For another in our series on large paintings of the Last Judgment in Mexico, we turn to Oaxaca. One particularly fine and well preserved example recently came to our attention hanging in the church of San Juan Tabaá, located in the remote Sierra de Juárez of central Oaxaca—a region richly endowed with colonial art and artifacts of high quality.
Created by a skilled, and so far unidentified artist, this vast canvas is dated 1746. It approaches the grand theme of the Last Judgment using traditional imagery but executed in a direct, popular manner alive with vivid color and detail.
The rounded upper layer of the painting shows Christ in Judgment flanked by the Virgin in her blue robe and John the Baptist?.
Below, the Archangel Michael stands with the ranks of the Blessed*—saints, bishops, friars, nuns—each elegantly costumed and seemingly individually portrayed, headed by St. Peter holding the keys to Heaven and John the Evangelist?.
At St. Michael's feet, angels blow fanciful horns summoning the dead to the Day of Judgment, while in dramatic scenes below, the dead struggle from their tombs in bewilderment.
In the middle left, angels usher the Saved towards their heavenly reward, while on the right the Damned are herded by demons into the gaping Jaws of Hell below.
Unlike the depictions of the Last Judgment we described at Jarácuaro and Ziracuaretiro, no musical angels appear at Tabáa—an omission more than compensated for in our view by the animated expressions and dramatic details we see in this colonial masterwork.
* By tradition the Patriarchs, Holy Virgins, and Sibyls to the right, and on the left, the Apostles, Martyrs and Prophets.
text © 2018 Richard D. Perry
photographic images © 2018 by Niccolò Brooker,
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