J.Arrencivia,
Sopera for Orula, surmounted by San Francisco de Asís figure,
and caryatid pedestal; cedar, varnish, gold leaf; 32” x 12”
(across top), Havana, 2001 (see text for the babalawo figure version
for a general description of the object as a whole). Orula’s vessel
that is surmounted by the figure of San Francisco de Asís is, in
fact, more “traditional” than the seated diviner in the repertoire
learned by Arrencivia from his mentor, babalawo and master carver
Cosme Guio (see e.g., batea and pilón for Changó,
Room 1). For perhaps two centuries, Orunmila has been iconographically
associated, in the “syncretic” point of view, with Saint Francis
of Assisi (1181-1226), founder of the Franciscan order. Through the experiences
of serious illness, being a prisoner of war, and conversion, Francis was
transformed from a frivolous youth into a servant of the meek and poor.
A chief representation of Saint Francis in popular chromolithographs and
within Cosme Guio’s oeuvre featured St. Francis embracing Christ
upon the Cross. In Cuba, the two most important twentieth century “societies”
of babalawos claimed this saint as their patron (Bernardo Rojas’s
“Light of San Francisco” and Quintín Lecón Lombillo’s
“Sons of San Francisco”); Orunmila is celebrated annually on
4 October, Saint Francis’s day. The substitution of the carved babalawo figure for San Francisco is a very recent development within Arrencivia’s
work, and reflects the current “anti-syncretic” trend among
some Cuban Osha and Ifá priests.
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