Voices of Mexico /October • December, 1992 T: TI The National Viceregal 3Ez 'Mi rr. M useum at Tepozotlán Gordana Ségota epozotlán, or "the hunchback's place", is a small town in the state of Mexico T near Mexico City. Main attractions are the former St. Martin Jesuit Seminary and St. Francis Xavier church, masterpieces of New Spanish baroque architecture. The National Viceregal Museum, located in this group of buildings, is primarily devoted to the art of colonial Mexico. Several indigenous groups such as the Mazahua, Otomí and Nahua lived in this area in the past. Their social structure was disrupted by the Spanish conquest, which brought with it the spiritual conquest entrusted to the YVVVVVY YV V V V YV VV VV YV Y V The National Viceregal Museum at Tepozotlán, located in a former Jesuit convent and church, built and decorated in Spanish colonial baroque style, houses a large collection of the religious art of four centuries. Front view of the Saint Francis Xavier church. 10 Voices o Mexico /October • December, 1992 early missionaries. First the This was the site of the most Franciscans and after them the Jesuits important Jesuit school, which carne to carry out their pastoral remained active until 1767, when the mission aided by their knowledge of Society was expelled from New Spain native languages, and by concentrating by decree of King Charles III. the surrounding population in one The completion of the College settlement. The Jesuits began to teach and the construction of the church basic subjects to the children of the were due to the Medina Picazo most prosperous natives around 1584, family, who employed a Creole which subsequently established their architect, José Durán de congregation in Tepozotlán. Almendramejo, to complete the task At the beginning of the 17th in 1682. The church was designed in century, after the Jesuit novitiate was the shape of a five segmented cross, moved from Puebla to Tepozotlán, with typically 17th century construction of the College of St. architectural characteristics. Francis Xavier began, next to the In 1690, the College was enlarged existing seminary buildings. The with a series of cells grouped around construction was made possible the Patio of the Orange Trees. The mainly by funds bequeathed in the decorations in this segment, by Juan will of Pedro Ruiz de Ahumada, a Rodríguez Juárez, were inspired by the Detail of the choir corridor. wealthy merchant from Mexico City. life of the Virgin. The cloister, with its simple During the 1730's, the building area under the choir and for the choir closed galleries arranged around the was enlarged with the Loreto Chapel, loft. He also did a sequence of Patio of the Cisterns, dates from that the Virgin's Alcove, and the Reliquary eucharistic paintings for the sacristy, at period. The corridors were later of St. Joseph. Their altars were the first the front of which he hung an decorated with paintings by Cristóbal to be draped gilded baroque lace. After enormous tapestry entitled The de Villalpando, show the life of St. the chapels were redecorated, the St. Immaculate with St. Francis and St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Francis Xavier church was renovated Ignatius. Society of Jesus. A closed atrium in by Miguel Cabrera, a famous Oaxacan The marvels of Tepozotlán are the front of the cloister, now the museum painter, and by Higinio de Chávez, an fruit of churrigueresque baroque, an entrance, and a domestic chapel expert carver. exotic variant of European baroque, displaying shields of the six Cabrera not only helped create the born of the fusion of two mentalities congregations established in New main altarpiece, he also decorated the differing in both imagination and Spain on their vaulted ceilings, are vaulted ceilings of the presbytery and sensitivity. It is difficult to describe the also from that period. transept, and made paintings for the transformation of the nave with its three presbytery altarpieces: the central View of the church nave. altarpiece dedicated to St. Francis Xavier and the Immaculate Conception, and the two lateral ones to St. Stanislas of Kotascka and St. Louis Gonzaga, both prominent Jesuits, in view of the numerous iconographic messages they contain. Like creeping vines, the altarpieces blossom and encompass the entire space, now celebrating the Virgin of Guadalupe, now St. Rosalie, now the Virgin of Sorrows and St. John Nepomucene. The church was completely renovated with churrigueresque baroque pilasters an innovation that uses square or rectangular bases shaped like inverted pyramids, in Voices of Mexico /October • December, 1992 11 place of columns. But ornamentation, the best artists in New Spain decorated rather than architecture, dominates and the College and the church at surpasses the altars to spill out onto Tepozotlán, infusing them with the fagades, symbolically showing the original Mexican coloring. creole desire to grow, prosper and to Today the museum preserves praise God. paintings of all the styles prevalent The presence of these disquieting from the 16th to the 19th centuries. It altarpieces then becomes exhibits refined manneristic paintings understandable, born as they were in by Flemish artists Simon Pereyns and the midst of colonial excess, glorified Martin de Vos, as well as works by by gold, abundance and what was López de Herrera and Luis Juárez. All perceived at the time as a future the periods of baroque painting are without limits. However, the shown in works by Juan Correa and churrigueresque style carne and went, Cristóbal de Villalpando, masters of and with it, all of the utopias that, for a color and composition. time, lived as reality in Tepozotlán, The transition from the 17th to the 18th By mid-18th century century is a new style shown in made its paintings by the Rodríguez appearance and together with Juárez brothers and others, many the founding of the Royal Academy of of whom are anonymous; in their San Carlos (1781), neo-classicism was Gold plated silver chalice with coral inlay. canvases they glorify Christ and the considered the official style of the Virgin, saints and martyrs, angels and future, whereas the baroque was The Jesuits returned to worthy friars. severely criticized for being Tepozotlán in the 19th century only to Finally, other noteworthy presumptuous and frivolous. abandon it forever in 1914. The collections include ivories, beautiful Churches and convents were both convent complex was declared a European and Oriental religious plundered and destroyed in the years national historical monument, restored figurines; sculpture, ceramic, clothing, alter the Jesuits were expelled. The in 1960 by the National Institute of textiles and armor, as well as furniture Colonial system's deep fissures carne Anthropology and History, and and lacquer ware, all remarkable for to the surface, and henceforth, the inaugurated four years later as the their originality and state of Catholic church never regained its National Viceregal Museum. former splendor. preservation; all of them of interest to a Today, due to recent changes, the broad range of taste and preference museum offers, in the twenty-three rooms of its permanent collection, an overview of New Spain's society, beginning from its pre-Hispanic roots and covering the Enlightenment and the 19th century. However, it is the Viceregal atmosphere that predominates and envelops the visitor in the convent's splendor, through its corridors, cells and chapels, its broad patios, and vast flower and vegetable gardens. The collections housed in the museum are surprisingly rich and varied, but its pictorial wealth best illustrates the Colonial period, particularly in its religious aspect. It should be noted that a painting's aesthetic value was often subordinated to the need to transmit a bibhcal Virgen Apocalíptica by Juan Correa, message, the better to evangelize and Inmaculada Concepción, 18th century; baroaue painter. spread Spanish culture. In any event, carved wood from Guatemala. .