San Gabriel Cholula: two more early frescoes

In earlier posts on the exceptional murals at San Gabriel Cholula, we highlighted scenes from the life of St. Francis and a large Mass of St Gregory. Here we look at two other early frescoes of interest.

The Annunciation mural
The first is a fine, early triptych portraying the Annunciation, now located in an office on the second floor of the convento. 

Flanked by separate portraits of St. Francis and St. Anthony, the Virgin Mary, seated with an open book, receives the doves of the Holy Spirit, as the archangel Gabriel gestures towards Heaven—the only portrayal of its patron saint in the monastery to our knowledge. An urn of lilies, symbolizing her purity, stands prominently between the two.

The Baptism of Christ
The second fresco, a colorful Baptism of Christ is located in the old portal de peregrinos, now the Franciscan library, and was uncovered where the baptismal font may have been located during the early years of the evangelization. 

   A long Latin inscription unfolds in the ribbon above John the Baptist, who raises the baptismal chalice above the almost naked Christ. God the Father speaks from the clouds—"this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." 

   After restoration, its bright range of color, including putative Maya Blue, has reemerged.

text © 2019 Richard D. Perry

color images courtesy of Robert Jackson

The Charo Murals 3: The Refectory frescoes.

In the last of our three posts on the Charo murals we look at the remarkable Refectory Murals

The third great repository of mural painting at Charo lies in the high ceilinged refectory. The most recently uncovered, this extraordinary cycle of frescoes, some on rarely depicted subjects, extends around all four walls, showing a lighter touch and a more liberal use of color than the other Charo murals. 

The side walls of this large room are adorned with two tiers of panels, each framed by ornate painted pilasters, swagged borders and grotesque friezes.

Appropriately for a refectory, the principal panel on the end (west) wall depicts the Last Supper, in which white robed apostles with red hair lounge around a long table.  This is flanked by the related Feeding of the Five Thousand, as well as a Baptism of Christ.
   Beneath the Last Supper appears another portrayal of the Agony in the Garden, although less intense than the vestibule version.

Adoration of the Virgin and the Evangelists

A delicate fresco of the Adoration of the Virgin is painted beside the east wall, opposite the triumphal golden figure of the Archangel Michael wrestling with the Devil—the only portrayal of the patron saint to appear at Charo. 

The east wall is the most complex. An enormous but poorly preserved Calvary scene forms the centerpiece, flanked by portraits of the Four Evangelists, each seated pen in hand upon a throne with his identifying attribute. 

Located at lower right is a faded but dramatic fresco of Saul on the road to Damascus. In this scene, we see the dazzled future apostle being thrown violently from his frightened horse, as a reproach issues from Heaven on an unfurling banner. 

Finally, a cautionary mural appears above a window to the refectory. A lone friar clutching a large, red crucifix—possibly the young St. Augustine—is tempted by an angel on one side and the Devil on the other, both pointing to a scripture and holding out a quill holder and inkhorn—motifs we saw at Actopan. 
   Of the seven Augustinian monasteries of colonial Michoacán lauded by Fray Matias, San Miguel Charo far surpasses the grander priories of Cuitzeo and Yuriria in its mural decoration. It is to hoped that these historic murals, under threat from damp and water damage, will be speedily protected and restored for future generations.

Text © 2019 Richard D. Perry.

images by the author and courtesy of Niccolò Brooker and Robert Jackson.

The Charo Murals 2: The Cloister frescoes

For the second in our series on the Charo murals we consider the Cloister Frescoes

The cloister frescoes—some of them now only fragmentary—are the most dramatic at Charo, clearly designed to glorify the Augustinian order. 

 All the narrative panels are framed by painted Plateresque pilasters with lively grotesque friezes that incorporate sacred monograms and Augustinian emblems, linked by cornucopias, dancing cherubs and fantastical monsters—part dragon and part acanthus foliage.

Adjacent murals along the north walk illustrate the Spiritual Lineages of St. Augustine and his mother, St. Monica. Although such pictorial genealogies are not uncommon in mendicant monasteries, it is rare to find them paired in this way. 

Both murals use the classic medieval motif of the Tree of Jesse, in which a twisted tree rises from the chest of the now partly erased, reclining saint.  Along the spreading branches, birdlike Augustinian friars, nuns and prelates emerge from huge blossoms, each figure identified by an inscribed banderole, now generally illegible. 

The Genealogy of St. Monica is lighter and less crowded than that of St. Augustine, permitting more anecdotal detail. The black-robed sisters share their branches with a large crow? and numerous over-sized buds and pomegranates.

Along the south and west walls of the cloister, a sequence of dynamic scenes unfolds depicting the grisly fate of historic Augustinian martyrs. 

In graphic tableaux, deftly sketched in contrasting black and white tones, tonsured friars in black habits are variously speared or transfixed by arrows at the hands of brutal persecutors in white military togas.

Youths stone one stoic brother, while pious female onlookers sink to their knees in grief or prayer. Other meek friars are dragged one by one to their beheading, by a trio of muscular executioners under the merciless eye of a pagan potentate. (Calvary scene inset)

In another tableau, several friars stand in a giant cauldron atop a flaming fire, beside them a crowd of black robed Augustinians being set upon by their tormentors. The only other large cauldron appears in the Last Judgment mural at Acolman.
   Unfortunately, the murals that occupied the corner niches of the cloister have been erased, except for the single fragment of an Ecce Homo in the southeast corner, which may indicate that the Passion cycle continued from the vestibule into the cloister at one time.

The “Thebaida” mural
The remaining large mural along the east walk, although only partial, seems to represent the Eremitic Life—a reference to Augustinian beginnings in the desert hermitages and monastic communities of “Thebaida,” a remote province of Egypt.

Here, black robed friars engage in various activities against a wooded landscape.
   This favorite Augustinian subject was frequently illustrated in the monasteries of the New World, where their missionary enterprise was viewed as a religious undertaking of equal significance to the early history and expansion of the Order—a theme embroidered by Fray Matías de Escobar in his baroque treatise Americana Thebaida, where he compares the seven Augustinian monasteries of Michoacán to the seven legendary pyramids of Egypt, and praises the architectural and spiritual harmony of Charo, where he once served as a well loved prior.

Text © 2019 Richard D. Perry.

images by the author and courtesy of Niccolò Brooker and Robert Jackson.