Tzintzuntzan: The Hospital chapel murals

Concluding our series on the murals of Tzintzuntzan we look at the painted walls of the arcaded hospital chapel of La Concepcion.

The Chapel of La Concepción (hospital chapel)

Raised on a terraced platform beside the church of The Third Order, this arcaded open air chapel (#9 on map) is all that remains of the 16th century mission hospital founded here by Bishop Quiroga. 

Like most hospital chapels, which were a fixture of most early mission complexes in Michoacán, it is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in this case in her role as La Concepción—a favorite Franciscan devotion that we saw illustrated in the convento.

 

Two large, polychrome murals, thought to date from the late 1600s or early 1700s, occupy the walls of the chapel on either side of the arched sanctuary: first, the crowned Virgin of the Rosary with Souls in Purgatory, and a family style portrait of the young Mary with her parents and the Holy Trinity, all with bright red haloes. 

 

Two other partially restored murals adorn the side walls of the inner sanctuary. Also in color, with bright red, blue and green hues and flesh tones, they portray violent scenes of martyrdom.

text © 2019 Richard D. Perry

color images courtesy of Niccolò Brooker