Producer unknown to us
Image of Mary
Americas, Ecuador, Quito
Prior to 1874
Wood, carved, painted
Alphons Stübel (geologist) and Wilhelm Reiß (geographer) acquired the image of Mary during their research trip to Ecuador from 1870–1874
Donation to the museum by Stübel and Reiß in 1887
SAm 2070
The image of Mary has been reinterpreted many times during the development of the Catholic faith. While Mary was initially often depicted standing upright and preaching, she was later more often depicted as a young mother holding her child in her arms. The juxtaposition of Mary's motherliness, devotion, and purity with Eve's sinfulness provides the basis for the sexual oppression of women in a heteronormative, binary, and patriarchal gender model. As a consequence of colonialism and the negation and destruction of Indigenous belief systems, Catholicism is the most widespread religious belief in Ecuador. Catholic entities in Ecuador have both opposed sex education and successfully lobbied to keep abortion criminalized.
In 1868, geologist Alphons Stübel and geographer Wilhelm Reiß went on a research trip to South America that would last several years. During this trip, they focused primarily on archaeological and ethnographic research. They stayed in Ecuador from 1870 to 1874, where they acquired this madonna figure and eventually donated it to the museum in 1887.
Julia von Sigsfeld