Yucatán. San Bartolomá Suma

Continuing our posts on the rural churches of Yucatán, we go to the village of Suma, “deep water,” situated a few miles east of Motul in northern Yucatán.

Dedicated to St Bartholomew (San Bartolomé) this substantial colonial church is set within a raised atrium of ancient Maya origin and presents a plain but imposing front in familiar Yucatecan style, capped by soaring twin belfries. 

A dated inscription above the choir window (1787) probably marks the addition of the upper gable and belfries to the steeply pitched 17th century front (still visible: in outline)  
The massive crenelated church walls are shaped into a series of deep arched niches along the nave interior. 

Few colonial furnishings however remain, notably a small side altar to Franciscan favorite St Anthony of Padua and a stone baptismal font.

text © 2020 Richard D, Perry

images by the author and from online sources

Yucatán: Santiago Halachó

Continuing our posts on the rural churches of Yucatán, we visit the pilgrimage church of Halachó located on the old camino real between Mérida and the city of Campeche.

The white, scalloped facade of Santiago Halachó is one of the sights of the old Camino Real between Campeche and Mérida in western Yucatán. 
    Santiago Matamoros (St. James the Moorslayer) was the militant patron saint of Reconquest Spain. Pilgrims journeying to Santiago de Compostela, his shrine in northern Spain, wore the scallop shell on their tunics and broad-brimmed hats as a token of their devotion, and the emblem became universally associated with the
saint.  Symbolizing victory over the infidel, he was also a favorite of the conquistadors in Mexico. 
   The mission at Halachó became a popular shrine to Santiago in whose honor the town still holds a large fair in mid-November.  Halachó was famous for its colonial statue of the saint; John Lloyd Stephens, the noted American explorer, witnessed the festival on his 1842 journey, and vividly described the image:

High above the heads of the crowd, catching the eye on first entering the church, was the figure of Santiago, or Saint James, on horseback, holy in the eyes of all who saw it, and famed for its powers of working miracles... The forefeet of the horse were raised in the air, and the saint wore a black cocked hat with a broad gold band, a short mantle of scarlet velvet, green velvet trousers, with a wide gold stripe down the sides, and boots and spurs... Men, women and children were pressing forward, struggling with each other to kiss the foot of the saint. 

Sadly, this heroic image was destroyed during the Revolution. A lifesize modern replacement is now housed in the camarín behind the altar. Santiago has traded his cocked hat, boots and spurs for a Panama hat and stylish contemporary shoes; he rides upon a diminutive white horse which tramples underfoot the traditional figure of a vanquished Moor. 

The scallop motif pervades the 18th-century basilican church, most conspicuously on the facade. An undulating porch framed by stylized shell arches appears to have been superimposed on an earlier doorway—perhaps judged too plain for an important pilgrimage church. 
   The delicate curving outline and cone-shaped merlons of the central pediment are echoed in the decorative buttresses, which extend beyond the broad aisles of the church to create an exceptionally wide facade. At one time the aisles may have been open and windowless, serving as secondary entrances to the church to accommodate the numerous pilgrims. 

Diminutive bell towers like those at nearby Becal seem almost an afterthought. Inside the church, Doric colonnades separate the nave from the side aisles. 

text and color images © 1983 & 2020 Richard D. Perry

Yucatán. Mérida: La Candelaria: Surviving the Revolution

Surviving the Revolution: 

Restoring La Candelaria* (Calle. 67 & Calle. 64)

Founded as an ermita or barrio chapel of Mérida in the late 1600s, the sturdy little church of La Candelaria was built early in the next century (dated 1706 by an inscription on the sanctuary arch) looking much as it appears today following recent restoration. 
   A modest espadaña, trimmed with tiny decorative scrolls and flanked by pierced parapets, stands above the classically framed doorway carved with discreet sprays of acanthus leaves above the archway.

As you peer through the doorway to penetrate the dim chapel interior, the unique treasure of La Candelaria comes slowly into view at the far end. There, in the domed sanctuary, rests a magnificent gilded altarpiece.
   Framed with spiraling Solomonic columns and richly embossed with red, white and gold foliage, this gleaming baroque retablo is the only altarpiece of this style in the city of Mérida to have survived the widespread despoliation of area churches during the Mexican Revolution.

As might be expected, the image of the Virgin Mary holding her candle occupies the center niche, flanked by handsome statues of St. Joseph and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

However, in the niche above, flanked by the figures of the Archangel Raphael and St. Anthony of Padua, rests a full length statue of St. Teresa, the founder of the Discalced Carmelites. This image is clearly colonial in origin, carved from wood and finished in the estofado manner.
   The presence of St. Teresa here is mysterious; although there is a well known santuario of the Virgin of Carmen in Campeche, there were no Carmelite churches in colonial Mérida. It may be that it was hidden for safe keeping during the ravages of the Revolution and placed here subsequently.
   Recently restored by the energetic local branch of Adopte Una Obra de Arte, the re-installed retablo, together with its elegant statuary, takes its place among Mérida's finest and rarest works of colonial religious art.
* For Mexicans, the festival of La Candelaria, or Candlemas, is celebrated on February 2. In ancient days, according to Mosaic law, this time marked the ceremony of Purification, a Jewish tradition which required Mary and Joseph to present the infant Jesus in the temple 40 days after his birth. 

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text © 2020 Richard D. Perry.  photography by the author and ELTB

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Please review our earlier posts on altarpieces in Yucatan; San Bernardino de Sisal; Santa Elena; Sotuta; Mocochá; Tabi; Mani; Mamá; Oxkutzcab;

Yucatan altarpieces MAP

Zacatecas. The Pinos altarpieces 2.

Followers of our blog will know of our interest in the Ureña family of 18th century Mexican architects and retablo designers and their various works across the country.

   In previous posts we have described the spectacular Ureña altarpieces in the Zacatecas church of San Agustín. In this and our previous post we consider two superb altarpieces in the old mining town of Pinos, Zacatecas, attributable to Juan Garcia Castañeda, the retablista and son in law of Felipe de Ureña, the family patriarch and principal designer.

   In our first post we looked at the retablo in the church of San Francisco de Pinos. The second Castañeda altarpiece is that found in the chapel of La Purísima in the barrio of Tlaxcalilla, founded in the late 1500s to accommodate natives from Tlaxcala imported to work the area mines.

La Purísima Tlaxcalilla

This once modest barrio chapel was lavishly rebuilt in the later 1750s, at which time the present main retablo was commissioned and built.

Although clearly related stylistically to the San Francisco retablo, in the Tlaxcalilla altarpiece the interestipites (niche pilasters) are given even greater prominence, set against a more even tapestry of exuberant curves and intense relief ornament that tends to subvert the underlying structure and even threatens to eclipse the statuary which they were designed to showcase.

La Purísima

The retablo is also dedicated to the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, whose modern figure occupies the principal niche. The other statuary is original if now in often poor condition. These include Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, together with Franciscan saints and some archangels.

Sts Joachim and Anne

    

Archangels

San Matías

A third Castañeda retablo, now gone, was commissioned and assembled for the parish church of San Matías. However, fragments may be preserved in the Museo de Arte Sacro, on a lower level of the church, including some colonial paintings.

* Known as El maestro transhumante, the "peripatetic master", Felipe de Ureña was the most influential of the Mexican born architect /designers to introduce and expand the Churrigueresque or barroco estípite style into New Spain. During the second half of the 18th century, together with family members, he was primarily responsible for the spread and subsequent evolution of this ornate late baroque style into cities across Mexico, especially along the silver routes north of Mexico City. Primarily an innovative designer and fabricator of altarpieces, he later adapted the barroco estípite style as it was called, for church facades. His elegant and distinctive designs are recognized as the "felipense" style.

text © 2020 Richard D. Perry

color photography courtesy of Niccolo Brooker

Zacatecas: The Pinos altarpieces 1

Followers of our blog will know of our interest in the Ureña family* of 18th century Mexican architects and retablo designers and their various works across the country.

In previous posts we have described the spectacular Ureña altarpieces in the Zacatecas church of San Agustín.

   Next in our series we look at two altarpieces in the old mining town of Pinos, also in Zacatecas, both attributable to Juan Garcia Castañeda, the retablista and son in law of Felipe de Ureña, the family patriarch and principal designer.

   The colonial mining town of Pinos, located on the Camino de Plata, or inland silver route, was founded in the late 1500s when gold and silver were found in the nearby Sierra de Pinos. It was initially populated by immigrants from Tlaxcala who were recruited to work in the mines, and who established the town's first church of La Purisima in the barrio known as Tlaxcalilla, or simply Tlaxcala.

   The main historic center of Pinos contains two colonial churches; the first belonging to the former mission of San Francisco, established by the Franciscans around 1600, and the baroque parish church of San Matias across from the main plaza. 

   Operating from the principal Ureña workshop in the city of Zacatecas, the family and especially Castañeda designed created and installed retablos for several churches in the Zacatecas region and beyond. 

Although still not securely documented, it is believed that

Castañeda created altarpieces for three churches in Pinos: in the parish church of San Matías, the monastery church of San Francisco, and the outlying Temple of Purísima Tlaxcalilla.

San Francisco de Pinos

In this first post we look at the church of San Francisco.

San Francisco de Pinos, the nave

San Francisco

Baroque and neoclassical retablos line the nave at San Francisco, but it is the retablo mayor that is most likely the work of Castañeda.

San Francisco de Pinos, the main altarpiece

Although the San Francisco retablo is perhaps the most restrained of the Pinos group, both in form and ornament, it remains sumptuously carved and gilded. 

  

Narrow, richly encrusted estípite columns form the inner supports, that extend visually into the crowning gable emphasizing  the verticality of the retablo—a classic Ureña format, also seen in Felipe's seminal altarpiece in San Francisco, Texcoco. 

   The estipites are flanked on the outside by broad, two tiered niche-pilasters which frame the embedded polychrome statuary in layered folds of sinuous scrollwork and dense rocaille relief that soften the architectural lines. 

Statues of Franciscan saints occupy the various niches. And at the apex of the retablo hangs a venerable black cristo de caña, known locally as Nuestro Padre Jesús, beneath a relief of El Padre Eterno.
* Known as El maestro transhumante, the "peripatetic master", Felipe de Ureña was the most influential of the Mexican born architect /designers to introduce and expand the Churrigueresque or barroco estípite style into New Spain. During the second half of the 18th century, together with family members, he was primarily responsible for the spread and subsequent evolution of this ornate late baroque style into cities across Mexico, especially along the silver routes north of Mexico City. Primarily an innovative designer and fabricator of altarpieces, he later adapted the barroco estípite style as it was called, for church facades. His elegant and distinctive designs are recognized as the "felipense" style.

text © 2020 Richard D. Perry

color photography courtesy of Niccolo Brooker

Zacatecas. The Santo Domingo altarpieces part 2

As we noted in our previous post, the Santo Domingo retablos together constitute the largest and finest collection of Ureña altarpieces * in Mexico. 

   In addition to the major retablos dedicated to Jesuit notables we described in our first post, the four remaining original altarpieces come in facing pairs along the nave: these comprise those of The Trinity and the Virgin of Light, and two dedicated to San José and El Rosario.  

Retablo of the Virgin of Light
The retablo of La Luz is almost identical to the Francis Borgia altarpiece, except that the interestípites are slightly less prominent. Although richly ornamented and gilded, the estípites lack the oval cameos of the Loyola and Xavier retablos, although they are no less refined for that;  the center pavilion is broader too. 

In the center calle, a tableau of the Virgin of Light, conventionally posed with her classic attributes, occupies the glassed in centerpiece, accompanied by the seven archangels in the surrounding niches.

Retablo of the Trinity
Here, massive niche-pilasters anchor the altarpiece on each side instead of estípites, housing statuary as well as relief busts of the Fathers of the Latin Church that fill the medallions above and below the statues. 
   In a departure from the other Santo Domingo altarpieces, which feature only statuary, the broad center pavilion here accommodates a large painting of the Holy Trinity in an oval, moorish inspired frame.   

  

retablo of San José

Retablos of San José and El Rosario
Two other paired retablos in Santo Domingo are the smaller but gemlike and virtually identical retablos of San José and El Rosario. Both recently restored, they feature large open centers framed by densely layered and boldly projecting niche-pilasters, faced with outsized scrollwork and inset with rounded relief medallions. No estípites appear in either altarpiece, possibly also reflecting the influence of the anástilo fashion.
   The San Jose retablo showcases statues of four female saints, including St. Teresa of Avila, while the Rosario altarpiece features the figure of the Virgin of Dolores in the center vitrine below a crucifix representing the Christ of the Good Death.

the altarpiece of El Rosario 

* Known as El maestro transhumante, the "peripatetic master", Felipe de Ureña was the most influential of the Mexican born architect /designers to introduce and expand the Churrigueresque or barroco estípite style into New Spain. During the second half of the 18th century, together with family members, he was primarily responsible for the spread and subsequent evolution of this ornate late baroque style into cities across Mexico, especially along the silver routes north of Mexico City. Primarily an innovative designer and fabricator of altarpieces, he later adapted the barroco estípite style as it was called, for church facades. His elegant and distinctive designs are recognized as the "felipense" style.

Other Ureña altarpieces: Rayas Chapel; Aguascalientes; Cata; La Valenciana; Saltillo/Monclova;

text © 2020 Richard D. Perry

Zacatecas. The Santo Domingo altarpieces part 1,

Following their arrival in Zacatecas in 1574, the Jesuits founded a temple and school there under the patronage of a Spanish official, El Maestre de Campo, don Vicente Zaldívar y Mendoza, whose arms can be seen on the left wall of the sanctuary.

The present church, originally known as La Compañía, was built starting in 1746 and completed three years later, being dedicated in 1750. Raised on a narrow platform overlooking its own plaza, the hillside church boasts a traditional 17th century retablo-façade of finely cut stone in the sober Jesuit baroque style, with plain massed columns.

   With the expulsion of the Jesuits from Mexico in 1767, the church was occupied by the Dominicans, who rededicated it to their founder and patron St. Dominic (Santo Domingo)

The Retablos 
Today the glory of Santo Domingo lies in its superlative baroque altarpieces. Although the main retablo was unfortunately replaced by a dull neoclassical altar in the 19th century, eight of the original retablos survive in excellent and virtually original condition. 

   Designed and fabricated between 1747 and 1753 to conform to an iconographical program designed by the Jesuit Father Calderón, all are the collaborative work of designer Felipe de Ureña and his son-in-law Juan García de Castañeda.* 
   All were underwritten, as in Aguascalientes, by the wealthy Basque Manuel Colón y Larreategui who even provided much of the construction materials. 

Together, these constitute the largest and finest collection of Ureña altarpieces in Mexico. They include major retablos dedicated to Jesuit saints: St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis Borgia, and of course Ignatius Loyola. Others include those of The Trinity and the Virgin of Light. Another pair is dedicated to San José and El Rosario.  In this series we will describe each of them in some detail.

   We start with the transept altarpieces dedicated to the founder Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier as well as another, that of St. Francis Borgia.

Retablo of St. Ignatius Loyola 
Twinned with that of St. Francis Xavier opposite, this transept altarpiece is the grandest and most ornate of the Ureña retablos in Santo Domingo. Expansive estípites inset with polychrome medallions on the lower level enclose broad pilasters with foliage encrusted niches and panels. 
   In a manner reminiscent of the flatter, more ornamental Queretaran style, the subtle, multi-layering of the elements gives the retablo a dynamic, shifting surface texture while emphasizing the upward movement, characteristic of so many Ureña designs. 

As expected, St Ignatius occupies the center position, although the figure of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the heavily curtained niche above may be a later addition. Statues of the founders of the other religious orders—St Francis, St Dominic, St Augustine and St Peter Nolasco—fill the remaining niches.

The Retablo of St Francis Xavier 

As with the St. Ignatius altarpiece, densely worked estipites, here inset with painted relief medallions of female saints, frame the broad interestipites whose sculpture niches are richly ornamented. The broken horizontal lines serve to accentuate the soaring effect. 
   The curtained sculpture niches at center appear larger, set slightly forward and above the lateral niches, designed to focus attention on the more important figures, now replaced by Marian statues.

An ecumenical array of saints fill the outer niches, with Franciscans and Augustinians, but the diminutive figure of St Francis Xavier himself survives, now silhouetted against an upper window—a theatrical device, as we have seen, much favored by the Ureñas.

Retablo of St Francis Borgia 
Honoring the third Jesuit luminary, this ornate altarpiece, together with that of the Virgin of Light, is one of another closely related duo that face each other across the nave. Sumptuous paired estípites flank the interestípites on either side that are almost wholly given over to elegantly framed sculpture niches replete with floral relief decoration.
   St. Francis Borgia stands in the upper center panel above a vitrine enclosing an image of the Virgin of the Rosary—a Dominican addition—surrounded by black robed Jesuit saints in the lateral niches.
* Known as El maestro transhumante, the "peripatetic master", Felipe de Ureña was the most influential of the Mexican born architect /designers to introduce and expand the Churrigueresque or barroco estípite style into New Spain. During the second half of the 18th century, together with family members, he was primarily responsible for the spread and subsequent evolution of this ornate late baroque style into cities across Mexico, especially along the silver routes north of Mexico City. 
Primarily an innovative designer and fabricator of altarpieces, he later adapted the barroco estípite style as it was called, for church facades and interiors. His elegant and distinctive designs are recognized as the  "felipense" style.
  
See our pages on other Ureña altarpieces: Rayas Chapel; Aguascalientes; Cata; La Valenciana; Saltillo/Monclova;

text © 2020 Richard D. Perry

Zacatecas cathedral: the facade crucifix

In the last of our current series on facade crucifixes we travel to Zacatecas* and its Cathedral Basilica of The Assumption.
   Although preceded by two more modest churches on this site, the present cathedral dates from the mid-1700s, rebuilt to reflect the wealth of this great northern mining region.

© Carolyn Brown

The extraordinarily ornate west front and towers, a riot of sculpture and encrusted spiral columns are indeed impressive, but our focus here in the less sumptuous but nevertheless soaring north facade, carved like the church front from the local brown stone.

Zacatecas cathedral, north facade  

Imposing caryatid columns flank the lofty doorway, but our main interest is the sculpted upper section, in which a broad niche framed by an elaborate curtain showcases a large statue of the crucified Christ, flanked by the figures of Mary and St John. 

 The sinewy figure of Christ is nailed to the cross; he wears a melancholy face and his sole garment is an ornamental fringed skirt. 

Another relief in the surmounting scalloped gable depicts God the Father and the eagle-like dove of the Holy Spirit flanked by angels.

Please visit our other posts on facade crucifixes: Totolapan; San Agustín Salamanca; Santiago Silao; San Jose Irapuato; San Agustín de Querétaro; Singuilucan;
*See our earlier post on the Apostolic College of Guadalupe

text © 2020 Richard D. Perry

color photography by the author and © Niccolo Brooker & Carolyn Brown