It is very likely that the name of this artist will mean very little to most people. Nonetheless, there would be very few Discalced Carmelites who have not seen (at least in photographs) one of the sculptures dedicated to St. Teresa of Jesus by Venancio Blanco. Born in Salamanca in 1923, a great part of his work was dedicated to the Saint, ‘whom he admired, sketched, sculpted and to whom he spoke, as he himself acknowledged’. On 21st, December, he gave, in a public ceremony, his last Teresian work to the Museum of the Discalced Carmelites nuns in Alba de Tormes: a sculpture of St. Teresa of Jesus entitled Time to set off. Fr. Miguel Márquez, Fr. Provincial for the Iberian Province of the Discalced Carmelites, together with the nuns of the community of Discalced nuns, was present.
Blanco also conversed with Teresa ‘in his drawings. The exhibition: Breakfasting with sketches which the Church of Santiago in Alba de Tormes hosted in March, 2017, brought together a collection of forty paper napkins with drawings by the artist from Salamanca, among which, those connected with St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross stood out. These drawings were the fruit of the artist’s dialogue with Teresa of Jesus, a demonstration of the fusion of literature and art in drawings which come from the heart and from dreams’.
Venancio Blanco died in Madrid on 22nd February. May he rest in peace.
©Roberto Jiménez (passages quoted).
©http://salamancartvaldia.es (photos).
