San Juan Teitipac: the Processional murals

In the 1570s, San Juan Teitipac was the dominant Dominican mission in Oaxaca's Tlacolula Valley, with four resident friars. Built atop an ancient Zapotec cemetery*, its vast atrium, with four corner posas, fronted the large cruciform church—a rarity in rural Oaxaca—and an imposing convento.
  While there are colonial treasures in the church, Teitipac’s chief claim to fame for visitors and scholars alike is the 16th century frescoes in the convento. This is the first of three posts on these early murals.

San Juan Teitipac

The Processional Murals

An arched portería on the south side of the church marks the entrance to the once substantial convento, of which little now remains. However, the two-story vestibule just inside the entry is a gallery of frescoes that include a dramatic sequence of processional murals in two tiers. These frescoes, which represent a reenactment of Holy Week ceremonies, were almost certainly sponsored by a local cofradía or religious brotherhood of the Santo Entierro, or Holy Sepulcher. 

view of the porteria and murals

Processional murals are exceedingly rare in Mexico—the only other examples being those in the church at Huejotzingo and the upper cloister at Huaquechula—both in Puebla and also painted at the behest of a local cofradía. 

   Recently partially restored, the Teitipac frescoes are painted in somber hues, predominantly cool black and earth colors with some red accents. 

The east wall of the porteria

Their position here in the convento entry—unique among the placement of such murals in Mexico—together with their depiction of actual doorways, suggest that the portería itself played a key role in early colonial ceremonies at Teitipac.

Descent from the Cross - detail

The sequence starts from a large, fairly well preserved Descent from the Cross, painted above the inner doorway on the east wall. Dominican friars, an unorthodox depiction for this scene, lower Christ’s body from the cross—painted bright red along with the accompanying ladders.

  

Virgin Mary and St. John;       Deposition from the Cross, engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi  (c. 1470 - c. 1527)

A poorly preserved Virgin of Sorrows and St. John the Evangelist look on from the sidelines. The overall composition is adapted from a popular print by the Italian engraver Marcantonio Raimundi.

south wall

Two tiers of processional scenes unfold along the south wall. 

south wall. lower tier

Below, a funeral cortege of Dominican friars proceeds westwards from a faux painted doorway, solemnly bearing aloft the body of Christ, accompanied by Mary Magdalene and assorted Spanish dignitaries and indigenous women. All the participants are boldly and realistically drawn with special attention to costume and facial expression. 

  

painted doorways: lower tier;  upper tier

south wall. upper tier (detail)

Along the upper tier, ghostly, hooded penitents in long, trailing robes walk in the opposite direction, holding candles, banners and various instruments of the Crucifixion, heading east towards another painted entry/exit. 

 

The recently cleaned murals on the north wall of the portería revolve around the Virgin Mary, the best preserved of which depicts the figure of Our Lady of the Rosary, a popular Dominican devotion, on the east wall—the subject of our next post.
* It is tempting to speculate that the obvious importance of this cofradía, a native brotherhood dedicated to the Holy Sepulcher, may be linked in some way to the prehispanic history of the site. 

text © 2018 Richard D. Perry

images by the author, Niccolò Brooker and Felipe Falcón