Treasures of Mexico City: San Felipe Néri - El Nuevo.

San Felipe Néri - El Nuevo

In its early years the Oratorian order of San Felipe Néri moved from place to place in Mexico City. This peripatetic history led to the name of the Order being attached, confusingly, to several churches in the city center, among them the iconic former Jesuit church of La Profesa.

   First a church was built in the 1660s on the now Calle República de El Salvador, with an adjacent hospice, later enlarged to include the present cloister. This church, known as San Felipe Néri El Viejo, collapsed in an earthquake.

   Construction of a new temple began in 1751—dubbed San Felipe Néri El Nuevo—on the adjacent site, to a design by the eminent Mexican architect Ildefonso de Iniesta Bejarano y Durán. 

   This church too succumbed to another temblor in 1768, when the roof fell in, with its facade still unfinished. The intended statue of the founder in the grand upper niche, remains a block of stone.

   The Oratorians then abandoned the building, moving to the recently completed church of La Profesa, just evacuated by the Jesuits who had been recently expelled from Mexico.   

   However, most of the unfinished facade of San Felipe Néri El Viejo survived, which, with the exception of the gable added in modern times, is the one we see today.

This imposing front is unusual in that its sophisticated Churrigueresque facade and lateral doorways are set against a background of dark red volcanic tezontle—a technique and style generally associated with buildings of the previous century.

   An exceptionally tall, simple arched entry defines the elegant facade, rising via a mixtilinear Moorish frame to the spectacular oval relief of the Baptism of Christ above. This relief is accompanied by life-size statues of two archangels—the only remaining sculptures in the facade.  

   The entry is flanked on either side by pairs of highly ornate estípite columns, which in turn enclose even more complex niche-pilasters (interestípites) now void of statuary but replete with layered, broken cornices, multiple scrolls and dripping with lambrequins. The broken lines and the rich layering of architectural elements throughout the facade adds to the depth and nervous complexity of the composition. 

image by Ismael Rangel Gómez

complex lambrequin 

facade: lateral entry

Scrolls, ovals and layered pediments also bedeck the lateral doorways, whose coffered pilasters lend a more classical look.

The interior currently houses the Biblioteca Lerdo de Tejada, its former nave walls covered with lurid, pseudo revolutionary murals by Vlady.  However, the current physical deterioration of the building threatens this use and even its structural integrity unless restoration measures are urgently taken.

Please check out our other posts in this series: San Bernardo; San Pablo El Viejo;

text and images © 2015 by Richard D. Perry except where noted

Stone Retablos: San Pablo El Viejo, Mexico City

The only documented stone retablo in Mexico City is that in the former church of San Pablo El Viejo, located in the historic Merced quarter of the city—reputedly originally founded as a barrio chapel by the pioneering Franciscan Pedro de Gante.

   After secularization and abandonment in the 1800s, the 16th century church was used as an adjunct to the adjacent Hospital de Jesus before narrowly escaping demolition in the 1900s.  Following repairs and strengthening, the nave is now used as the hospital auditorium.

* photograph of the San Pablo retablo by Guillermo Kahlo (father of Frida Kahlo)

The retablo reportedly remains in place and takes the form of ornamental stone relief decoration against a side wall of the nave. 
   Because the wall supplies the essential structure, aside from the arcade in front of the center niche there are no traditional support elements in the design. As a result the retablo might be classified stylistically as an example of the highly decorative anástilo phase of the late baroque. 
(updated photograph to follow)

* published in Gerardo Murillo’s monumental Iglesias de México, vol 5 (Altares). (Mexico, 1924-27)

text © 2015 Richard D Perry.

Stone Retablos: Altar de Los Reyes, Puebla cathedral.

In this blog we often report on the variety of colonial altarpieces in churches across Mexico.  For the most part these were fabricated from carved, painted and gilded wood—customarily rot resistant cedar.
   However a handful of retablos were built from some form of masonry—usually stone and/or stucco. Sometimes this was in response to the availability of local materials but the main mover was various royal edicts in the late 1700s requiring the use of stone in retablo construction in Spain and the Americas. 
   Purportedly intended to reduce the risk of fire in wooden structures by substituting a more durable medium, a prime motivation of these decrees was to encourage the use of more "noble" materials like marble and, not incidentally, hasten the adoption of neoclassical canons in altarpiece design.
   In our page on San José Chiapa, we described one of the most spectacular of these monuments. Going forward we look at the few other extant Mexican examples, notably those in the cathedrals of Puebla (El Altar de Los Reyes) and Chihuahua.
   Others are found in the Santuario de Guadalupe in Aguascalientes, the church of El Carmen in San Luis Potosí, San Pablo El Viejo in Mexico City and Huentitán near Guadalajara, as well as across the border in New Mexico.
   We continue with one of the earliest examples, that of the Altar de Los Reyes in Puebla cathedral.

image © Javier Bracamonte

El Altar de Los Reyes  

Like the retablo at San José Chiapa, this imposing altarpiece has a connection to the controversial Bishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, who commissioned the work. The retablo gets its name from the royal chapel or Capilla de Los Reyes in which it is located. *1 
   As viewed today, the altarpiece  is the work of many hands over many years. Although the noted Sevillian sculptor Juan Martínez Montañes has been credited with the overall scheme of the retablo, it is now thought that the design of the altarpiece as well as all the paintings, including the principal panel of the Immaculate Conception, are attributable to the Spanish painter Pedro García Ferrer, a protégé of Bishop Palafox.
   The statues of royal saints in the lateral niches, some well known and others more obscure, were the work of the sculptor and retablista Lucas Méndez *2

   Although the altarpiece was later much altered,*3 with added wooden components, its essential form is intact, notably in retaining the original spiral columns and fluted pilasters which, like those at San José Chiapa, were carved from tecali, a Mexican marble or alabaster quarried locally in the state of Puebla.
   Not only is this the earliest known retablo using carved stone, but it is also one of the first documented use of the spiral "Solomonic" column to appear in a Mexican altarpiece. 

detail of columns, with Nativity scenes (Tacho Juarez Herrera)

1* In this case the title does not refer to the customary Three Kings, although they do appear in a smaller painting below the main panel of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. Its companion piece is a depiction of the Nativity which reputedly includes a portrait of Bishop Palafox as one of the shepherds!

2* The royal saints include San Luis Rey and Isabel of Hungary on the lower tier, and in the main section, San Fernando Rey and Edward the Confessor on the left with the Empress St Helen and Queen Margarite of Scotland opposite.

3* The original plan for the retablo is known from a contemporary engraving by the Flemish artist Juan de Noort. which includes the escutcheons of the royal arms of Spain placed atop the retablo, the focus of a lawsuit and attempted seizure by agents of the viceroy—another controversy in which Bishop Palafox was embroiled.

Main Altarpiece of the Capilla de los Reyes, Cathedral of Puebla de los Ángeles (engraving by Juan de Noort)  in Juan Alonso Calderón,  Memorial historico, iuridico, politico, de la Sta. Iglesia Catedral de la Puebla de los Angeles en la Nueva España,  Puebla, 1650.

It is worth noting that the painted cupola above the altarpiece, depicting the Triumph of the Eucharist, was painted in 1689 by the celebrated 17th century baroque artist Cristóbal de Villalpando.

text © 2015  Richard D. Perry.  color images © as captioned

Stone Retablos: San José Chiapa

For our initial post of 2015, and as an introduction to our new series on Mexican stone retablos, we look at one of the most distinctive and unusual Pueblan churches, that of San José Chiapa, located northeast of the city of Puebla close to the state of Tlaxcala in the shadow of the volcano Malitzín.
   In addition to an intriguing back story, San José Chiapa boasts dramatic architecture and rare works of art including its luminous main altarpiece. 
But first the history:

portrait of Juan de Palafox y Mendoza. 1728  (©John Carter Brown Library)

San José Chiapa enjoys a special association with the flamboyant and controversial Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, a 17th century bishop of Puebla and briefly the archbishop and viceroy of New Spain, whose sumptuous library remains one of Puebla’s prime attractions.  
   Among the many political and ecclesiastical issues in which he was embroiled, his conflict with the Jesuits in Puebla was the most bitter. His attempt to secularize the holdings of the religious orders and secure their traditional tithes, thus increasing Crown and episcopal revenues, was firmly resisted by the Jesuits, prompting a protracted series of lawsuits, papal proclamations and political maneuvering.
   Things reached a point in 1647, when, under threat of arrest by the incoming viceroy and fearing subsequent local unrest, Palafox fled the city of Puebla to take refuge in the remote highland village of San José Chiapa with its rustic local chapel.
   Although Palafox ultimately failed in his bid to humble the Jesuits, the state of Puebla and the community of San José Chiapa did not forget him. 
   A century later, in the mid 1700s, the then bishop of Puebla, Francisco Fabián y Fuero, built the present church to honor Palafox. It was completed in 1769—as it happened, only two years after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Mexico.
  This history is reflected in the design and iconography of the striking church front as well as the unique main altarpiece inside. 

Although the eclectic front of San José Chiapa features a soberly classical, grey stone entry like many churches in the city of Puebla, by contrast the rest of the broad front follows the colorful baroque style of other poblano facades. 
   Its most prominent decorative elements are the brilliantly whitewashed estípite pilasters to either side of the porch, set dramatically against a painted, brick red background and incorporating painted relief medallions.

The Palafox y Mendoza crest

The three principal escutcheons emphasize the special connection with Bishop Palafox. The two flanking the entry are emblazoned with heraldic shields like those in the 1728 portrait (above). 
   On the right are the arms of the noble Palafox y Mendoza family of Aragon, and to the left, the Palafox episcopal seal—a heart with a crucifix inscribed with his motto "The Crucifix is My Love" framed by a tasseled galero hat.

The Palafox episcopal seal

The Spanish imperial arms

The third escutcheon, in the overhead gable, displays the Spanish Royal arms with the quartered lions and castles of Leon and Castile at center, surrounded by other symbols and framed by the chain of the aristocratic Order of the Golden Fleece—intended as a tribute to Bishop Palafox' devoted support of royal authority.  
   Since most Spanish royal insignia have been erased from Mexican buildings since Independence, this remains one of the few still in place.

Slender neoclassical bell towers with tiled cupolas complete the picture. Of special interest are the forged iron crosses atop the cupolas, which bear the archiepiscopal insignia of the miter, crozier and patriarchal cross.

The Retablo Mayor

Inside the church, the imposing main altarpiece is one among a rare handful of Mexican retablos carved in stone* instead of the customary wood. 

   In addition, the chosen stone is tecali, or Mexican alabaster, a colorfully striated, translucent marble that is quarried in Puebla in a variety of tints—here a warm silvery/green.

   Probably dating from the late 1760s, the altarpiece features twisted, salamónica columns and several stone statues of saints, including the Virgin Mary swaying against the window. 

   The centerpiece of the retablo is the Crucifixion with the Two Marys—no doubt a reference to Bishop Palafox' motto—an amazing work of art especially considering the difficulty in working this kind of stone.

Updates: 
Recently, after centuries of petitioning, Bishop Palafox has been beatified, the first stage in eventual canonization, testimony to his continued relevance and veneration among poblanos.  
  As we shall see, Palafox was also involved in another seminal stone altarpiece in Puebla.

* Other late colonial stone retablos in Mexico include those in the cathedrals of Puebla (Los Reyes) and Chihuahua, The Santuario de Guadalupe in Aguascalientes, El Carmen in San Luis Potosí, San Pablo El Viejo in Mexico City and Huentitán near Guadalajara, several of which we plan to describe in future posts.

text © 2015 Richard D. Perry.  images by Niccolò Brooker and Benjamin Arredondo.

additional source material: La Capilla de San José Chiapa by Francisco de La Maza 

México,  Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1960.

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Nayarit. Santa Teresa del Nayar.

Here is another post on outlying colonial monuments of interest in Mexico.

   Aside from some foundations in Baja California and Sonora, the Jesuits had a small footprint in Mexico at large. One exceptional cluster of Jesuit missions and associated Presidios is found in Nayarit state in western Mexico, a highland region known to the Order as San Jose de Toledo del Gran Nayar.
   Initially consisting of a group of primitive pole and thatch structures, most of these early missions were expanded into masonry or adobe churches in the later 1700s, shortly before the expulsion of the Order in 1767, following which some were taken over and expanded by the Franciscans.

The mission of La Santisima Trinidad was the principal church and convento in the group, but our focus in this post is the unfinished, roofless church of Santa Teresa, notable for its sculpted stone front and stone main retablo.  The “reduction” was established in 1722, but the present ruined church was probably built in the 1760s, and later virtually rebuilt by the Franciscans from the 1770s.

The Church
The church is still fronted by a large atrium or plaza which retains other colonial structures including the thatched Casa Real or community house of the area Cora Indians.
   The facade is constructed entirely of stone blocks. The handsome main doorway is carved with various ornamental foliated motifs including crowned, two headed Hapsburg imperial eagles on the lower jambs. The doorway is closely flanked by decorative colonettes, while reliefs of pelicans? and felines are embedded or either side .

The Retablo.
One of the handful of known colonial stone retablos*, this altarpiece is divided into three sections in two tiers, each with ornately framed but now empty sculpture niches, divided by sequences of plain half columns. 
   Probably dating from the 1770s, it is an artifact of the Franciscan occupation of the mission. The upper tiers are capped in part by knotted cord moldings—a classic Franciscan signature.

Like the facade the retablo is carved with ornamental reliefs including another prominent two headed eagle, this time without a crown but posed on a cactus with a serpent in each mouth—a reference to the Aztec and now Mexican national symbol.  Two similar smaller reliefs appeared on either side along with the Jerusalem cross—another Franciscan symbol.  Some of the original statues of saints are reputed to remain in the nearby parish church.

* Other late colonial stone retablos in Mexico include those in the cathedrals of Puebla (Los Reyes) and Chihuahua, The Santuario de Guadalupe in Aguascalientes, San Jose Chiapa, El Carmen in San Luis Potosí, San Pablo El Viejo in Mexico City and Huentitán near Guadalajara.

text © 2020 Richard D. Perry

My acknowledgments to Arturo Saavedra Rubio who brought this church and retablo to my attention, and the published research of Cecilia Gutiérrez Arriola: 
 Misiones del Nayar., UNAM. ANALES DEL INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES ESTÉTICAS, NÚM. 91 2007

   Un retablo en Piedra en la Sierra del Nayar.  en Retablos, su restauracion estudio y conservacion, UNAM. I.I.E. 2003

Treasures of Mexico City: Tepepan

On a trip to document the carved stone crosses of the Mexico City area, we visited the singular church of Santa María Tepepan, near Xochimilco in the southern part of the city—another in our occasional series on distinctive and historic Mexico City colonial monuments.

©Felipe Falcón

Santa Maria de la Visitación Tepepan

The unusual placement of this church on an elevated site is in part due to the fact that the hill upon which it rests was formerly a popular shrine to the Aztec mother goddess Tonantzin.

   Under the impetus of Fray Pedro de Gante, the pioneering Franciscan educator, this site, sacred to a female deity, was appropriated for a 16th century shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, for whose construction the traditional stone working skills of the local native artisans were redirected.

   Several colonial art works of interest are found in the church and its precincts:

First, the former stone atrium cross is now raised above the entry gateway. Similar in style to the early Franciscan cross at San Juan Coyoacán, it features an eroded, stylized crown of thorns at the axis. The bulbous head and arms of the cross terminate in flared, forked finials with protruding buds, and feathery reliefs anchor the foot of the cross.

The imposing but generally undistinguished church front is dominated by its sober tezontle doorway, and the twin, moorish style windows to either side—part of a later remodel. 
   However, the principal item of interest in the facade is the finely textured, early stone statue of the richly robed Virgin in the center niche, standing on a globe supported by St Francis—another testament to local artistry.

©Felipe Falcón

Inside the church an unusual, screen like, gilded retablo in intricate late baroque style showcases an exquisite painted alabaster statue of the Virgin Mary with Child, likely dating from the 16th century.  

   Housed in a center niche elaborately framed by pilasters with atlantean figures, the figure of the Virgin is again shown upheld by a kneeling St Francis—a sculpted image of later origin.

©Felipe Falcón

Polychrome busts occupy the surrounding niches, and overhead, a large panel of the Trinity with a crown underscores the theme of the Coronation. The outer wings of the altarpiece house large, ornately framed, late colonial paintings portraying the early life of Christ and the Virgin.

©Felipe Falcón

Frescoes along the nave, both colonial and post colonial, include a folkloric painted wall retablo with archangels displaying the Instruments of Christ’s Passion.

Finally, the baptismal font at Tepepan is a rare, possibly unique example of an early glazed ceramic font. It is dated 1599 by an inscription at the base—a time when ceramic work on this scale was uncommon in Mexico (it was formerly thought to be a Spanish import). 
   Prominent Franciscan knotted cords encircle the bowl which is inset with winged cherubs and an attached oval cameo of Christ. The separate supporting column is also adorned with angels and festoons.

text © 2015 Richard D. Perry. images by the author and courtesy of Felipe Falcón

Please visit our other pages in this series: San Bernardo; San Pablo El Viejo;

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by buying our guidebooks on colonial Mexico

Treasures of Mexico City: La Capilla de La Conchita Cuepopan

Following up on the chapels of Coyoacán, we look at another unusual chapel elsewhere in the city, La Capilla de La Conchita de Cuepopan.

Situated in the ancient native barrio of Cuepopan (Where the flowers open up) north of the zócalo in Mexico City, and located in the former precincts of the nunnery of La Concepción, beside whose 17th century church it stands, the unique chapel of La Concepcion, aka La Conchita, has seen many changes since its founding in 1617 as an adjunct to the convent. 

The convent church of La Concepción

Originally dedicated to Santa Lucia, the chapel later served as the last resting place of the destitute, when it became known as La Capilla de Los Muertos.

The most singular feature is its hexagonal plan, its exterior walls faced in baroque style. 

The arched classical entry, framed by fluted pilasters and foliated reliefs, boasts a keystone carved with a relief of St Francis.

Above the doorway, a similarly framed shell niche contains a statue of Christ the Nazarene surmounted by the Marian monogram.

Please visit our earlier posts on Mexico City: San Bernardo; Tepepan; San Pablo El Viejo; Sta Teresa la Antigua; 

text © 2019 Richard D. Perry

images © Niccolo Brooker and online sources

Stone Retablos: La Castrense, New Mexico

In earlier posts in this series we featured the stone altarpieces at San José Chiapa, Puebla Cathedral, Guadalupe in Aguascalientes, Chihuahua cathedral and San Pablo El Viejo in Mexico City.  
   Although it is beyond our usual purview, we now look at another exceptional stone altarpiece, this time across the border in New Mexico.

© Niccolò Brooker

La Castrense Altarpiece

In 1756, the Spanish military engineer and cartographer Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco was brought to Santa Fé by Governor Francisco Antonio Marín del Valle, to create a detailed map* of the province.  This was duly published two years later—a brilliant achievement.
   In addition to his other skills, Miera y Pacheco was also a sculptor and designer with knowledge of contemporary artistic currents in Mexico, and soon after his map making project, he started work on this remarkable altarpiece—a monumental work unique in the religious art of New Mexico.  
  Carved entirely from three enormous slabs of locally quarried limestone, it was completed in 1761 for the new military chapel of La Castrense, in downtown Santa Fé—another pet project of the governor.  
   This chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Light, fell into disrepair and in 1859 was demolished, when its great retablo was moved to the cathedral, only to be later dismantled. 
   Rescued from storage and reassembled in the 1930s, it now resides in the nearby church of El Cristo Rey, where it is dramatically lit by the afternoon sun through transverse clerestory windows above the sanctuary—a distinctive New Mexico architectural feature.

Still in a good state of preservation, the altarpiece follows the orderly pattern of Mexican baroque retablo design in the late colonial period, in which images of saints—often paintings but in this case carved, painted reliefs—are displayed in tiers and framed by decorative columns or supports. 
   Here the supports take the form of bulbous estípite pilasters, a signature feature of many mid 18th century Mexican altarpieces, some incorporating busts and caryatids, some with three heads and others with native features.

Angels with cornucopia occupy the gable ends while bands of foliated ornament adorn the cornices and intervening spaces throughout. Numerous traces of pigment in the reliefs indicate that the altarpiece was once brilliantly colored.

Our Lady of Light

The Imagery

Iconographically the altarpiece also holds much of interest. Today the retablo is still officially dedicated to Our Lady of Light, whose cult, promoted by the Jesuits, enjoyed a great vogue in Mexico and the borderlands after the mid-1700s.
   The stone relief image appears in an octagonal frame in the lower center niche. Its washed out appearance and poor fit in the niche are due to the fact that the relief was originally placed in the facade of the chapel and saved before its demolition. Later it was placed in the lower niche, which formerly held a statue.
   Our Lady of Light is portrayed in her classic pose: accompanied on one side by an angel holding up a basket of flaming hearts to the infant Jesus, and on the other rescuing a youth from the jaws of hell.
   Although cracked and weathered, the relief has a more sophisticated, if conventional appearance than the other, more folkloric reliefs, although with less character to the eye of this viewer, suggesting a later, possibly post colonial date.

Santiago Matamoros

Above her in the center is another large relief, similarly framed, depicting Santiago Matamoros, the warlike patron of Reconquest Spain—an appropriate figure to appear in a military chapel. 
   Mounted, with sword and banner, the saint smites turbanned Moors beneath his horse's hooves.  Note the shell on his saddle blanket, the traditional symbol of his peaceable alter ego Santiago Peregrino. 

Our Lady of Valvanera

Perhaps the most interesting image in the retablo is a relief in the middle of the top tier depicting Our Lady of Valvanera—a rarely shown advocation of the Virgin Mary, especially in New Mexico, and possibly a patron of the governor's wife, María Ygnacia Martínez de Ugarte.

   Although her customary visual attributes are complex and variable, here she is shown sheltering in an oak tree seated on an eagle throne. The Virgin is crowned, along with the young Christ who holds an open book.  In her other hand she holds a flowering heart.  
   Other details include a beehive on the top right and below it the figures of an angel appearing to a hermit—the repentant thief who, according to legend, encountered the miraculous image in a tree while looking for honey and left an offering of his ill gotten gains, an open coffer of jewelry, at her feet (lower right).
   In the crowning pediment, God the Father, complete with triple tiara and orb, gestures in benediction.  

                                  St. Joseph;                    St. Francis Solano baptizing natives

St. Ignatius Loyola                                 St. John Nepomuk

The remaining relief figures include St. Joseph, a Franciscan favorite and the Franciscan St. Francis Solano, together with Jesuit saints Ignatius Loyola and John Nepomuk.

The presence of Franciscan and Jesuit saints in the same altarpiece may reflect the conflict or power struggle raging between the two missionary Orders in the borderlands at that time—a conflict that was settled when the Jesuits were summarily expelled from the New World in 1767 and their missions transferred to the Franciscans.

The altarpiece bears the following inscription:

“A devoción de Señor Don Francisco Antonio Marín del Valle, Gobernador y Capitán General de este Reino ... Y de su esposa María Ygnacia Martínez de Ugarte, 1761.” 

Aside from its intrinsic historical and artistic interest, this spectacular altarpiece and its imagery are believed to have inspired many later santeros in New Mexico.

* 1758 map of New Mexico by Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco

• text © 2015 by Richard D. Perry.  color images © Robert Guess except where noted.
• Thanks to our friend Ginny Guess for bringing this retablo to our attention 
• And to Mike Lord of Voces de Santa Fe for his helpful assistance.
• Much of the information for this post came from an article by an eminent art historian, the late Pal Kelemen, “The Significance of the Stone Retable of Cristo Rey,” El Palacio, Vol 61, No. 8, 1954: 243-273