RETABLO. HOLY WEEK PILGRIMAGE

Holy Week Pilgrimage. Year: 1982. Dimensions: Open: 58 x 66 x 21 cm / Closed: 58 x 32 x 21 cm. This retablo has a wooden base or pedestal on which two carved angels appear, supporting the weight of the box. This base and the exterior feature a white background decorated with flowers. Upon opening the retablo's doors, one encounters the distinctive feature that each door also forms a box divided into three sections, in which sculpted scenes related to the Ayacucho Holy Week are found, spanning the ten days over which these celebrations take place. On the left door, the top panel depicts the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, in which an image of Jesus Christ riding a donkey is carried in procession and palm fronds and branches are blessed. The middle panel shows the procession of the Lord of the Garden Prayer, and the bottom panel shows the procession of the Lord of the Sentence. On the right door, Wednesday of the Encounter is depicted; the middle panel shows the procession of the Lord of the Holy Sepulcher, and further below, the procession of illuminated floats for the Resurrection Sunday. As Edilberto Jiménez recounts, this retablo represents the Holy Week celebration in a context of internal violence in which the faithful draw near to Christ and God to pray for an end to the violence and to pray for their loved ones who have died or disappeared. The central box contains a large image of the crucified Christ surrounded by angels; in the background, toward the left, there is a section of fire in which an archangel is punishing a fallen angel with a knife. At the foot of the cross stand the inhabitants of the city of Huamanga and migrants from rural areas, as well as orphans, disabled people, widows, etc., who pray with and for their deceased. The cross is illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and above it a cloud is placed upon which God rests, shown saddened by the situation of violence being experienced; the Holy Spirit illuminates Huamanga with its rays.