Actopan: The Last Judgment

This is another post in an occasional series on depictions of the Last Judgment in the arts of colonial Mexico.*

Actopan

Everything is on a grand scale at St. Nicholas Actopan, a palatial priory that was the foremost Augustinian priory in Hidalgo. Its monumental architecture and visionary frescoes earn it a place among the greatest buildings of Mexico.
   The murals at Actopan are among the most varied and extensive of any in Mexico. They fall into at least two different categories: first the brightly colored, apocalyptic murals of the open chapel, which probably date from the 1560s, and then an assemblage of convento murals, which are a little later—mostly from the mid 1570s.

The Vault of Actopan
This local name for the great open chapel at Actopan succinctly captures one of its most striking features, the soaring barrel vault painted with a coffered pattern of crosses and octagons, based on the designs of the Renaissance architect Sebastiano Serlio. 

But the true glory of the Actopan chapel is its spectacular frescoes, on the end wall and along the sides. Only discovered in the 1970s, hidden beneath layers of whitewash and erased in places, they are executed on a huge scale in vivid reds, blues, browns and ochers. 

   Together with the closely related frescoes at the smaller chapel of Xoxoteco, they display the most vivid apocalyptic imagery of any Mexican murals of the 16th century. 

 

Our focus in this post is on the surviving frescoes of the apse or east wall of the chapel, in particular the panoramic Last Judgment scene.

The Last Judgment
As at Xoxoteco, the centerpiece of the cycle is a panoramic Last Judgment spread across the upper tympanum of the east wall.

Over sixty varied figures populate this rich and varied composition. In the center, above a multi-hued rainbow, a partly effaced Christ stands in judgment on a globe, flanked by the Company of the Elect. 

Underneath, an angel and a demon contest over a kneeling soul, pointing to a book of sins. On the right, the Damned tumble into the fires of Hell assisted by ferocious horned and taloned demons. (Note the feet of Christ on the globe at the top)

Below, angels blow trumpets to awaken the dead, who rise from their graves—aided by angels and menaced by demons.  

  

The Mouth of Hell

Although this motif, customarily a vital element in Last Judgment scenes, does not appear in the central lunette, it is depicted in two other apsidal panels, as well as on the side walls of the chapel, where the image introduces the galleries of murals depicting the torments of Hell.

Flaming Mouth of Hell with Demons and Angels (apsidal fresco #3)  

Mouth of Hell with horsemen of the Apocalypse (apsidal fresco #6)

 

Mouth of Hell.  south wall;                                   north wall

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For good measure, a second, partial Last Judgment scene fills another lunette beside the upper cloister of the convento. Closely related in composition and vivid coloration to the open chapel version, it is less sweeping but better preserved in some of the details. The figure of Christ here is fully displayed, while the souls emerging from their graves are again vividly portrayed.

 

*Please review our other posts on the Last Judgment: El Llanito; Totimehuacan; Suchixtlahuaca; Huaquechula; Yanhuitlan; 

text and graphic © 2017 Richard D. Perry

color images by the author and courtesy of Niccolò Brooker