The small but stunning exhibition "Gilded Figures: Wood and Clay Made Flesh" at the Hispanic Society of America is full of wonders large and small. An anonymous, presumably Mexican, 18th century Mater Dolorosa arrests you with wide eyes. (Her cheeks may once have been streaked with crystal tears.) Scenes by Teresa Roldán (1652-1706) overflow with personified mystical energies. (That's the ecstasy of Mary Magdalen at left below, the mystical marriage of Catherine of Alexandria, right.)
But the showstopper for me was the "Resurrection" of Gil de Siloe (active 1485-1501), with a weary Jesus (he's been through hell) poised atop a 3-D tomb surrounded by big sleeping soldiers. One is awake.
