TOWARD
RECONSTRUCTING THE LOST RETABLO
OF
TEPOSCOLULA
© James B. Kiracofe
1995
[This is an unpublished manuscript that was written to summarize field work
on retablo art related to 16th century urbanization in Teposcolula
conducted between
1988 and 1995]
Posted: 27 September 2000:
Additional images illustrating the text will be posted
within
the next few days.
Sacred
Art and the Sacramental Imagination
European sacred art was the instrument of transformation of the
indigenous sacramental imagination from perception based on Pre-Colombian
religious and mythological symbol systems to
a visualization of spiritual life in Christian terms. Music and visual arts had
long featured prominently in Pre-Colombian religious observances, but with the
coming of Catholic Christianity altar pieces in the Spanish tradition, known as retablos,
became the new focus of
religious instruction, contemplation and devotion.1
These spectacular shimmering retablos filled the apse or open chapel with a
towering edifice of golden columns and paintings presenting didactic narrative
pictorials of scriptural themes. These were interlaced with niches from which
the sculptural evocation of the company of heaven looked out over the gathered
congregation of the faithful as they experienced miraculous contact with the
divine in regular celebrations of the Eucharist.
Archival evidence in Mexico shows that such a retablo was under
construction in Teposcolula in 1565, while other documents link Andrés Concha
and Simon Pereyns, two well documented European artists active in Mexico, with
another elaborate but no longer extant retablo built in Teposcolula in the year
1578. Even though that retablo no longer exists, the comparative study of
surviving sixteenth-century
retablos in central Mexico and elsewhere in the Mixteca Alta provides a
methodology leading to a plausible reconstruction of the iconographic themes of
the lost retablo of Teposcolula presented at the conclusion of this chapter.
Because of the perishable nature of this art form, only a few intact
examples of sixteenth-century retablos survive,
all found in Central Mexico. They are the retablos found in the
Franciscan Conventos at Huejotzingo, Xochimilco, Cuauhtinchán, Tecali and
Huaquechula.2
I have used the Spanish word convento to refer to the residential
precinct of the mendicant establishments. This might be translated by the
English word monastery, except that the residents in the Mexican case were not,
strictly speaking, monks living in contemplative, cloistered seclusion. Rather,
the inhabitants of these structures were missionary friars, whose mission was
precisely to live among the indigenous peoples in the largest population
centers. Rather than leading cloistered, secluded lives, they were very much
involved with the day to day events of their communities. For this reason I have
chosen to use the Spanish word convento, in
common use in Mexico even today, to refer to these special religious houses. I
intend, thereby, to distinguish these Mexican conventos of
missionary friars from monasateries of contemplative monks. This may seem
at first to be spliting hairs, but I believe it is a more accurate usage than
the standard English translation would be. Fortunately, the original contracts
for construction of one of them--at Huejotzingo--have survived. These identify
the artists and specific programmatic requirements. A brief discussion of these
examples, together with some
biographical notes concerning the artists who created them, will provide a general background for an investigation
of retablo art in the Mixteca.
Unfortunately, in the Mixteca Alta there are no known examples of
sixteenth-century main altar pieces surviving in original condition. There are,
however, some scattered documentary records which permit
the re-construction of a chronological framework, and actually identify
specific artists whose works are known in the surviving example at Huejotzingo
and elsewhere. There are also several seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
retablos in which significant elements of their sixteenth-century predecessors
appear.
From these documents and
surviving elements a context will be developed
within which some fragmentary artifacts of early retablo art in Teposcolula may be approximately located and analyzed. The
early development of Christian spirituality in local religious practice in the
Mixteca will be partially reconstructed by examining these surviving artifacts
and documentary evidence from the 16th century. Interpreting these artifacts and
documents is important because through them we can open a window into the
thought-world of the contact period, an opportunity not everywhere available in
Mexico. Furthermore, this approach helps build up our general understanding of
the process of cultural transmission and transformation through comparative
study with surviving fragments of the contact era found elsewhere.
What follows, then, is an exploration of 16th-century religious art in
Mexico beginning with a biographical note on an important Flemish retablo maker
followed by a general overview of content and technique of a well known and well
documented example his work among
others, before focusing more narrowly on examples in Dominican churches in the
Mixteca. After tabulating and analyzing the results of this survey we will turn
finally to consider the specific case of Teposcolula. Drawing on the surviving
evidence on site and on the patterns of iconographic themes emerging from the
tabulation a plausible reconstruction of the lost retablo of Teposcolula will be
proposed. This discussion, then, will
examine the local iconographic and devotional program initiated by the Dominican
friars in Teposcolula as a matrix for Christian meditation and devotion within
the principal locus of ritual performance in the new urban environment.
Simón
Pereyns: A Flemish Artist in the New World
Huejotzingo 
Xochimilco
The altarpiece of Huejotzingo, which has many similarities to that of
Xochimilco, was executed in 1586 by the Flemish artist Simón Pereyns who in the
contracts inserted a provision permitting collaboration by Andrés
Concha. As we will see,
these two artists had by this time
already worked together in Teposcolula and perhaps elsewhere in the Mixteca.
Moreover, it even appears that they had married related women.3
Simón Pereyns was among the greatest retablo makers of his day, and the
contracts for Huejotzingo suggest the scale and complexity of his artistic
enterprise. Indeed, his work set the standard for excellence in his age. He was
at the pinnacle of patronage in Spain before embarking on a New World career
demonstrateing that the
transmission of form culture from Spain into the New World was not always
haphazard, but often a direct result of royal and viceregal choice and
patronage. The high art of the 16th-century Mexico had direct roots in the royal
court of Spain, traceable through the life of Simón Pereyns, among others.
Most of what we know concerning the life of Simón Pereyns before his
arrival in Mexico emerged from a hearing before the Inquisition in 1568.4
He was born in Amberes at an uncertain date, where he began to study art.
His parents apparently held a minor claim to "hijodalgo" status. He
left Amberes in 1558 for Lisboa in an era of flourishing artistic exchange
between Portugal and Flanders. There he studied nine months with an unknown
painter before leaving for Toledo where the Spanish court was established. He
was seen in the presence of the king, whose portrait he painted along with
portraits of other members of the royal family. In the luminous constellation of
artists attracted to the Spanish court at that time were Antonio Moro, the
famous portraitist; el Mudo--Juan Fernández de Navarrete, who received numerous
commissions from Felipe II for the Escorial; Gaspar Becerra, a sculptor who also
painted; the remarkable Alonzo Berruguete, who had worked with Michelangelo in
Italy; Luis de Morales, el Divino; and Alonso Sánchez Coello, Portuguese by
birth and education, but Spanish by style, established at court since 1557.
Clearly then, Simón Pereyns worked among the elite artists of his era.
In Toledo Pereyns was a portrait painter rather than a painter of
religious art. He later lived in Seville where he was among the leading painters
working in the Mannerist style. In Madrid he met the Marqués de Falces, don
Gastón de Peralta, who was about to leave for New Spain to become Viceroy. The
Marqués offered to take Pereyns along, an offer Pereyns accepted. Thus Simón
Pereyns arrived in New Spain on 17 September 1566 in the immediate entourage of
the new Viceroy. The political problems stirred up by Martín Cortes were not
long over when Peralta took power, and he soon fell victim to the dangerous
factional infighting. He began his brief administration by decorating the palace
with the good taste for which he
was known. Pereyns was his painter,
creating scenes of war with as many as 30,000 soldiers. While in México Pereyns
stayed in the house of Claudio de Arciniega, the famous architect of the
metropolitan cathedral. And again, Pereyns was to be found in the company of the
leading artists of the realm.
When Peralta returned to Spain in March 1568, Pereyns wanted to return
with him but Peralta ordered him to stay to finish a retablo that he was making
for the Augustinian house at Malinalco. However, enemies of Peralta and a rival
colonial artist, Francisco de Morales, perhaps fearful of competition from an
artist of Pereyns' stature, apparently in an example of personal vengeance
implemented through the Tribunal de la Fe, denounced him to the precursor of the
Inquisition whose officer was the
vicar of the Archbishop. Pereyns was accused of believing men and women living
together out of wedlock was not so bad, of not wishing to paint saints,
and of having a father who was Lutheran. Evidently Pereyns was a bachelor
who spoke Spanish poorly and at times did not even understand the proceedings.
Surviving works by Pereyns include six paintings for the principal
retablo of Mexico City Cathedral, 1584; the Retablo Mayor of Huejotzingo, 1587;
and a panel with San Cristóbal in the Mexico City Cathedral, 1588. Toussaint
notes that in the case of Huejotzingo the paintings are uneven in quality, and
he points out that the great painters had collaborators whose works were not the
equal of the maestro; the lower
paintings, those most easily seen by the viewers, were the best.
Huejotzingo
and Xochimilco:
Christian
Devotional Art to Refurnish the Imagination
Elizabeth Wilder Weisman remarked on their similarity of form, technique
and presence of the saintly bishops portrayed in the 16th-century retablos of
Huejotzingo and Xochimilco, and
noted that this is indicative of the traditionalism of the retablo workshops in
Mexico of that period. She also showed that their importance is more than merely
decorative:
They
have character as well as splendor: they come from the time of Humanism, when it
was not enough for a saint to be robed and haloed--he must have personality as
well. So the retable is a congregation of holy figures, grave, good and
trustworthy 5
Looking at the two bishops carved in wood then gessoed, painted and
gilded in the second half of the 16th century, their strikingly lifelike quality
still comes through, even in a photograph. These were not neutral, standardized
caricatures, but engagingly human portraits, lost in time, looking out with a
concerned and kindly benevolence from their stations beside the altar, amid the
wafting incense and cascade of gilt, luminous in the shimmering light of
candles. To the student of art in the 20th century these examples of religious
expression remain impressive and evocative, retaining their individuality even
after four centuries. If this is so for a professional who has examined with a
critical eye hundreds of other such pieces, how would these friendly figures
affect the imagination of the Indian parishioners of the 16th century?
How different would the experience have been for those who came to know
these holy men and all their companions high on the radiant altar over a
lifetime, from the day of their arrival in the church? These saintly figures
became the focus of religious instruction as friars introduced them to
parishoners and as parents introduced children and passed devotional
relationships from one generation to the next. The particular web of intimacy
between the communicant and the family of saints represented in a given altar
formed the basis of distinctive local variations of Catholic Christian practice.
Through these special relationships the faithful sought entrance into the realm
of the miraculous.
Weisman explained that this kind of art was the work of Spanish masters
who worked in large shops, directing teams of specialized artisans organized
according to task and assisted by apprentices and general laborers. The entrance
to apprenticeship was tightly controlled by a guild system, jealous of its
monopoly on this all important and quite lucrative industry of ecclesiastic art.
It was here, after all, at the vortex of the Spanish cultural forces, that the
arts made their most important contribution to the daily life of the population.
The creation and installation of these altar pieces was rigorously
"supervised by a small group
of Europeans in the capital." Thus, according to Weisman, "retable
making continued traditional, and extraordinarily high in quality, throughout
the three colonial centuries, regardless of changes in style."
Manuel Toussaint described the regulations concerning these guilds, which
included ordinances from as early as 1568, with others being added in 1589.
These outline exactly what an "escultor" was required to know, as well
as the responsibilities of an "entallador." For sculptors the examination included
a
nude figure, and another clothed, giving satisfaction in its construction, in
regard both to drawing and to style, and then to make it in the round, well
proportioned and graceful, and if they know how to do this, they are to be given
their certificate and present to the Cabildo. 6
Wood carvers were required to
know
how to carve a capital or column decorated with carving and foliage, a cherub, a
bird, and know how to cut wood well, and to execute the background, and should
know how to draw everything, and if they know this, they should be given their
certificate in the form prescribed.7
Toussaint
adds "The Indians were not bound by these ordinances and
could freely pursue their crafts; but it was against the law for any Spaniard,
even a master of the guild, to buy work from them to be resold in his
shop." 8
Thus, a town like Xochimilco could have Indian craftsmen known for their Santos.
Weisman stated that Vetancurt's comment that "...they are makers of santos
which here are celebrated" "raises the question of whether the retable
might be local work."9
Toussaint went on to draw the distinction between those who carved wood
"en Blanco" and those others who applied the finishes and details,
that is the "estofado" and "encarnación" which referred to
the drapery of clothing and the flesh and included any necessary gilt work.10
Those who performed this work were called "doradores" and had a
carefully defined craft. Many of these also practiced picture painting.11
Xochimilco:
A Summary of the Iconography
Monica Herrerias de la Fuente wrote a valuable study of the retablo of
San Bernardino de Sienna in the Franciscan mission church of Xochimilco.12
She provided a schematically illustrated discussion of the several
aspects of this retablo, including detailed discussions of its history,
construction technique, and iconography. Her work, partially summarized
below, demonstrated the way in which such an altar piece was planned,
executed and installed and how it was intended to edify the faithful.
She noted that no retablos from 16th century New Spain are known to have
had Old Testament scenes depicted.13
Perhaps there was concern that some of the contents of the Old Testament
might confuse those new converts, themselves just coming from a sacrificial
religion. She showed with a series of diagrams that the scheme of arrangement of
the iconography was not by hazard, but rather according to a traditional pattern
of hierarchy, with the Eternal Father always in the highest position.
At Xochimilco there are in all 34 personalities represented in sculpture
and eight large canvases depicting important
narrative scenes from the New Testament, perhaps by Baltazar de Echave
Orio.14
The diagrams following this discussion have been reproduced from de la
Fuente and illustrate the arrangement of the composition.15
In general terms, this composition conforms to a grid, or matrix of horizontal
sections, called "cuerpos," and vertical sections called "calles."
At Xochimilco there are four cuerpos surmounted by the "remates" and
seven calles. The cuerpos are separated by "entablomentes" composed of
"frisos" and in this case "frontons"
over the niches in the odd numbered calles. The calles are separated by
columns. The central calle included the "zocolo" at its bottom and God
the Father on the top. At Xochimilco there is a door in the zocolo behind a
curtain which gives hidden access for the officiants to other areas of the
building, such as the sacristy. Flanking the central calle are calles of niches
with life sized statues that are flanked by calles of large oil paintings with
devotional scenes from the New Testament, these in turn flanked by the outer
most calles, again niches for sculpture. Beneath the cuerpos is a pediment band,
called the "predela" or sometimes the "banco."
From the nave the retablo set in the apse is concave in appearance. The
central calle and its flanking niches form the back wall, and the outer calles
on each side, including the large oil paintings and the last calle of niches
with sculpture on each side, form wings turned at an angle, thus creating the
concave appearance. Behind the retablo in
a back stage area seen only by the priests and sacristans are large timbers let
into the stone wall of the apse which are tied into the structural framing of
the retablo itself. In this way the whole edifice, weighing thousands of pounds,
is stabilized and secured to the rest of the building.
Forming the foundation of the retablo, symbolically reflecting their role
in the history of the church, are the apostles and the evangelists who first
spread the faith and broadened the base of the faithful. They are carved in high
relief, almost 3/4 height, and make up the predela or banco. Included in this
bottom band of ornament are the identifying emblematic shields of the Franciscan
order, the crossed arms and the Five Wounds of Christ. In the next cuerpo above
these, flanking the zocolo are, from left to right, the four Fathers of the
Latin Church, Saints Ambrosio, who brought hymn singing from Syria, Gregorio,
Jeronimo, and Agustin. Above these in the next cuerpo are saints of the church
from a slightly later period who have associations with preaching and
establishment of the orders: Luis de Tolosa, Santo Domingo de Guzman, San
Francisco and San Antonio de Padua. Above them in the next cuerpo
is a row of martyr saints: San Lorenzo, San Sebastian, San Juan Bautista,
and San Esteban. The martyr saints were significant because as
Francisco de la Maza pointed out:
Sacrifice
is indispensable for the life and development of a religion...to give one's self
up to death for a new life...since without martyrdom as an offering there is no
persistence in the Faith...Martyrdom and renunciation also attract, like
theology and active example, thousands of persons and complement Christianity.16
Christ
on the Cross was originally set in the highest cuerpo,
flanked by paintings of the Ascension and the Assumption, and by Saint
Catalina and a fourth figure, but
today this space is actually
occupied by the Virgin of Xochimilco.17
Above this cuerpo, flanked by Maria Egipiaca, Maria Magdalena and Hope
and Faith is God the Father. Schematically the attention is always drawn to the
pinnacle of the symbolic overlapping triangles, which is Christ Crucified.
In
this manner is integrated a doctrinal body organized logically to represent the
principal personalities who over time participated with their lives and works in
the program of the salvation and redemption of human kind, following the path
shown by Christ; by this, all the triangles, that is to say, all the ideological
contents, is made reality in the Son of the Creator, Jesus Christ, and in Him
should converge the symbolism expressed in this retablo; thus also the image of
the Virgin would be out of place, since she occupies the site which corresponds
to her Son, in whom culminates all the work of the Father, who contemplates his
creation from on high. 18
The
eight paintings included depict The Annunciation, the Adoration by the
shepherds, the Circumcision, Pentecost, the Resurrection, the Assumption, and
the Ascension. The two Marys at the top do not appear integrated within the
symbolic grouping, but as de la Fuente suggests, this can be taken to show that
they were penitent and their sacrifice of pleasure which they abandoned in order
to follow the path of Christ. 19
The Virgin Mary today in the place originally intended for the Christ
Crucified, that is in the top cuerpo in the central calle, dates, according to
Weisman, from the 16th century.20
The role of images in Catholic Christianity is an issue to be approached
with some delicacy, particularly when discussing 16th century practices in
Mexico. Weisman shared some valuable insights in her notes on this topic. She
quoted Grijalva who wrote in 1592
In
the cult and reverence of the images they are extremists...and it is well known
that an Indian who has not the will to spend two reales for his clothes or food,
spends with great generosity a
thousand on an image.
She
added that even the Council of Trent had to give the matter special attention,
and concluded that "the tendency to idolatry was not Indian but
human." Indian religious practice before the conquest involved the worship
of idols, substituting Christian images was a challenging, but necessary, part
of the process, and one which no doubt made the evangelization easier, if not,
indeed possible.
Religious buildings were under way in the 1530's at Xochimilco. Laws regulating the practice of the artistic trades were in
place as early as 1568, suggesting that there were enough European tradesmen
facing competition by enough Indian free lance workers to seek this kind of
protection. Geronimo de Mendieta was Guardian at Xochimilco in 1576 and was
having side altars built.21
Weisman noted that this "does not necessarily date the retable
principal earlier. A high altar was presumably provided first, but it might well
have been replaced later when it seemed old fashioned and inferior to the
collateral altarpieces." Diego Angulo
Iñiguez attributed the present main retablo and paintings to Baltazar de Echave
Orio, 1605.22
The
Retablo at Tecali
In the parrish church of Tecali stands the splendid retablo mayor
originally built for the adjacent and now ruined circa 1569 convento. Guillerrmo
Tovar de Teresa tentatively attributes the work, at least in part, to the well known architect Claudio de Arciniega or his
brother Luis.23
The predella features four paintings depicting the Doctors of the Church:
Saints Ambrosio, Gregorio, Jeronimo, and Agustin, above these there are five
major narrative scenes in three cuerpos begining on the bottom with the
Annunciación and Visitación. In the center cuerpo are the Adoración de los
Pastores on the left and the Adoración de los Reyes on the right, and in the
top cuerpo in the center is the Bautismo. There
are two vertical rows of three niches each, on the left from the bottom are
sculptural representations of San Francisco, Santa Clara, and San Esteban, on
the right Santo Domingo, Santa Catalina, and San Lorenzo. Flanking the Bautismo
are symbolic representsations of Hope and Faith, and at the top, the Padre
Eterno. In the central niche is a representation of Santiago, the patron saint
of the convento church, as a pilgrim, with the characteristic shell at his left
sholder, a pouch at his waist, and his right arm posed to hold the now missing
pilgrim's staff. In addition to the
emphasis on the early life of Christ in the narratives, the Baptism and
depiction of Santiago with his shell allude to water symbolism, an important
concern in any agrarian society.
Retablo at Cuauhtinchan
This is probably the oldest Retablo de testero in America.24
It was made circa 1570 for the main altar of church of San Francisco de Puebla,
later Juan de Arrúe acquired it as part payment for other work. He sold it to
the pueblo of Tehuacán. An earthquake damaged the church in Tehuacan before it
could be installed, so to protect it from deterioration, the retablo was sold to
the people of Cuauhtinchan for their church dedicated to San Juan Bautista
Cuauhtinchan where it arrived
in 1601. According to Guillermo Tovar de Teresa, the spectacular and
recently restored retablo was originally created by Nicolás Tejeda de Guzmán,
painter, and Pedro de Brizuela, sculptor. The narrative program is
arranged as shown in the diagram below.
On the sides are guardapolvos, or "dust protectors" seen
on early retablos in Spain.25
On the the left or Evangelio side are from bottom to top the following saints:
Catarina de Alejandría, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo de Guzman, San Bernardino de
Siena, San Juan Bautista, and San Buenaventura. On the right side, or Epistola,
from botom to top are: Santa María Magdelena, San
Lorenzo, San Agust:in, San Luis de Anjou, San Miguel Arcangél and San
Antonio de Padua. All are looking
toward the center of the retablo. In the Praedella, symbolically representing
the foundation of the churchare the Apostoles, in this case oddly includeing
Judas Iscariote without halo, but with the bag of money with a large bent noze
symbolizing his moral deformity.26
Left to right they are:Judas Tadeo, Santiago Menor, Bartolomé, Mateo, Tomás,
Pedro, Juan, Andrés, Santiago Mayor, Felipe, Simón, and Judas Iscariote. The
central niche probably originally had a San Francisco in it, but this was
changed for Tehuacan, whose advocation was the Inmaculada.
This brief overview of the surviving central Mexican sixteenth-century
retablos and the artists who made them has provided a background of technical
information, biographical notes, and thematic patterns which will contribute to
the reconstruction of the lost Teposcolula retablo created by Andrés Concha
in1578. But before proposing a probable reconstruction for Teposcolula, a brief
biographical sketch of the principal
artist and a review of three large retablos in the Dominican Churches in the
Mixteca at Yanhuitlán, Tamazulapan and Coixtlahuaca will add a useful
chronological, iconographic and stylistic background for a comprehensive
comparative tabulation and analysis.
Andrés
Concha and the Retablo at Yanhuitlán
According to Martín Soria, documentary evidence in Seville suggests that
Andrés Concha entered a contract
with Gonzalo de las Casas, encomendero of Yanhuitlán, in the years 1568-1570,
which resulted in a retablo in the apse of the Dominican church there, though if
the current Retablo is the original, then the original columns have been
replaced with Salamonic columns of a later era.27
Another document in México mentions the construction of a sumptuous retablo
there in 1579.28
Therefore paintings in the retablo in place today may be safely dated to this
time as an example of Andrés Concha's work, however Toussaint felt that the
rest of the retablo was of seventeenth-century construction.29
There are nine large canvases
arranged in three calles and sixteen
sculpted Santos arranged in four cuerpos with four Santos in each cuerpo.30
The lower cuerpo is obscured today by modern drapery, and the paintings are
darkened with time and difficult to make out, but the paintings as they are now
arranged may be read roughly from the bottom to the top, as shown in the table
below.31
The elaborately polychromed santos ranged in four calles include what
appear to be four Apostles in the first cuerpo, the Four Evangelists in the
second cuerpo, the Four Doctors of the
Church in the third cuerpo, the four Founders of the Religious orders in the
fourth cuerpo.32
Layout
of Paintings at Cuauhtinchan
Padre Eterna
Pentecostes
La Asunción de María
La Ascención de Cristo
Adoration Kings Niche
with Inmaculada
Resurection
Annunciation
Segrario
Adoration Sheperds
Apostles
Apostles
Layout
of Paintings at Yanhuitlán
Descendimiento
Virgen
del Rosario
Purísima
Jucio Final
Asención
Resurrección
Pentecostés
Adoración
/ Reyes
Circucisión
Anunciación
Adoración /Pastores
Magdalena
San Lucas
San Jerónimo
Santa ?
The
Retablo at Coixtlahuaca
At Coixtlahuaca the structure of the existing retablo is a late
confection in the Estipite Baroque style but which includes architectural and
artistic elements from an earlier mid sixteenth-century retablo,
such as plateresque fluted Ionic columns with garlands and monstrous
order columns.33
Toussaint noted that the paintings in the retablo of Coixtlahuaca were said to
be by Concha but later than those of Yanhuitlán which apparently influenced the
work at Coixtlahuaca.34
Although they are generally similar, the Coixtlahuaca group are less serene and
exhibit more movement and excitement. In composition and theme there are notable
similarities especially in the two sets of Adorations. Toussaint and others have
remarked on the influence of the Yanhuitlán paintings on the artist of those at
Coixtlahuaca and some have attributed the work to Simón Pereyns. If not by
Pereyns, then perhaps they are the work of a student of his or of Concha.35
The themes and arrangement of the paintings as they are to day are shown in the
following table:
Richard Perry notes that these paintings have been attributed to Andrés
Concha, and points out that the composition and animated figures are in the
style of Tintoretto. He adds that the palette tends to cool colors of blues,
greens and violets.36
The engaging life-like naturalism seen in the Coixtlahuaca Adoration captures a
moment in time as one of the shepherds is taking his hat off as he approaches
the Christ Child. The theme of the Adoration by the Shepherds is seen repeatedly
juxtaposed to the Adoration by the Three Kings in retablo art of this era,
perhaps to demonstrate the inclusiveness of the new religion, where the
significance of human dignity in devotion to Christ is not limited by social
station. Another important scene from the life of Christ frequently portrayed in
retablo art of the sixteenth century is the Presentation in the Temple, seen
here vividly depicted at Coixtlahuaca.
Layout of paintings at Coixtlahuaca
Padre
Eterno
Santa
Ana
Trinidad
San Joaquin
Asensión
del Señor
Crucifixión
Resurrección
Presentación
en el templo
Adoracion/Reyes
Adoración/
Pastores
Anunciación (?)
Apóstoles
Apóstoles
Apóstoles
Apóstoles
Layout of Santos at Coixtlahuaca
seated
Bearded Santo
Bearded Santo with book, red-brown cloak
San
Ambrosio (?)
San Gregorio (?)
Beardless
Santo w Book
Santo with Papal Tiara & and
hand
up to hold latígo?
book
Bishop's Mitre
San Juan Bautista
pointing to lamb
Santo
Domingo(?)
Santo Tomás de Aquino
Santo
in Hooded Habit with Book
Santo in hooded black habit with book and church
San
Pedro?
San Pablo?
Short
beard Preaching
Long Beard preaching,
r.
hand up, keys?
r. hand up, sword?
The bottom pair, Pedro and Pablo, are the most richly ornamented and
lively, each holding a book in one hand and apparently their now missing
attribute; keys and sword, with the other. They wear golden halos and
gorgeously made robes displaying elaborate estofado work.37 Their highly individual
and expressive faces are quite similarly made with a distinctive raised V
pattern clearly visible in their brows, perhaps suggesting the intensity of
their preaching, or concentration on the books they are intently reading. None
of the other faces have this distinctive feature. Pedro and Pablo appear to have
been made simultaneously by the same hands. I am inclined to think that these
two and perhaps next pair, the two friars above them, though somewhat less
dramatic in their poses,were made by the same hands at the time the new Estipite
Baroque retablo was installed, in the mid18th century. They are richly
ornamented with a more subdued estofado treatment of their darker habits. The
third pair, the doctors, are draped in copes more subdued yet, showing, except
for Gregory's tiara, little or no gilt work in the estofado, but nonetheless
displaying a baroque flair for movement accented by asymmetrical diagonal folds.
They appear to be slightly smaller than the friars, and show just slightly less
finesse in the treatment of the drapery. They may also be by the same maker as
those below.
The top pair are hard to see, but show care in shaping the dynamic
drapery, and have a little sparkle in the estofado.
The santo in red seems a little large for his niche, and the seated santo
is tilted back, his niche having come loose from its frame. San Juan Bautista in
the center holds a book on which is the Lamb he points to with the other hand.
His red and white mantle shows some deterioration, but was richly decorated with
elaborate patterns in the estofado. His posture is more balanced or static than
the others, perhaps appropriate for his position in the center. He is noticeably
smaller than Pedro and Pablo, and somewhat smaller than the friars. His niche
suits him well, though, as do those of the friars and the evangelists,
suggesting that if he does date from an earlier retablo, his place in the new
one was custom fitted for him. I am inclined to think that San Juan and perhaps
the unidentified saints on the top are earlier than the friars and the
evangelists. Richard Perry notes that "Simón Pereyns, the Flemish master
who collaborated with De la Concha at Yanhuitlan and created the Huejotzingo
altar piece, may have carved several of the figure sculptures at Coixtlahuaca."38
If this is so, then San Juan, the Doctors, and the unidentified saints at the
top are the likely candidates for this distinction. It appears that the
evangelists and friars were made at the time the retablo was rebuilt with the
estipite columns, but perhaps the faces of these last two groups were by
different hands, Pedro and Pablo in the most easily viewed and prominent
position on the bottom by the master, the friars, higher up, by apprentices.
The Retablo at Tamazulapan:
Concerning the beginnings of Christian religious life in Tamazulapan , we
know that a license was issued in 1542 for the people of that town to cut wood
in the mountains of Taxquiaco [modern Tlaxiaco] to build a church and "casa
de Doctrina."39
Later in 1585 the Cacique of Tamazulapan gave a piece of land to the
monastery, perhaps as an endowment.40
In 1587 Andrés Concha, referred to as "pintor del monasterio e iglesia de
Tamasulapam" entered a contract with the people of Tamazulapan for work on
a Retablo.41
But beyond these fragments of information surviving in the documentary record,
little is known with certainty concerning this splendid church. Indeed, as
Francisco de la Maza wrote:
Tamazulapan,
in the north of the State of Oaxaca, is an interesting example of confusion.
Remnants of an important retablo of the Sixteenth Century with paintings by Andrés
de la Concha now out of place and
entering a forced combination with paintings and sculptures and niches of the
Eighteenth Century that seek only to fill a space without any
teleological preocupation .42
Themes
in the fifteen major canvases all involve women, indeed the retablo, except for
Pedro and Pablo, seems mostly about women in family life. The following
photograph and table shows the arrangement.
Layout
of Paintings at Tamazulapan
Asunción Inmaculada
Virgen de Guadalupe
Anunciación
Decendimiento Santo Entierro
Presentación
Natividad?
Circuncisión
Adoration
Adoration
Ado.
(Reyes)
As de la Maza noted, these paintings appear to be by several hands and
from more than one period. Some of them, such as the two smaller works in the
top outside positions (not indicated in the scheme of 16th-century paintings
above) appear to be late 18th or 19th century pieces, judging by the clothing
styles. But the Circuncisión, shown here, repeats a theme seen in Andrés
Concha's work at Yanhuitlan and bears some similarity to the composition and
palette used at Coixtlahuaca, so it is likely that this is one of the paintings
done by Concha for the original
retablo at Tamazulapan.
While it is true that most of the santos in their niches are not
identifiable by any attribute, there are in the outermost niches of the bottom
cuerpo two sculptural pieces worthy of note for the striking and distinctive
similarity they bear to Pedro and Pablo at Coixtlahuaca. They also appear to be
Pedro, still preaching and missing his keys but with his hand held as if they
were there, and Pablo, still preaching and missing his sword but with his hand
held as if it were there. Their garments are made and ornamented in a remarkably
similar fashion. Their faces are similarly rendered:
Pedro with his short beard; Pablo with his flowing dark beard; and the
telltale raised V in their brow is identical to those of Coixtlahuaca. It is
quite likely that they came from the same shop at about the same time. Between
them are a man dressed in rich clothing which does not appear to be clerical,
one on knee with a hand over his heart, and the other outstretched, and a woman
also richly dressed, and not in a nun's habit. This couple bear no identifiable
iconographic attributes, and they are not as finely made as Pedro and Pablo and
appear to be the work of another hand. Clara
Bargellini has identified them as San Joachim and Santa Ana.43
The other figures filling up the niches are notable only for their blank,
emotionless faces, their oddly outstretched hands and uniformly non-descript
attire. They manifest no identifiable saintly attributes; and, as de la Maza
says, appear only to fill up their spaces.
SUMMARY
AND TABULATION
This
brief survey of 16th century retablos including the works by or attributed to
Simón Pereyns and Andrés Concha for the Dominicans in the Mixteca and for the
Franciscans in the Puebla area permits a comprehensive tabulation of themes
represented in the narrative paintings of sixteenth-century Mexico. A clear
pattern of iconographic emphasis may be seen in the following table of narrative
themes in the known surviving 16th-century main altarpieces and fragments.44
Narrative Themes in 16th-Century in
Retablos Mayores
Anunciación:
Yanhuitlan, Coixtlahuaca?, Tamazulapan, Xochimilco, Cuauhtinchán,
Acolman, Tecali
Visitación
Tecali
Natividad:
Tamazulapan
Adoración
Yanhuitlan, Coixtlahuaca, Tamazulapan, Xochimilco,
(Pastores)
Huejotzingo, Cuauhtinchán, Acolman, Tecali, Zinacontepec [Huaquechula]
Adoración
Yanhuitlan, Coixtlahuaca, Tamazulapan, Xochimilco,
(Reyes)
Huejotzingo, Cuauhtinchán, Acolman, Tecali, Epazoyucan [Huaquechula]
Circucisión:
Yanhuitlan, Tamazulapan, Xochimilco, Huejotzingo
Presentación:
Tamazulapan, Huejotzingo
Huida
a Egipto?: Tamazulapan
Baptism
Tecali
Oración
en el huerta
Epazoyucan
Ecce
Homo
Epazoyucan
Crucifixión:
Coixtlahuaca, Cuauhtinchán
Decendimiento:
Yanhuitlan, Tamazulapan
Santo
Entierro
Tamazulapan
Resurrección:
Yanhuitlan, Coixtlahuaca, Xochimilco, Huejotzingo, Cuauhtinchán
Ascensión:
Yanhuitlan, Coixtlahuaca, Tamazulapan, Xochimilco, Huejotzingo,
Cuauhtinchán
Pentecostés:
Yanhuitlan, Xochimilco,
Cuauhtinchán
Jucio
Final:
Yanhuitlan
Asunción
Cuauhtinchán
ANALYSIS
OF TABULATION OF ICONOGRAPHIC
THEMES
The tabulation shows that in every case of a surviving complete
set of retablo paintings considered
narrative paintings depicting the Adoration by the Shepherds were always
coupled with paintings of the Adoration by the Kings, demonstrating a crucial
linkage of these two themes from the beginning of Christ's life on Earth. The
only other narrative theme present in all such cases, except Tecali,
was the Ascension, the miracle closing Christ's earthly ministry. Further
analysis of the tabulation confirms the emphasis on the early life of Christ:
Indeed, the only other theme present in all three Mixtec cases was the
Annunciation. Furthermore, of the sixty canvases tabulated, including
fragmentary survivals of other now lost retablos,
thirty-six of them deal with themes from the early life of Christ. Of the
other twenty-four narratives,
eight focus on events from
the end of Christ's life, eleven
treat the miracles of the Resurrection and Ascension, while three depict
the Pentecost, and
one each the Last Judgment and the Assumption of the Virgin.
The main themes then, are the Annunciation, the Adoration by the
Shepherds, the Adoration by the Kings, the Resurrection and the Ascension.
Gertrude Schiller's monumental opus Iconography of Christian Art provides
some helpful insights on these themes. Keeping
in mind that these Mexican retablos were intended for audiences new
to the complexities of Christian doctrine, the story of the Annunciation
is important because it tells how the miracle of Virgin Birth occurred, and how
this direct divine intervention was related to Mary. This narrative sets the
stage for the birth and death of Christ and
emphasizes the importance of Mary as chosen by God
to bear the Savior of mankind. As has been often noted, early Mexican
retablos were devoid of references to the Old Testament, but as Schiller points
out:
The fact that the text took up the thread of the Old Testament
prophecies, particularly that of Isaiah 7, 14, "Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall be call his name Immanuel," provided a
reason for regarding the Annunciation as one of the events of the life and
sufferings of Christ and related to the salvation of man.45
The feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on March 25, appropriately
at the beginning of Spring.
Certainly there is a finite body of Christian iconographic themes and a
certain amount of repetition is to be expected in any set of retablos. Yet a
comparison of the surviving 16th-century Mexican retablos with those of Spain at
the same time underscores the
unusual emphasis placed on the always juxtaposed Adorations of the Shepherds and
Kings in the Mexican examples. While undoubtedly these were themes common enough
in Spain, they did not always occur in every retablo and when they did appear
they were not always paired.46
It is worth looking a little closer for a possible explanation.
Concerning the theme of the
Shepherds associated with the Feast of the Nativity celebrated on December 25,
Schiller noted that :
The Adoration of the Shepherds entered the artistic cannon under the
influence of Franciscan piety. In the eyes of Francis of Assisi the poor men of
the people were the privileged ones, for it was they to whom the glad tidings
were first announced, who first saw, adored and loved the Child born in poverty.47
Of course, the early
Mexican Dominicans shared the Franciscan attitude toward poverty, in keeping
with the notion of the imitation of Christ, who was born and lived in poverty.
Moreover, the majority of people to whom the friars ministered were poor, and
narrative paintings demonstrating the importance of Christ to poor shepherds
were intended
to reinforce precisely this message: That Christ was born into the world
for their personal and individual salvation. Juxtaposed to the Adoration by the
Kings, the egalitarian universality of Christ's mission was also clearly
expressed.
But considering the theme of the Adoration by the Kings, associated with
the Feast of Epiphany, celebrated on
January 6, their rich raiment and jewelry may have rivaled that of the Mixtec
Caciques, well known for the splendor of their dress. The Kings of the East,
often depicted by Europeans as people of color, came to worship the Christ
Child, and offer their symbolic gifts. However , there may be more intended by
the repeated use of this theme in 16th-century Mexican retablos.
Indeed, as Schiller points out::
The feast of the Epiphany was not introduced into the west until the end
of the fourth century when it was used to celebrate the manifestation of the
Lord to the heathen who paid homage to the divine Child, the event which
represented Christian fulfillment of all ancient man's hopes for a savior.
Augustine thought of the Wise Men of the Orient, who recognized that the savior
of the world had been born at the rising of a new star, as the first-born of the
heathen to whom God had revealed himself, their adoration as their recognition
of the Son of the Highest manifest in the Child.48
While the story of the Shepherds may have carried a special message to
the maceguales49,
the narrative of the Kings may also have had an intended target. Just as other
wise kings from outside the Holy Land recognized Christ as the Savior of the
World, so too ought the wise kings of the Mixteca to accept Jesus as their
Savior.
Another theme from the early life of Christ present in four out of six
cases considered is The Circumcision and Naming of Jesus.
Indeed, this theme is present in the retablos at Yanhuitlán, 1570 and
Tamazulapan, 1587, both by Andrés Concha.
Schiller explains the significance of this theme as follows:
Circumcision was practiced as an initiation rite by many ancient
peoples. However, among Israel's neighbors, it clearly had no place with the
Assyrians, the Babylonians, or the Philistines. The Israelites regarded male
circumcision as an act of purification from sin and of acceptance of the child
as a member of the nation of Israel. In later times the law prescribed that the
child should be circumcised and named on the eight day after birth and the
ceremony was a symbol of God's covenant with Israel and a necessary preliminary
to participation in religious services.50
The possible importance attached to this theme by 16th-century friars
may have had to do with the notions of purification and inclusion of gentiles.
It is worth pointing out that these two canvases by Concha were done before and
after his work in Teposcolula.
Cultural Transformation in Teposcolula
The transformation of the sacramental imagination of the people of
Teposcolula from aboriginal beliefs and visualizations to those of Catholic
Christianity did not occur instantaneously in the moment of first contact with
European missionary friars. Rather, it was the gradual result of an ongoing
process which continued to evolve with a growing complexity of understanding and
implementation (or experience and expression) through several generations. The
physical evidence of this process is the body of fragmentary survivals of
Christian sacred art from the decades between 1530 and 1580 maintained today in
the town's convento and church. Understanding the nature and chronological
relationships of this small body of artifacts is important because it
contributes to a reconstruction of the pattern or process of transformation in
Teposcolula which can also be used for broader comparative purposes both within
the region of the Mixteca Alta, and generally within the Spanish Colonial world.
Generally, the pattern at Teposcolula may be characterized by pacific
initial contact and evangelization followed by willing engagement and
participation in the construction of the minimal basic architectural components
necessary for Christian ritual performance and introductory catechism. This was
followed by increasingly elaborate architectural and artistic expressions of
Christian devotion and lifestyle not only in individual buildings such as the
Convento complex, but also in the organization of the new built environment
generally. In Teposcolula adjoining the spectacular open chapel dedicated to San
Juan Bautista the people built the church San Pedro y San Pablo. The selection
of these particular saints are symbolically significan. John the Baptist was the precursor of the Mesiah who preached confession of
sins and baptism with water as demonstrations of spiritual transformation in
preparation for the entrance into the kingdom of heaven he believed to be at
hand. His obvious association with water imagery would also have been important
in an agrarian society whose traditional religion had been focused on their
principal supernatural, Dzahui, who was associated with rain,
water, and storms. Peter the fisherman was the rock on which the early church
was founded, the begining of the chain of apostolic succession transmitting
papal leadership of the Catholic Church. Peter was also the keeper of the keys
of the heavenly kingdom, or paradise. Paul,
the self-proclaimed Apostle to the Gentiles, was an appropriate role model for
the friars themselves, and a pedagogically important symbol of the church's all
inclusive catholicity. John's feast days marked his nativity on June 24 and his
martyrdom on August 29. The feast of Peter and Paul falls on June 29. Thus the
people of Teposcolula built a new ceremonial center commemorating the lives of
the last of the prophets and the evangelical founders of the primitive Church.
In the shadow of these special places, the very loci of sacred ritual
performance and Eucharistic contact
with the divine, they also built their homes. The increasing complexity of
Christian imagery, iconography, and meaning suffused throughout the built
environment gave new meanings also to the sacred landscape.
The linking of place names with Christian association with the
traditional place names played an important role in shaping the nascent
Christian consciousness of the inhabitants of those places. Descriptive place
names expressed orally and depicted graphically in place glyphs seen on the
pre-Hispanic screenfold pictorials and in the early colonial lienzos demonstrate
that the Mixtecs viewed their landscape as composed of an interlocking network
of discrete places, each with their own special identity. Consider just a few
places in the district of Teposcolula for examples of this process of naming and
renaming in the scheme of early colonial urbanization: Soyaltepec, hill(top)
place of the palm became San Bartolo, traditionally viewed as the first of the
apostols to preach outsider the Holy Land; Nduayaco, place of the cooked palm
became San José de Gracia, perhaps a reference to Saint Joseph's role as patron
of the indigenous people; Tejupan, pueblo of the Blue (royal) color became
Santiago, Patron Saint of Spain, and of the Reconquista;
Nicananduta, place from which the water flows became San Sebastián, the
youthful member of Diocletian's guard who, according to tradition, suffered
martyrdom for his Christian faith;51
Nuducandu, place of abundant cactus became San Pedro; Nundo, place of the adobes
became Santo Domingo; Tamazulapan, in the river of toads became Santa María;
Tonaltepec, place of the mountain of the sun became Santo Domingo; and finally
Teposcolula, in Náhuatl the place
of the twisted metal, or known in Mixtec as Yucu Ndaa,
on the summit of the mountain, became San Pedro y San Pedro.52
FARRISS'S
MODEL OF SYNCRETISM CONSIDERED
An important breakthrough in Nancy Farriss's study of the colonial Maya
was her refinment of the concept of syncretism and Maya response to
Christian evangelization.53
She presents a comparative analysis of Late Post-Classic Maya and Late Medieval
Mediterranean Catholicism, and shows that both systems operated at three levels,
individual, community, and cosmic. Describing the nature of the Christianity
that made its way to Mesoamerica, she said:
...the uncompromising monotheism of the Old and New testaments had
become tempered in their Mediterranean version of popular Catholicism by the
incorporation of a rich variety of sacred beings. Angels, saints, the Prince of
Darkness and his minions, and a host of lesser spirits accompanied and aided or
sometimes sought to foil the will of the supreme godhead. For most of the
Spanish culture-bearers, the Christian cosmos was as densely populated as that
of the Maya.54
She found that at the intermediate level form and meaning were
negotiable, and that mutual exchange and selective adaptation and inclusion
occurred as seen in the adaptation and metamorphoses of the Mediterranean cult
of saints who replaced the former Maya tutelary deities as the focii of
corporate differentiation and identity. This three level analytic model showing
horizontal exchanges on corresponding levels was an innovative breakthrough,
making an advance on previous models of conversion or suprimposition. As she
pointed out
Both Spanish Christianity and Mesoamerican paganisam, then, represented
richly complex, multilayered systems instead of any one pure type. Only if we
recognize that they confronted each other as total systems and interacted at a
variety of levels can we begin to make some sense of postconquest religious
change not as a shift from one type to another (the standard model of
conversion), nor even necessarily from one level to another (the modified
"emergence" model) nor as the superimposition of Christianity on a
pagan base (a common syncretistic model applied to Latin America), but as a set
of horizontal, mutual exchanges across comparable levels.55
Furthermore, she showed
that in the Maya case, the isolation suffered under the colonial regime lead to
an emphasizing of the local saints/deities while diminishing awareness of or
concern for a supreme being, though to some extent this role may have been given
to the Christian God. I would argue that the case of the Mixtecs of Teposcolula
was quite different from the Mayas she describes because rather than becoming
more impoverished and isolated in the colonial regime, the Mixtecs actually
became far more connected with a wider world through international commerce and
the wealth it brought. The archival record for Teposcolula shows that a wide
variety of new types of imported merchandise was routinely available in the
town's market place during the mid and later sixteenth century, and offerred for
sale by Mixtecs as well as Spaniards. Nevertheless, there are important aspects
of Farriss's argument which warrent further investigation in the case of
Teposcolula. According to Farris, we need to view:
... the effects of evangelization on Maya religious beliefs and rituals,
not as a process of conversion but as an interchange on three levels, dealing
with three types of sacred beings: private negotiation with lesser spirits;
corporate support of tutelary deity-saints; and a more or less elaborate cult of
homage to a supreme being. Mutually adaptable at the second level, Maya religion
and Christianity merged into a syncretistic cult of the saints, which enabled
the Maya elite, through the development of cofradias (parish confraternities)
and the annual round of village fiestas, to recapture their control of public
ritual and thus validate their continued control of wealth and power.56
There is much to suggest that many of the practices Farriss identified
in the Maya case alsotook place in the Mixtec case. The personal private
negotiation with lesser spirits continued, perhaps into our own time, as
suggested by private and public devotional shrines encountered among unusual
natural rock outcroppings near Teposcolula.57
The corporate identification with local Christian patron saints continues in
Teposcolula and elsewhere in the Mixteca, as seen in the celebrations and
fiestas of villages and towns in which relatives living away, often at great
distances, return annually to participate in Christian religious activities that
reaffirm their bonds and identity as a member of
those communities. Nowhere in Mexico was a more elaborate stage built on
which to celebrate homage to the supreme God of the Christian cult than in
Teposcolula. Thus Farriss's model offers a useful approach for further research.
Unfortunately, the records of the sixteenth-century cofradías in Teposcolula
are missing, and this is not the place to speculate on cacique involvement in
religious brotherhoods, but Farriss's work is certainly illuminating and
suggestive, and points to a direction for important future research.