Arnoldo Maas     

Dutch Dominican artist
04.05.1909 - 27.11.1981

A brief history of the Dominicans on the Netherlands Antilles, click here.

A brief biography.

Arnoldo Maas was born on 04.05.1909 in Rotterdam, and attracted attention by his drawings. He joined the Dominican Order in 1928 and was professed on 18.09.1929. Ordained a priest on 25.07.1954 he went to Puerto Rico and after parochial work his superiors allowed him to acquire further qualifications in painting, to make glass-stained windows, mosaics etc. 

He studied  in the Rambusch Studio in New York under guidance of the Dutch stained-glass artist Joep Nicolas (06.10.1897-25.07.1972).
At Doña Inés Muñoz Marin's request, the governors wife, he decorated the chapel in the palace Santa Catalina (La Fortalezza) from 1947 till 1950.

In 1950 he created the 'Christ of Bayamón' above the high altar in the church Santa Cruz, which after vehement reactions by order of Rome was hanged in the sacristy.
The history repeated itself with  the Cross (1955) in the San Martin de Porres' church, Bayamón; after a placement in the Dominican school in Bayamón, the Cross is now again  in the San Martin's nearby the confessional. 

In 1954 Arnoldo Maas created a glass-stoned window for the Capuchin churches San Contrado, and St. Teresita in Ponce.

In Holland stained-glass windows of Arnold Maas we find in the chapel of 'het Albertinum' in Nijmegen (1956).

Arnoldo Maas asked for exemption and married with Jovita Rosaldo on 10.03.1962. The exemption was granted by Rome in 1969. In 1970 his chapel's decoration in La Fortalezza was made invisible through a layer of paint till the middle of November 1981. Arnoldo Maas and his wife left Puerto Rico in 1971, and lived in San Antonio (Texas) and in 1975 in Orlando (Florida).

His last work (4x5 meter) was 'La Herencia de Santo Tomás' (1979) for the library of the Universidad Central Bayamón (UCB). 

Arnoldo Maas died in Veracruz on 27.11.1981. His wife and friends published a book with reproductions.

Arnoldo Maas.

The artist Arnoldo Maas, O.P. (04.05.1909-27.11.1981) painted a Christmas
scene in the church Santa Famia in Willemstad, Curaçao.

Left panel (the Virgin and Child with churchgoers) of a triptych in the church
of Santa Famia, Willemstad, Curaçao, by Arnoldo Maas, O.P.

Netherlands Antilles 1997, Mi 941, Sc 619. 

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