HUATLATLAUCA: The convento murals 2

The Upper Cloister
Passion scenes continue on the second level, with The Agony in the Garden, Christ at the Column, an Ecce Homo, a Road to Calvary and, once again The Crucifixion and The Resurrection. 

Road to Calvary

Ecce homo

Triumph of Death mural: Spaniards and natives 

A unique mural over the doorway strikes a darker note. Known as The Triumph of Death, this fresco depicts a giant, largely skeletal figure advancing with bow and arrow on a huddled group of startled and terrified sinners: lay figures and clergy, Spaniards and indigenous alike— a broad representation of 16th century colonial society. 
Related to the Grim Reaper mural at Malinalco, this is the sole Death figure to be portrayed with bow and arrow in early Mexican mural painting, aside from a smaller figure at Culhuacan. 
Beyond the figure of Death rises a mountain with a cave, a significant local topographical feature and at his feet, a traditional, woven palm basket.The red and orange tones of Death contrast with the vivid blue landscape behind—a hue now identified as Maya blue. 

On the opposite (north) wall is a complementary composition, possibly a partial Thebaida—an exclusively Augustinian theme. An Augustinian friar preaches, arms uplifted, to gathered knots of friars in a leafy blue and ocher landscape. Behind him is a large outcropping—another local landmark.

Elegant frames of painted Plateresque pilasters and large polychrome friezes border the murals, some with more Augustinian portraits entwined with angels and birds amid swirls of native foliage.

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