HUATLATLAUCA: The convento murals 1

HUATLATLAUCA, the monastery front

Located in the Atlixco valley of southern Puebla state, this ancient community, whose name means "Place of the Red Eagle,” is the site of a little known but fascinating 16th century monastery, noted for its rich tequitqui carving. 
   Founded around 1550 by the Franciscan Order, who began work on the church, the monastery was later ceded to the Augustinians, who added the convento, with its colorful murals, in the 1570s—one of the last Augustinian mural programs. 
The Porteria
The church is flanked on the left by the former open chapel, currently blocked up, while the convento to the right is fronted by a long arcaded portería. 

Little remains of the murals that formerly lined its walls. On the south side, a fragment shows The Virgin and Child with a kneeling St Francis—the only heritage mural from the Franciscan era—and sections of a blue frieze with putti battling fantastic pegasus creatures!

The Cloister Murals
Recently restored, the peaceful cloister is simply enclosed by broad stone arcades set on bulbous Plateresque columns. Both the upper and lower cloister walks are lined with late 16th century frescoes and friezes.

The Lower Cloister
Here we find the greatest variety and quality. Although faded, the corner niches depict key scenes from the life of Christ: The Nativity, The Crucifixion and The Resurrection, rendered in a serene Renaissance style with muted blues and reds and framed by extensive friezes and festooned columns.

 

The Crucifixion fresco, although in much need of restoration, reveals fine draftsmanship as well as variety of color—orange, burgundy and turquoise. Friars and bishops kneel before a crucifix? in a cartouche of the complex frieze above. In the Resurrection, the risen Christ stands triumphant above an opened tomb, flanked by astonished onlookers.

In the fourth corner is an unexpected joint portrait of the two other Mendicant founders, St. Dominic and St. Francis, upholding the church. 

And another large corner mural, beside the Nativity, shows St Augustine as Protector of the Order, sheltering friars beneath his ample cloak, rendered in vivid tones of red, orange, blue and black. Over a center archway, the saint is portrayed with the child Jesus.
   But the main group of frescoes on the lower level, along the walks and between the arches of the cloister arcades, comprises numerous portraits of Augustinian saints and martyrs, famous and obscure alike—the most complete surviving gallery of Augustinian mural portraits in Mexico, although some are only partial.

 

Prominent figures include St. Thomas of Villanueva, William of Aquitaine, St. Boniface, Nicholas of Tolentino and St. Mónica. Others portray the Augustinian desert fathers or African martyrs as well some of the English martyrs. All are identified by at least partial inscriptions.
In our next post we look at the upper cloister murals.

text © 2019 Richard D. Perry. 
images by the author, Niccolo Brooker and Robert Jackson

Tezontepec. The Cloister Murals Part 2.

The Upper Cloister
Following on the early life of Christ in the lower cloister, a sequence of eight Passion scenes continues clockwise around the upper level, again executed on a large scale and brightly colored although some are better preserved than others. 
   The cycle begins with the Agony in the Garden above the entry to the stairwell, and continues with the Betrayal by Judas or Taking of Christ; Jesus in the House of Ananias (Caiaphas?) The Flagellation; The Mocking of Jesus (Crown of Thorns); The Judgment of Pilate; The Via Crucis, and ends with the Crucifixion in the northeast corner. !

Judas’ Betrayal of Jesus

Via Crucis or Road to Calvary


 

Veronica (Via Crucis detail)

Jesus before Caiaphas

The Judgment of Pilate

The Crucifixion

Also of interest are the monochrome friezes that run along the sides of the long, narrow ambulatory on the south side of the upper cloister and its northerly extension extending into the adjacent cells.

   On the east/west corridor, a running grotesque frieze incorporates framed roundels that constitute an extensive portrait gallery of Augustinian saints and martyrs, including St. Augustine, St. Nicholas of Tolentino, and St. Monica. 

St Augustine with miter and crozier upholding the church

John of Sahagun; St William the Hermit; 

Bishop John the Good; Nicholas of Tolentino; 

St Monica; St Felicity.
 

St Andrew; St James Minor, 

St Peter; St Philip; 

John the Evangelist; St Matthew.

The Twelve Apostles occupy the larger medallions along the extension: !

At one end of the corridor a sepia monochrome fresco in the lunette depicts a Resurrection scene crowded with Roman soldiers toppling away from the triumphant Christ. 

Several other devotional murals continue in the adjacent friars’ cells including the Prior’s room. These also depict Passion themes with a Crucifixion. Saints Peter & Paul flank the doorway below the frieze.

text © 2019 Richard D. Perry

images by the author, Niccolo Brooker and Robert Jackson.

TEZONTEPEC: The Cloister Murals Part 1.

San Pedro Tezontepec, also known as Villa Tezontepec, is a hilltop Otomi village southwest of Epazoyucan, Hidalgo, of which it was originally a visita.

Standing inside the battlemented atrium with its four surviving corner posas, the Augustinian monastery comprises a rather plain 17th century church and an earlier convento with an arcaded, two story cloister. 

  

The church interior is unprepossessing, with few original furnishings aside from a venerable baptismal font beneath the choir carved with vine leaves and monograms.
The Murals

Although 16th century murals once covered almost every space in the convento, due to the repurposing of several important conventual rooms including the porteria, anteporteria and sacristy, almost all of the surviving visible murals are now found in the cloister.
   Beneath painted vaults of meandering ribs with floral bosses and bands of decorative friezes filled with grotesque decoration, inscriptions and roundels of Augustinian saints and insignia, the cloister walks and pillars of the arcades are a gallery of large narrative murals, mostly outsize portraits of Augustinian luminaries. 

portraits of saints along the cloister walk

Although in varied condition, all are framed by extravagant Plateresque borders colored in a bright palette of blue, green and earth colors. 
   But the principal attraction here is a cycle of polychrome frescoes illustrating the Life and Passion of Christ—among most complete to be found in any Mexican monastery. Derived from a Flemish or northern European print source, the compositions and figures are confidently drawn in sweeping strokes, whose vigor combines with subtlety in gesture and facial expression. 
   Color is applied in large background washes and to specific details—a later addition to the original grisaille treatment.

The Lower Cloister
Four pivotal scenes from the early life of Jesus unfold in the corner niches, starting in the northwest corner with a simple Nativity. The Adoration of the Magi follows, then the Presentation in the Temple and lastly, the Flight into Egypt. 

Clockwise from top left: The Nativity; Flight into Egypt; Magi; Presentation.

The Stairway
Along with a painted balustrade, fragments of wooded landscapes with jagged hills, alive with birds and butterflies, cling to the side of the stairwell, probable remnants of a customary Augustinian Thebaida tableau. 
   Fish swim amid blue waves in the lower sections—suggesting an earthly paradise rather than the arid Egyptian desert of tradition.

text © 2019 Richard D. Perry

images by the author, Niccolo Brooker and Robert Jackson.

San Vicente de Ferrer Chimalhuacan: the cloister frescoes

This little jewel of a monastery was one of the first Dominican missions to be founded in the Valley of Mexico. Its principal attraction is its exquisite, intricately carved Isabelline/mudéjar church doorway. 

The formerly abandoned cloister was recently given a facelift, and the walks are mostly whitewashed. Vestiges remain of mural fragments, largely friezes and inscriptions above the doorways and the gray basalt arcades.

 

Sts Mark and Luke

Some surviving figures include richly robed and haloed Evangelists sitting on elaborate thrones. These are finely drawn with added red and ocher washes.

  

One unusual fresco is a partial Expulsion from the Garden, depicting an agitated God the Father and the Tree of Knowledge on one side of the arch, and Adam and Eve in retreat, hastily covering their private parts, on the other. To our knowledge this is the only representation of this biblical event in any Dominican mural.

text © 2019 Richard D. Perry

images by the author