Ixmiquilpan murals: The Last Judgment

Ixmiquilpan, the church front

San Miguel Ixmiquilpan is a simplified, scaled-down version of nearby Actopan, a substantial Augustinian monastery whose severe military lines are softened by the large shade trees of the park-like atrium.  Like Actopan too, the church and its adjacent convento are noted for their exceptional mural cycles, in particular the famous and much discussed “battle” frescoes along the nave. 
In this series we consider the murals of the convento: in the cloister and the sacristy—formerly part of the friars' chapel.

Ixmiquilpan, the cloister

We look first at the fine but poorly preserved Last Judgment in the handsome lower cloister.  Framed by a painted archway, only the upper part of the composition remains readable today. The lower section, which included scenes of the Saved and presumably Hell and Damnation, is highly fragmentary.

Above, Christ sits in Glory on a rainbow arc, his feet planted on a globe. He is flanked by the companies of the Elect and the Religious, which include the customary figures of the crowned Virgin and John the Baptist. 

 

Angels sound trumpets and reach down to the Saved and the Condemned who would have appeared below. 

One vestige portrays a small group of the Saved being escorted Heavenward by an angel. The figures are carefully if naively outlined throughout in a warm grisaille, the only color apart from a golden brown reserved for the heads.

text © 2017 Richard D. Perry

photography courtesy of Niccolò Brooker
*Please review other posts on the Last Judgment: El Llanito; Totimehuacan; Suchixtlahuaca; Huaquechula; Yanhuitlan; Actopan; Cuitzeo;