The Casa del Deán in Puebla, Mexico, is one of few surviving sixteenth century residences in the Americas, built in 1580 by Tomás de la Plaza, the Dean of the Cathedral. A devoted and learned man with sympathy for indigenous cultures gained during his years as a parish priest in Oaxaca, Tomás de la Plaza played a leading role in the planning and design of Puebla Cathedral.
After completing his mansion across from the cathedral—its elegant purista facade was also designed by Francisco Becerra, the noted Spanish architect of the cathedral— in 1584 Tomás de la Plaza assumed additional debt in order to commission the extensive murals, only a fraction of which now survive.
Although much of the house was tragically demolished in recent times, two of the upper rooms remain, along with their magnificent frescoes.
Their rediscovery and narrow escape from destruction in the 1950s and most recent restoration in 2010 revealed visionary works of art that rival European frescoes of the early Renaissance, while incorporating numerous native elements that identify them with indigenous visual traditions.
As we shall see, although not monastic murals, some of their content and their graphic style is related to other early monastery murals.
Sybils
1. Synagoga 2. Erythraea 3. Samia 4. Persica 5. Europa! 6. (Plaza Coat of Arms) 7. Cumaea 8. (Shell Niche) 9. Tiburtina 10. Cumana 11. Delphica 12. Hellespontica 13. Phrygia 14. (Coat of Arms) 15. Libyca
Triumphs
16. Love 17. Chastity 18. Time
19. (Wild Man?) 20. Death 21. Eternity
22. Salon Three mural
The Murals
These masterful frescoes, although based firmly in Renaissance works derived from classical antiquity as are all monastic murals, are nevertheless entirely the work of one or more native tlacuilos or elite artists, most likely trained in nearby Huejotzingo, whose outstanding native school was founded by Franciscan pioneer Juan de Alameda.
The murals, now in remarkably good condition considering their hazardous history, are contained in the two principal rooms, with some fragments in a third chamber. Both rooms are lined with large, colorful narrative murals on related but distinct themes, largely unique in Mexican mural art—one devoted to the Sybils, and the other to Triumphs.
Our next post will review the Sybils.
text © 2020 Richard D. Perry.
images © Juan Carlos Varillas and Niccolo Brooker.
principal source: La Casa del Dean...New World Imagery in a Sixteenth-Century Mexican Mural Cycle Penny C. Morrill. 2014. U. of Texas Press
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