vázquez de Ramos (the artist's mother), Susana Ramos de Honold (the artist), and Susana Honold Ramos de Margain (the artist's daughter).

Footnotes:
1. Toquica, María Constanza . Linaje, crédito y salvavión: Los movimientos de la economía espiritual del convento de Santa Clara en Santafé de Bogotá. Monjas Coronadas: Vida conventual femenina en Hispanoamérica, INAH, Museo Nacional del Virreinato. 2003, pp. 102.

2. Ibid.

3. Montero Alarcón, Alma. Pinturas de monjas coronadas en Hispanoamérica. Monjas Coronadas: Vida conventual femenina en Hispanoamérica, INAH, Museo Nacional del Virreinato. 2003, pp. 54.

4. Ibid., pp. 50.

5. Ibid.

References:
Montero Alarcón, Alma. Pinturas de monjas coronadas en Hispanoamérica. Monjas Coronadas: Vida conventual femenina en Hispanoamérica, INAH, Museo Nacional del Virreinato. 2003, pp. 50-66.

Toquica, María Constanza . Linaje, crédito y salvavión: Los movimientos de la economía espiritual del convento de Santa Clara en Santafé de Bogotá. Monjas Coronadas: Vida conventual femenina en Hispanoamérica, INAH, Museo Nacional del Virreinato. 2003, pp. 100-115.