18th/19th C Large Carved San Roque Santos (Repaired Head)

This carved santos is old--I'm not an expert but might guess 18th rather than 19th--and though he lost his head once along the way, his expressively carved hands are, rather miraculously, in pretty much perfect shape, one of them raised, the other at his knee with index finger pointing south. I am pretty certain he is meant to represent San Roque/Saint Roch (patron saint of the sick, the wrongly accused, and dogs), who recovered from the plague, and is typically portrayed lifting his robe to show a wounded knee (and I take the finger pointing south as suggesting that he has been to hell and back.) The polychromed surface on this is quite fantastic, with his cape showing spectacularly rich lapis blue with gold trim and details. I love his face too, with one painted eye lost to time but the other showing wonderfully long eyelashes. Quite a presence at nearly a foot and a half tall--but of course the sick, wrongly accused and dog need powerful protection! (And I've just learned that San R