From Gustave Baumann’s preface:  Santa Fe would not be Santa Fe without Saint Francis of Assisi — the fires at Christmas and Saint John’s Day, its processions, its host of little saints. We shall always have Saint Francis, the fires and processions, but the little wooden saints are leaving us for places where people are so busy they have not time to see, listen or believe.

To present all these saints and their many variations would take us beyond the limits of time and medium. Many of them have found their way to museums and are no longer available; others, of Spanish or Old Mexican origin, have more to do with the Church than with the simplicity of home, for which most of the saints on these pages were intended.

Until now, Gustave Baumann has been largely unacknowledged in discussions of Spanish Colonial art and the study and appreciation of the Santosof New Mexico. Associated more with color woodcuts of billowing summer clouds and autumn arroyos blooming with chamisa, one might not suspect that Baumann was an indispensable influence in the opening of the world’s eyes to the quiet grace of the santo tradition.

Printed from thirty-four two-color woodcuts carved by Baumann beginning in 1927. 108 copies of this book were printed during the autumn of 2021 by Thomas Leech and James Bourland. Ninety-six pages in a special, “reliquary” binding by Priscilla Spitler, 7.25  x 9.75 inches.   

Please note: This is the final book to be printed by Tom Leech at the Palace Press. For institutional acquisitions and other inquiries, please contact James Bourland at james.bourland@state.nm.us or by telephone at (505) 476-5096.

MNMF Membership Discounts do not apply to this book.  The book will be shipped directly from the Palace Press with a $25.00 flat rate shipping charge.