Diminuitive Early Spanish Colonial Polychrome Carving of Anima Sola with Scapular

Regular price $165.00

It seems quite right that this Spanish Colonial Anima Sola looks as if he's endured quite a lot--a lonely soul stuck in purgatory, flames rising from below. With long hair down the back I assume female, and, unusual, from what I can tell, for wearing a scapular, which apparently was a practice directed by Our Lady of Mount Carmel, who instructed that those wearing a blessed brown scapular at the time of death would not suffer long, but rather would be lifted from limbo by Mary and her angels and taken to heaven. A carving like this would have been prayed over, representing departed friends or family members believed to be stuck in purgatory, and I might guess this one , due to its mall size, was originally part of a grouping of Anima Sola.  

3 3/8 t x 1 1/8 x 1 1/4 d. 19th c, and I'd guess earlier than later. Hands missing and much aged, but with red and orange and gold paint still holding on and quite a beautifully carved face.