The parish of San José Artesano, in the City of the Fallero Artist of Valencia, on May 1st, will exhibit to worship an image of its owner, the work of Rafael Sánchez, a Valencian artist who, having developed his good work in the Fallas workshops, has not stopped applying his technique to more classic works.
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Of Life-size and molded with a resistant synthetic material, it has the noble appearance of terracotta, with minimal golden details. The artist has been inspired by a sculpture by the North American John Collier, but, apart from personal details, he has given it greater robustness and humanity.
We will see Saint Joseph walking accompanied by Jesus, who has already reached the age of apprentice: both are wearing short dresses, as was the custom for workers in those times. The eldest appears to be about thirty years old and has his hair and beard trimmed, not like in some images where he is represented as an old man, to allude to Mary’s virginity, with long hair and clothing.
Joseph carries a hammer in one hand and, with his right hand, it seems that he is showing the way to Jesus, explaining something to him, while the boy carries three large nails and slightly raises his right hand, as if he were responding to him in a reasoned manner. We can now ask ourselves what message is being conveyed.
They both walk in step. Could it be that they return to Nazareth, after being emigrants in Egypt, and are they going to resume their trade? Joseph’s gesture, listening to his son, seems to reflect the astonishment that both he and Mary felt when they saw the wisdom with which he spoke, as happened when they found him in the Temple of Jerusalem, sitting among the doctors, although, as follows recounting the gospel of Matthew (2:51), Jesus was obedient to them.
And what is Jesus saying to him? The artist hints to us that he is announcing to him the mystery of his Passion, when he will be fixed to a piece of wood like those they work with, with nails like the three that he carries in his hand. Then, Joseph would relive the memory of Simeon’s prophecy and the words of the prophetess Anna, when they took the child to the Temple to present him to the Lord, his true Father, and they were amazed at the things that were said about that creature wrapped in the secret of God (Luke 2:33) that was to be a sign of contradiction.
Saint Joseph, honored worker of Nazareth, “just man” before God and men, was called to a much more important job in the divine plan: to guard the mystery of the Incarnation, to name Jesus and give him his illustrious surname of “ Son of David” and his more human of “the son of Joseph”, “the carpenter’s son” to the one born to Mary.
The entire Church celebrates its patron and protector, because if Mary’s husband protected her and her divine Son from so many dangers as read in the “Gospels of childhood”: persecutions, exile, moments of fear and confusion, false accusations… Thus now it protects the mystical body of Christ that is us. The patriarch of Nazareth continues to watch over the people of believers in the new house and family of God, which is the Christian community.
Pope Francis, in his Apostolic Letter ‘Patris corde’ (‘Heart of a Father’), dated December 8, 2020, told us: “Everyone can find in Saint Joseph—the man who goes unnoticed, the man of daily presence , discreet and hidden—an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of difficulty. Saint Joseph reminds us that all those who are apparently hidden or in the “second line” have an unparalleled role in the history of salvation. A word of recognition and gratitude is addressed to all of them.”
In the heart of the City of the Fallero Artist is Carrozas Sánchez SL. A privileged enclave where we can still find some of the workshops where artisans design and build the ninots and fallaes. In the Sánchez brothers’ ship they maintain the illusion of continuing with their artistic production, adapting it to new times and new technologies and with a new challenge: to reflect in a sculpture an artisan Saint Joseph with his son Jesus in a scene of a father and an immigrant son, walking together.
Rafa Sánchez Orduña is the third generation of Carrozas Sánchez. Originated in the 1950s by the Sánchez brothers (José, Rafael and Miguel), the current company carries a whole historical journey with it in terms of parades at the national level or the elaboration of fallaes in our Community.
This workshop, with a wide artistic and cultural background, has been able to adapt to new times with the help of Rafa, a graduate in Fine Arts, with a Diploma, a Master in Interactive Technologies and Digital Manufacturing. He has been the one who has incorporated 3D technologies, combining tradition and innovation. Now, he faces one of the most important jobs of his career, giving life through his hands to the figure of Saint Joseph. A Saint Joseph artisan next to his son Jesus in a scene of an immigrant father and son, walking together. It was Jesús Belda, the parish priest of San José Artesano who contacted Rafa to propose a very special assignment. He “he told me that he wanted an image that captured the idea of family. A Saint Joseph with his son. So I proposed a scene of father and son in the workshop, but he told me that he wanted something more subtle. He wanted him to be a father with his son, to practically capture that,” says Rafa.
Rafa proposed to transfer the “artisanal” part to the sculpture itself “that is why we have given it a clay-like finish, a very workshop finish, and that at first glance the image could be a father with his son walking, but If you already pay attention to the details, you can see that the father is moving forward, he is teaching the son his way. The son, who in this case is Jesus, is rising. He is raising his right hand, making the symbol of the Holy Trinity. On the other side they hold the nails…all symbols that in the end identify the characters,” comments this young artist who explains that “in this case Jesus anticipates what will later be the Passion, as a consequence the redemption of men, and everything This is part of the path that the two take. Also Saint Joseph representing man, the child Jesus representing God, the path that advances, which in this case Jesus accepts, we men accept it, and a bit of that cycle of teaching, of destiny, of sacrifice, of redemption, “That’s a little bit what I was trying to capture with this image.”
To make it, Rafa has used digital manufacturing techniques, additive production, which “is a kind of plastic alloy, then we store all this with an internal structure, and we cover it, we join it all, and finally we give it the finish.” final now with the painting and the post-processing.”
Still, the most traditional techniques have not been forgotten. “We made a first sketch in clay, to see a very basic and very general composition of what the scene would be. With this proposal we got a little closer to the idea of the priest, we moved on to digital modeling and the result was this, which is now another image, a more definitive representation,” he indicates. Once the composition was approved, “we moved on to life-size production, which would be the division into pieces of all the figures. We are assembling it, we are making it in a corresponding structure and it is being sealed” until we obtain the image, measuring 1.80 m, which will be blessed in the parish of San José Artesano on May 1 at 11 a.m.
