Sacramental Light: Latin American Devotional Art -- From the Fundación Arte Sacro Antonio y Lola Roig Ferré Collection

About the Artworks and Artists

Sacramental Light features over thirty important works from the private collection of Puerto Rican philanthropists Antonio and Lola Roig Ferré. These extraordinary devotional objects and paintings depicting saints and biblical scenes present the interaction between Hispano-Catholic and indigenous Central and South American religious and artistic traditions in 17th and 18th century colonial art of Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Bolivia, and Puerto Rico.

The exhibit includes important canvases from the School of Cuzco and a variety of Central and South American ateliers. Silver liturgical objects and unique folkloric sculptures round out this comprehensive display of viceregal period religious art. In addition, the exhibition will include vestments from the same period on loan from Santa Clara University.

While many similar exhibitions have focused on the European impact on indigenous arts and religious practice, the works in "Sacramental Light" demonstrate how the Catholic visual and devotional traditions were deeply influenced and changed by their contact with the arts and religious cultures of the Americas. As such, the works in the exhibit suggest important issues around the questions of inculturation of Catholic and indigenous religious imagery in the New World.

The Fundación Arte Sacro is a non profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Catholic devotions of colonial hispanic América liturgical art and sacramentals. This exhibition is part of an itinerant-pilgrim exhibition that will be visiting other museums in the United States and Puerto Rico in the near future. The Roig Ferré collection is a remarkable depositary of great art and a tremendous resource for the study of cultural transformation and interaction with our christian catholic faith.

Cosponsored by USF’s Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought, St. Ignatius Institute, and the Jesuit Foundation.

Symposium on Sacramental Light

A scholarly conference on themes of artistic and religious inculturation
Saturday, February 3, 1-5 p.m. Fromm Hall, University of San Francisco 650 Parker Avenue
Presenters: Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Boston College; Marcus Burke, The Hispanic Society of America; Jaime Lara, Yale Divinity School; Thomas Lucas, SJ, University of San Francisco followed by a reception in the gallery

Opening Reception and Curator Walk-Through

Thursday, January 25, 4-6 p.m