San Juan Evangelista Culhuacan: The Convento Murals 2

The Upper Cloister
Around the upper cloister at Culhuacan, large Renaissance murals of the Life and Passion of Christ are interposed with medieval style portraits of Augustinian saints and martyrs, most generally in better condition than those below. As distinct from the others, this group is painted in traditional grisaille, with little added color, and framed by Renaissance style grotesque panels. 

Located at the top of the stairs is a partial Entry into Jerusalem with Jesus mounted on his donkey, the figures of the Apostles and a crowd throwing palm leaves. 

In the southwest corner is an elegant Nativity with the Adoration of the Magi, the most complete of the compositions.  
    The Holy Family is calmly posed on the left. with lowered eyes, set in a surprisingly well appointed structure of uncertain perspective. The three kings stand on the right, two standing and one kneeling, while their three horses prance on the extreme right.  
   The star of Bethlehem hangs in the center above a prominent hill, again evoking the sacred local landmark of the Cerro de la Estrella, site of the Aztec New Fire ceremony.

Rows of martyrs line the south walk. These include a partial St. Stephen, then St. Dennis holding his severed head, and St. Nicholas of Tolentino, the prominent Augustinian preacher and healer, wearing an expression of beatific calm despite the loss of his severed right foot and left hand.  
   Numerous other Augustinians, obscure and notable, are portrayed on the pillars of the cloister arcades, including such luminaries as John of Sahagún, and lesser known figures like Blessed Amadeus of Savoy.


In the middle of the same corridor, an inscribed panel of the company of Augustinian martyrs is set in an elaborate painted Plateresque frame. Clutching their books and palms, the martyrs crowd into the foreground, their rows of tonsured heads shining like peas in a pod.

There is also a partial portrayal of the Augustinian African martyrs in a cauldron; the only other version being that at Charo.

The prior's room, on the upper western corridor adjacent to the church, is identified by its paneled wooden door carved with the Augustinian pierced heart and other symbols associated with the Order and the Passion of Christ. As with the other friars’ cells, it retains many of its original friezes in the same grotesque style, with fruits, flowers, birds, putti and fantastic beasts.

text ©2019 Richard D. Perry.

images by the author, Niccolo Brooker, Diana Roberts & Robert Jackson