Pascual Pérez: San Andrés Cholula

The ancient city of Cholula is located about 15 km west of the city of Puebla and is divided into two principal parishes: San Andrés Cholula and San Pedro Cholula.

Although the gray, stone facade of San Andrés Cholula recalls the somber front of Puebla cathedral, its baroque interior and the exuberant Capilla del Sagrario are closer in feeling to the ornate Rosary Chapel of Santo Domingo in that city.  San Andrés is also renowned for its many works of fine art, including paintings by regional baroque artists like Antonio Santander.

Pascual Pérez *

In this post, the second in a series, we focus on a group of paintings by the prominent Pueblan artist Pascual Pérez (1663 - 1731) also called El Mixtequito, because of his presumed Oaxacan origins. 
   Here at San Andrés we find the largest known collection of the artist’s work and the most varied in scale and subject—giving a valuable insight into his range, style and painterly skills.

The Retablo of St. John Nepomuk
Although named for a 14th century Bohemian saint and martyr, and prominently featuring his image, this baroque altarpiece is essentially dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as its five paintings of scenes from her life demonstrate. All five are securely attributed to Pérez, and at least two are signed by the artist.

  

Framed by gilded spiral columns, the two principal canvases of the altarpiece illustrate the Visitation and the Annunciation. A Mannerist palette of reds, greens, pinks and blues enlivens the composition, notably in the elaborate robes of the Virgin Mary. Although none are dated, they are characteristic of Pérez' later work, post 1700.

On the upper level, a radiant portrait of the crowned Virgin and Child, posed as Our Lady of Refuge, is flanked by triangular panels of the Nativity and Circumcision of Christ.

  

Several other large, individual canvases by Pascual Pérez, some restored, hang in various locations in the church and chapel. 

   These include a Holy Trinity, again with flowing garments in vivid red and blues; and a Christ at Calvary inscribed with the date 1691. While the ground is littered with skull and bones, red roofed palaces and churches fill the background of what was by tradition a desolate site. Both are relatively early works by Pérez, pre 1700.

   

Another pair of paintings, The Nativity of the Virgin and her Presentation in the Temple, are sharply detailed with some chiaroscuro effects—again suggesting early works.

And an unpretentious composition of Jacob’s Ladder, with well observed details has a more rustic flavor. 

Finally, hanging beneath the church choir is a expansive, semicircular canvas of the Last Judgment with St. Francis and St. Michael, also attributed to Pérez, with graphic depictions of the Saved and the Damned—His most ambitious work in San Andrés.

 

The damned and the mouth of Hell

* Pascual Pérez , "El Mixtequito," was a prolific, leading light in the Pueblan school of painting, active in the later 1600s and early 1700s. His work covers a broad range of religious subjects and is found in churches and collections in the city of Puebla and its environs, including Cholula. His interment in Puebla cathedral attests to his regional prominence at his death in 1731.

text © 2018 Richard D. Perry

our appreciation and grateful acknowledgment of the use of his images go to Tacho Juárez Herrera, who tracked down and photographed most of Pascual Perez' known works.