Water, Water: the pilas of eastern Michoacán

Pilas in the eastern part of the state are relatively fewer and lack the rich, decorative variety of those in western Michoacán.  
Those that survive, however, are quite distinctive and include examples of fountains used as baptismal fonts.

Ciudad Hidalgo: font/fountain

Ciudad Hidalgo (formerly San José Tajimaroa)

The unusual font here was once the center of a public fountain. Projecting angel and lion reliefs alternate around the broad, shallow basin, originally serving as spouts into a lower pool.   
Apart from the word leon (lion) the remaining letters around the rim seem to spell out the alphabet rather than any dedicatory inscription—a unique example of an early educational tool?

Tiripetio, fountain lower basin

Tiripetio

Spouting lions also ornament this lower basin of a disused 16th century fountain at Tiripetio, near Morelia.  The smaller upper basin also survives, carved with grotesque mask spouts.
Like that of San Agustín in Morelia the fountain was no doubt originally installed in the monastery cloister—a section of the priory largely destroyed but scheduled for reconstruction.

Tiripetio, fountain  upper basin

San Matías el Grande, pila of San José 

 San Matias El Grande

Known principally for its unique churchyard crosses, the church at San Matias also boasts two carved stone fonts.

Dating from the 1700s, although 16th century in style, the cup like basins are decorated with sparse floral reliefs and dedicated by cursive inscriptions to San José and the Holy Sacrament (not shown)

A unique feature of the fonts is that they are signed by the stone mason Juan Diego Flores, who also carved the crosses.

In other examples, angel heads decorate this worn baptismal font at Tlacotepec, a barrio of Tlalpujahua near the border with Mexico State.

A carved column or base of an earlier font supports this fanciful, basket like pila of more recent vintage at Tuxpan.

text © 2013 Richard Perry.   images by the author, Diana Roberts, Niccolo Brooker and others

Water, Water: the pilas of western Michoacán

In an earlier post we looked at some of the diverse baptismal fonts and fountains of colonial Oaxaca.

Here we turn to the wide variety of colonial stone fonts (pilas) to be found in Michoacán. First we survey those of western Michoacán, and then those in the eastern half of the state.

  

In the first years of evangelization in Mexico, native water vessels and basins were used or adapted for Christian baptism, whose modes of stone working and even decorative imagery carried over to the early dedicated baptismal fonts and holy water basins commissioned by the friars.

As with the stone crosses of the region, the carved pilas of Michoacán display a variety of sculptural relief, mostly consisting of stylized foliage including rosettes, vines and flowers, often infused with pre hispanic forms, and closely related to foliated and grotesque motifs also found in mural, friezes and carved door frames, etc.

Jaracuaro

This baptismal font at Jaracuaro, a former island of Lake Patzcuaro, is typical. The principal ornamental feature around the basin is the rosette, here with flared, fleurs-de-lis like petals. These are framed by the knotted Franciscan cord, above and below, and feather like vertical divisions recalling the plumed serpent of ancient Mexico (see the Oaxacan fonts at Yanhuitlan and Tiltepec.)

Similar old fonts can be seen at Santa Fe de la Laguna and Santa Maria Tatzícuaro (pictures to come)

San Felipe de Los Herreros

Larger fleur-de-lis alternate with star shaped rosettes around the basin of this pila at San Felipe de Los Herreros, and on related baptismal basins at Aranza and Tancítaro (pictures to come)

Tzintzuntzan

This old painted pila at the venerable Franciscan monastery of Tzintzuntzan, also beside Lake Patzcuaro, again features the knotted cord and flared rosettes, although the vertical dividers have morphed into sprays of foliage.

San Nicolás de Obispo

Feathered elements also divide this pila at San Nicolás, near Morelia, although the intervening plant motifs are more elaborate with leaves, seeds and flowers.  

 

Similar stylized floral reliefs encircle this weathered font now in the Museo Regional de Arte Popular in Patzcuaro.

Related but even more complex foliar motifs crowd the surfaces of this baptismal font at nearby Undameo.

Some fonts are much plainer, including this one at Erongarícuaro, also beside Lake Patzcuaro, adorned only by the knotted cord on the rim, and below, this more recent pila at Tarecuato.

Earlier traditions of decoration were adapted in later examples like this grand pila at Angahuan, which doubtless replaced an earlier font.

We welcome news and especially pictures of other fonts and fountains in this region

text © 2013 Richard Perry.   images by the author, Diana Roberts, Niccolo Brooker and others

Oaxaca cathedral: Marcial de Santaella

In our previous post on the city church of San Felipe Neri, we noted a group of retablo paintings by the 18th century Oaxacan artist Marcial de Santaella.  In this post we look at a group of three larger paintings by Santaella to be found in Oaxaca cathedral. Two of them hang on either side of the cathedral entry and the third in the sacristy.

    Recurring temblors throughout the 1600s took a heavy toll on Oaxaca cathedral along with many other buildings in the city. Starting in 1702 much of the cathedral, including the present front, was rebuilt  virtually from the foundations.  Despite continuing seismic activity the cathedral was finally completed under the supervision of local architect Miguel de Sanabria and re-dedicated in 1733 with great ceremony.

    Among the new works of art created to adorn the new building were three large paintings by Marcial, the most prominent in a family of indigenous artists including his brothers Agustín, Pedro  and Francisco.  Santaella's work is generally in a popular vein, with a light Rococo touch, appealing colors and considerable charm, especially in his portrayal of angels and domestic scenes.
His cathedral paintings illustrate three common themes in colonial art:

The Seven Archangels of Palermo by Marcial de Santaella

This is one of two portraits of the Seven Princes, or Archangels found in the city of Oaxaca. The other, by the noted baroque painter José de Páez, hangs in the eponymous church of the Capuchin nuns.

   The Santaella painting is notable for its brightly clad, elongated figures in neo-Mannerist style. They are portrayed with almost feminine features that contrast with their sturdy buskined legs.  The Holy Trinity is shown prominently overhead.

St Christopher by Marcial de Santaella

Portraits of St Christopher carrying the Christ Child across the waters are common in many colonial era churches, usually located on the north side of the nave, symbolizing the bringing of Christianity to the New World.
This example by Santaella, again in a forthright popular style, is dated 1726 and includes the Virgin Mary overlooking the scene.

The Triumph of the Church by Marcial de Santaella

Perhaps the most ambitious of Santaella's works in the cathedral, it is the least accessible. This is the grand semicircular painting of the Triumph of the Church and the Sacrament, dated 1735 and now hanging over a doorway in the sacristy.   Once again, the Trinity is depicted in the curved upper section.
The composition, like most versions of this Counter Reformation theme, is based on a celebrated work by Peter Paul Rubens, now in Madrid.

The Triumph of the Church by Rubens (1627)

Triumph of the Church and the Eucharist
by Baltazar de Echave Rioja (1675)  Puebla Cathedral.

There is also this version, in the sacristy of La Compañía in Guanajuato, in which the Triumph of the Church is led by the Jesuits under St Ignatius.

Text © 2013 Richard D. Perry

Images by the author and others including El Conde de Selva Nevada.

for more on Oaxaca cathedral and the colonial arts of Oaxaca, consult our guidebook.

Oaxaca: San Felipe Neri, the church interior

the interior of San Felipe Neri 

Following the depredations of the Reform and its aftermath, renewal of the interior of San Felipe Neri finally began under Archbishop Gillow in the early 1900s, at which time the church walls were given a new look in the then fashionable but now rather incongruous Art Nouveau style.
   Apart from the brilliant facade, the principal attraction of the church is its collection of late baroque altarpieces, considered to be the finest in the city. Unlike many other city retablos, these were never dismantled and retain their iconographic integrity.

San Felipe Neri, the main altarpiece  (Felipe Falcón)

Currently under restoration, the screenlike "Churrigueresque" main retablo, closely fitted into the apse beneath a giant shell arch, is a virtuoso work of art. Its center section and lateral “wings” reach out to embrace the viewer, while exuberant estípite columns rise through three tiers, their ornate shafts carved with sculpted figures.
   Apostles and Evangelists lean forward from sumptuous, curtained niches. Every line in the altarpiece seems multi-layered and every surface encrusted with rich ornament, adding to its depth and substance.

retablo of Guadalupe

By contrast, the retablo of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the left transept has relatively little relief, although displaying a filigree like surface of gilded rococo forms.

Guadalupe retablo, detail

Luminous paintings of the Apparitions of the Virgin of Guadalupe, recently restored and mounted in eared oval frames, are signed by the noted baroque artist José de Páez, with dates in the 1750s and 1760s.

Its almost semicircular sister retablo of La Virgén del Pópolo, opposite, displays a majestic statue of the Virgin in the canopied principal niche. The lateral portraits of John the Baptist and the Holy Family—also reputedly by Páez—suggest a homely domesticity.

Four extraordinary paintings of archangels also line the transepts, mounted in ornate, gilded rococo frames. Their graceful figures seem in motion, clad in swirling, diaphanous robes trimmed with gold leaf.

 

  

These are also attributed to Páez, an accomplished painter of archangels, whose closely related examples can be seen in the priory church of Santo Domingo de Oaxaca.

retablo of La Purísima

A second pair of retablos in the nave are dedicated to St. Joseph and the Immaculate Conception (La Purísima). Dating from the 1740s, they feature paintings by the Oaxacan artist Marcial de Santaella, whose work is also in the cathedral*

Here he favors sentimental scenes of conventionally posed figures with sweet expressions; the naive scene of the Birth of the Virgin is especially appealing.

*look for our forthcoming post on Marcial de Santaella in Oaxaca

text and photography © 2005 & 2013 Richard D. Perry (except where noted)

for more on the colonial arts of Oaxaca, consult our guidebook

Oaxaca: San Felipe Neri, the exterior

This is the first of two posts on the church of San Felipe Neri in the city of Oaxaca.  Our first page looks at the extraordinary facade, and the second on the interior and its colonial art treasures.

On July 31, 1843, Benito Juarez, a Zapotec Indian, future president of Mexico and national icon, married Margarita Maza in the imposing church of San Felipe Neri.Under the Reform Laws of 1859—a Juarez initiative—the religious orders were disbanded, churches vandalized and clerical properties sold off. Fortunately, San Felipe Neri and its treasures largely survived these draconian measures.

The Oratorian Order was founded in the 1500s by the Roman mystic Filippo Neri, devoted to upholding the tenets of the Catholic Counter Reformation. The Oaxaca church, established in 1661 by the Oratorian pioneer Juan de Aragón, was among the first foundations of this conservative religious order in Mexico.
Construction of the present church and its adjoining hospital, however, was delayed until the 1730s and not completed until 1803, when the towers were added.

The Facade

The south-facing church front, newly restored in dazzling white stone, is a landmark of the distinctive Oaxacan baroque. From its tiny forecourt, the facade seems to soar heavenwards.

All three tiers of the facade feature neo-Plateresque Corinthian columns, embellished with filigree strapwork and bulbous candlestick shafts, creating richly textured surfaces. Elaborate but now empty shell niches with sculpted corbels fit between the columns. Ornamental volutes frame the gable, which encloses a relief cross entwined with the monograms of the Holy Family.

The solitary remaining statue, representing founder St. Philip Neri, stands within a large eared frame bordered, like the octagonal choir window overhead, by beaded moldings with diamante points.

Above the keystone of the doorway a bold relief of the dove of the Holy Spirit, perched on the Oratorian biretta, lifts the eye to the foliated spandrels and a carved frieze of winged angels above.

text ©2013 Richard D. Perry. Photography courtesy of Mary Ann Sullivan

for more on the colonial arts of Oaxaca, consult our new guide

Yanhuitlan: the convento

To conclude our series on Yanhuitlan, we look at the convento and its various components.

Yanhuitlan convento entrance porteria (before restoration)

Yanhuitlan convento entrance porteria  (2012)

A huge basket handle archway, set at the top of a broad flight of stone steps beside the church, spans the stage-like portería, which may have functioned as an open chapel in the early years of the monastery. 

convento entry (Ramón Moreno Rodríguez)

At its rear, relief rosettes and urns frame the entry to the convento, which is surmounted by the Dominican cross and emblazoned with the motto of the Order, “Therefore We Preach Christ Crucified.” 

      

cloister before restoration                                 cloister today

The restored two-story cloister is the heart of the convento. Although the ancient cypress tree that once shaded the patio has been replaced by a tiled compass pattern, the stone-flagged walks still offer a traditional haven for meditation, despite having lost much of their ancient patina.

Finely carved stonework distinguishes the elegant lower cloister. Smoothly molded arcades rest on compound piers of Doric half columns, faced with sturdy prow buttresses. Ribbed vaults cover the five bays on each side, increasing in complexity above the corner compartments. 

   As in the church, the vaults spring from rounded corbels set in a running cornice along the inner walls. Diminutive roof bosses, carved with the eight-pointed Dominican star, are recessed into the ceiling at each corner. Large, rosette-studded niches at the end of each walk formerly housed sacred images for the contemplation of the friars as they perambulated the cloister.

From the entry vestibule, a monumental stone staircase winds around the adjacent stairwell, its heavy stone rail topped with globes and fleur-de-lis finials.

A striking fresco of St. Christopher stands above the stairs—the only intact mural to survive in the convento. Carrying the Christ Child on his shoulder, the saint strides from the stormy torrent, observed by a diminutive friar holding out a lantern—a portrait, according to local lore, of Fray Bernardino de Minaya, the pioneering Oaxacan missionary.
Notwithstanding its awkward bodily proportions and the rigid folds of the saint’s drapery and pantaloons—in contrast to the elegant statue of the saint in the church—the mural projects an iconic force.

Two wall confessionals, their openings also outlined with bands of rosettes, link church and cloister along the north walk. And on the east walk, a noble pedimented doorway with unusual spiral pedestals originally gave access to the Sagrario Chapel. 

Sagrario Chapel, Descent from the Cross  (Felipe Falcón)

At the far end of this long, dimly-lit chapel is a rare painted altarpiece reputedly carved entirely from alabaster, or Mexican onyx. 

Framed in the Dominican fashion with slender baluster columns and a flattened arch ornamented with rosettes, the central relief depicts the Descent from the Cross—an insistent motif at Yanhuitlan. 
St. John and the Three Marys mourn the dead Christ, whose limp body is gently lowered by turbanned figures. Despite its somewhat stilted, two-dimensional aspect—a reflection of the Italian engraving from which the anonymous native sculptor worked—this tableau achieves great expressive power. 

upper cloister, cell relief  (Roberta Christie)

Built of brick, the upper cloister walks have wood beamed ceilings instead of stone vaults. Rows of friars’ cells open off the corridors behind the walks. Although the partitions between most of the cells are gone, some of the picturesque window seats remain. 

Dominican insignia are carved on the lintels of each cell doorway and include such emblems as the hand of St. Catherine of Siena holding the heart of Christ, St. Thomas Aquinas holding a church and book, and the Five Wounds of Christ superimposed on the Cross of Alcántara. 

Death Enthroned

The reinstalled museum, in the long gallery to the right of the entrance foyer, displays an extraordinary collection of religious artifacts, including painted wooden angels belonging to the barrio chapels of Yanhuitlan. 
One of the most evocative of the figures in the collection is the macabre image of Death Enthroned. Fashioned in part from a human skeleton, it is a powerful artifact of the folk imagination.

costumed barrio angels in Yanhuitlan's Easter Procession (photo Alessia Frassani)

The town of Yanhuitlan has eight traditional barrios, each with its special image of Christ under the care of a religious confraternity.  These are lightweight cristos de caña, designed to be carried in procession on special feast days with its accompanying statue of an archangel. Some of these cristos and angels are in the museum, and two stand in the church. 

The most famous of these figures, El Señor de Ayuxi—patron of the principal religious fiesta in Yanhuitlan—resides in the barrio chapel of El Calvario, located north of the monastery. 

For more on the barrio angels of Yanhuitlan see Alessia Frassani's web site

text © 2006 & 2013 Richard D. Perry.  Images by the author except where noted.

For more on Yanhuitlan and the colonial churches of Oaxaca, consult our illustrated guide book.

Look for our future posts on the church of San Felipe Neri in the city of Oaxaca.