Xil Buffone, the plastic artist who had already dedicated a light-sound installation to her seven years ago, has just presented a new portrait-standard of who will be the first Argentine saint, who Pope Francis will canonize on February 11.
Pope Francis will canonize on February 11 in San Pedro the Argentine blessed María Antonia de Paz y Figueroa, known as Mama Antula. She will then be the first Argentine saint. A little less than a year ago, with a painting of Antula next to Cura Brochero (already sanctified) and their donkeys, The artist Xil Buffone (1966) won a prize at the XIII Biennial of Sacred Art. And these days he has just finished a portrait of Antula that draws attention to her extraordinary beauty.
Although Argentine religious art recognizes antecedents in the 17th and 18th centuries, there are not many artists dedicated to the genre. Among them are Alfredo Guttero, Norah Borges, Miguel Carlos Victorica or Santiago García Sáenz. At the end of the 90s, Buffone was painting frescoes in churches with Hernán Molina, when a scholar of the lives of the saints appeared in Lanús. “His name was Gerardo Di Fazio,” explains the artist, “and he took us to the Holy House of Spiritual Exercises for the first time. There they gave us some books about Mama Antula and We were dazzled by that woman from the 1700s whose achievements seemed impossible. She was not secluded like the vast majority of nuns, she went out to preach. Di Fazio asked us to paint Mama Antula, her image from today… then he died and the order was cut short… or let’s say, it was delayed…”
With an idea from Di Fazio, in 1997 the film “Antula” was filmed at the Archdiocesan Television Center. The protagonist of this story was born in Santiago del Estero in 1730. And her life is linked to the moment when she became aware of the importance of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and decided to spread them. In 1767, when the Jesuits, responsible for the educational task and the practice of the Spiritual Exercises, were expelled from the Viceroyalty, the reductions were closed and Antula, who had assisted them for 22 years, She took to the roads determined to make the word of God known. So she arrived walking, always barefoot, to Jujuy. And after a long pilgrimage on foot, where one of her companions dies after being attacked by a puma, He settled in Buenos Aires. All his efforts finally paid off. The bishop granted him permission to found the House of Spiritual Exercises, important determination if one takes into account Antula’s devotion to the Company of Jesus, expelled from the kingdom. There she would die at the age of 69, after having achieved her mission. Like another miracle, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, open and free, continue to be held since 1789 in the same place, in the oldest house in Buenos Aires that has continued with the same function since it was created on Avenida Independencia.
Xil Buffone is an artist and art chronicler, she studied at the National University of Rosario, is based in Buenos Aires, is a teacher at the Summa Institute and the Rojas Cultural Center and curator of the Juan Pablo Renzi archive. Her outspoken adoration of Antula was strengthened when she met the curator and theorist Cecilia Bendinella. “She had just written an article for a university in Barcelona where she compared Hildegard Von Bingen, a medieval German abbess, with Mama Antula. And she proposed that I do something from art in the Holy House of Spiritual Exercises on the occasion of her beatification, in August 2016.” There, Buffone created a light-sound installation, “The Vision of Mama Antula.”, an electric votive offering, with music by Germán Cancián and technical editing by Sandro Masroni. When the exhibition ended, which involved the viewer in the artistic configuration, Xil Buffone left a portrait of Antula in the Santa Casa, painted with the bright colors of Gramajo Gutiérrez. She had finished the pandemic when she returned to do the Spiritual Exercises and came across her own portrait. “He was hanging in one of the hallways and near Mama Antula’s cell. I wholeheartedly appreciate that gesture that moves me,” he confesses.
The new portrait of the blessed painted these days is actually a banner, whose format resembles that of Priest Brocherowhich is located in the Sanctuary of Córdoba and which Pope Francis hung in the Vatican.
Buffone painted Mama Antula light blue eyes, following oral tradition, and the testimonies of the time that say that she had white skin, that she was tall and thin, with thin lips, a straight nose and dark hair.. Her face, a perfect oval, is also dark, tanned by the sun. The artist glorified Antula with all her attributes, her high cross, the “Manolito” around her neck, the book of the Spiritual Exercises of Loyola, and the cloak of the Jesuit legacy. A halo of holiness is represented by the glittering gold that surrounds her head and conveys the enormous dimension of her own faith.
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
