Synthesis and Survival

The Nat ive Prese nce in Si xteen th-century
Murals of New Spain
JEANETTE

FAVROT

PET

ER SO

N

IN
THE
AFTERMATH
of the Conquest of New Spain (now Mexi co) much
of elite native culture was destroyed. That not all vestiges of pre-Hispanic
civilization were eradicated has been the subject of recent scholarship that
examines trends within the rich matrix of colonial society at the 'sub-imperial'
level, to use George Collier's term.1 In spite of the overwhelming imposition of
European institutions, native traditions in language, socio-political organization,
and religion persisted. The tenacity of indigenous cultures is now becoming better
recognized, and native components are being interpreted as having affected and at
times having reformulated Euro-Christian concepts and values.
Less attention, however , has been paid to acculturation in works of art,
notably those created in the sixteenth century under the supervision of the three
mendicant orders, the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians. Early scholars
in the field of colonial Mexican art were interested mainly in validating its
European ancestry, and, for the most part, they either ignored or disparaged
native features. In 1942, in an attempt to reintegrate colonial art under the rubric
of Mexican studies, Jose Moreno Villa called for an end to its evaluation solely
by analogy with European standards; and he set out to emphasize the unique
aspects of el arte mexicano, coining the term tequitqui (' tributary ' in Nahuatl, the
Aztec language) for art created by native artisans under Spanish rule.' Several
decades elapsed before serious attention was directed at the native components
of early colonial architecture and monastic sculpture and pain ting.'
This paper briefly examines some of the pre-Hispa nic expressive forms and
accompanying beliefs that survived as viable entities in sixteenth-century mural
painting. I draw from four mural cycles executed by teams of native muralists in
Augustinian monasteries of central Mexico. My purpose is first to determine the
degree to which pre-Columb ia n motifs in wall painting were meaningful, and
thus, presumably purposeful, and second to understand the motivations of the
Augustinian friars who allowed and even exploited the pre-Conquest features
they recognized in the murals.
Although identifying and describing native style features in mendicant art are

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necessary first steps (that is, questions of what was represented and where), more
intriguing questions are those addressing issues of meaning and function (or how
and why). In other words, did these native features serve a purpose? If so , for
whom? Further , if they were recognized as indigenous, that is, potentially pagan,
why were they permitted by the same friars who were intent on extirpating all
that posed a threat to Christianity? Only in analyzing the mechanisms of continuity and transformation can we understand the dynamics of the interchange
between native and European. Granted that a collaborative effort was required
to produce the great corpus of mendicant art , the native artist emerges as an
active participant with some degree of autonomy and creative freedom.
The Native Muralists
The importance of visual aids to the mendicants' ambitious program of indoctrination and conversion needs to be emphasized. Like the painted cloths used by
the friars to illustrate doctrinal concepts, monastic wall paintings were primarily
didactic. Since murals with public access were used as billboard-sized proclamations, they helped to communicate Christian doctrine and impart the required
code of behavior .
However, the ornate churches and oversized cloisters, the settings of the
mendicant program, were built, decorated, and maintained primarily by native
labor and with native tribute monies. In their construction and decoration , th
e
friars relied on the sheer numbers and ' innate' ability of the Indians. They took
particular pride in the quantity and quality of indigenous painting - the result of
skills already evident in the rich pre-Conquest tradition of manuscript and wall
painting. Of native talent, the friar-teacher, Diego Valades, wrote, 'They also learn
- to paint and to draw in colors the images of thirigs, and they arrive at doing it
delicately.'' The success of these native artists can be measured by the ordinances
of the painters ' guild issued first in 1557, then again in 1586, to protect European
professionals from their competition.'
To train their artists in Renaissance canons and Christian iconography, there
were several options available to the regular clergy. In addition to using students
trained in the curriculum of the well-known monastic arts and crafts schools,
the Augustinians brought master artisans from Mexico City to their more rural
houses or, alternatively, sent more promising Indian students to the capital to be
trained 'under craft masters ' ( maestros ).' Muralists worked in teams ranked
according to skill. The more highly trained members travelled from monastery
to monastery, where local native artists served as assistants. The varied exposures
of the muralists to the newly imported Euro-Christian styles is manifest in the
unorthodox interpretations and hybrid traits of some monastic murals.
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Figure 1. Drawing of ' bee' and song scroll. Note glyph-like symbols
in the scroll (see inset, from left to right):ilhui tl, shell, and flower. Detail of vault frescoes
(south side), lower cloister , Malinalco, Mexico.

Apparen tly, the affiliation between certain of the mural painters and the
profession of scribe-painter, tlacuilo, persisted into the colonial period. Tiacuiloa
means both to paint and to write in Nahua tl, and tlacuilo, if not modified, means
painter or scribe, that is, painter on paper. Style and iconographic evidence from
the lower cloister murals in the Augustinian monastery of Malinalco (State of
Mexico) confirm the familiarity of the muralists with the pre-Conquest conventions followed by the tlacuilos. The vault frescoes, for example, are characterized
by stylistic features common to native style pictorial manuscripts, such as the
even distribution of isolated motifs and their relative flatness against a solid
background. Further , some symbols incorporated into the vault designs would
have been known only to native tlacuilos well versed in the pre-Hispanic hieroglyphic or picture-writing system of central Mexico. These abstract, glyph-like
elements include flanged song scrolls, trilobed symbols that refer metaphorically to ' pre ciousness ,' and celestial symbols (figu re r). One of the so-called
celestial symbols is in fact an ilhuitl, a symbol that identifies the profession of
tlacuilo in several manuscripts where the ilhuitl is inscribed within the block
of writing on which the scribe is working. ' In the sixteenth-century Historia
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Figure 2. Tlacuilot ecatl, ' Place of the Painter.' After Paul Kirchhoff,
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca (Mexico, r976 ), folios 54-58.
Tolteca-Chichimeca a similar compartmentalized scroll containing ilhuitl symbols
is used together with a man's head as a toponym for the place Tlacuilotecatl ,
' Place of the Painter ' (figu re 2).' At Malinalco I have interpreted the painted
ilhuitl as a 'signature' of the tlacuilo-artisan. Further stylistic and iconographic
evidence for the affiliation of muralists and scribes is evident in other Augustinian
murals, as will be seen.

Processes of Acculturation
Painting, as the art that best approximates representation of the visible world
and, therefore, the most vulnerable to error, was diligently supervised by the
friars. However, because the chroniclers inflate the mendicant contribution ,
crediting themselves with an inordinate amount of the building and decorating
of the monasteries, it is not always clear to what degree, if at all, they were
directly responsible for the work itself. Although the residing prior of each
monastery probably dictated the general compositional format, style, and
themes of monastic murals, the contribution of the native artisans was substantial,
clearly going beyond that of mere technicians and copyists. An examination of
the processes of acculturation in murals reveals that the preponderant process
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was the wholesale adoption of Euro-Christian imagery. At times, imported
artistic traditions were imitated so closely that wall paintings are merely monumentalized versions of European sources. In particular, the scenes from the
Passion of Christ, which were intended for the meditation and prayers of the
friars in the more private sectors of the monastery, reproduce with great fidelity
their graphic prototypes.1'
The focus here will be on the survivals of pre-cont act imagery that did occur
in mural painting, both co-existing and fusing with European conventions. The
inclusion of these indigenous elements was in some cases covert (executed
without the knowledge of the friars), and in others, fully sanctioned. A broad
range of acculturative solutions can be loosely organized into two categories ,
those of juxtaposition and convergence or syncretism.

Juxtaposition
Juxtapos ition implies that the indigenous motifs were allowed to co-exist side by
side with Euro-Christian subjects, with both left relatively unaltered. However,
when native style features are isolat ed within an otherwise European artistic
context, it is often not possible to assess whether there was a continuity or
disjunction of meani ng. For instance, symbols for chalchihuitl (jade) that are
depicted as concentric circles are frequently included in sixteenth-century
murals; studied alone, we are unable to determine whether these symbols held
any value beyond that of ornamental devices. These fragmentary 'pre-Columbian
motifs' have led some art historians to dismiss the survival phenomenon in
colonial art as rare and insignifica nt. " Yet, many painted toponymic glyphs
rendered in the pre-Hispanic manner are recognized as intact in form and
meaning , as legible to the modern-day viewer as to the colonial one. At the
Augustinian monastery of Malinalco, Mexico, for examp le , the town's preHispanic place sign is prominently included around an eagle-pelican image used
as a christological emblem (figure 3). Within the circular frame are the interlaced
strands for the glyphic sign of malinalli, 'twisted grass,' the Nahuatl root for the
toponym ofMalinalco, ' Place of Twisted Grass.' "

Convergence or Syncretism
When assimilated into Euro-Christian image ry, pre-Hispanic visual conventions
display a complex range of acculturative solutions, often producing synthetic
new statements. In a limited, but significant, number of cases native traits
retained their original form and meaning, particularly when that meaning did
not , at least overtly, conflict with Catholic ideology. The frequent inclusion in
colonial mural painting of speech scrolls, comma-like glyphs emanating from the
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D SURVIVAL

Figure 3. Drawing of medallion fresco with eagle-pelican motif in center.
Note malinalli, 'twisted grass,' glyph as toponym for Malinalco within inner frame.
Cloister stairwell ceiling mural , Malinalco.

mouths of humans or animals, is instructive. At times, pre-Hispanic speech scrolls
are incorporated into an ornamental border where they lose an identifiable
meaning. In other instances , speech scrolls are used in a manner that coincides
with the European tradition of phylacteries or inscribed scrolls, emerging from
the mouths of evangelists or friars, and thereby maintaining their original
function in both traditions. The retention of native meaning and function can
only be firmly established when speech scrolls are incorporated into a complex

of imagery known to have pre-Conquest importance .
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Figure 4. Drawing of two heraldic jaguars and an eagle.
Note pre-Hispanic speech scrolls in upper right. South wall mural in narthex of the
Augustinian monastery oflxrniquilpan, Hidalgo . After Constant ino Reyes-Vale rio, Arte
indocristiano (Mexico, 1978 ), color photograph after 222.

Such is the case in the Junette mural on the south wall of the Ixmiquilpan
church narthex, where an eagle and a jaguar flank a coat of arms and a second
jaguar on the upper right holds a bow and ar row; feathered headdresses are
indications of the prominence of these animals as Aztec emblems of warrior
orders and symbols of the celestial and underworld spheres (figure 4). This eagle
and jaguar pair would have recalled to the native viewer traditional aristocratic
prestige and supernatural powers. The glyph-like speech scrolls over the heads of
the jaguars, two of which are topped with the concentric circle symbols of jade
or preciousness , emphasize the importance and wisdom of pronouncements
made by these venerable metaphoric animals. At the same time, the parallelism
with Old World symbols of royalty, the eagle and the lion , also facilitated the
convergence of heraldic meanirrgs in the colonial period."
In the end , enough of the mural must remain intact to reconstruct the composition and theme of the entire wall painting and, thereby, reconstitute the
meaning of the component survival. For this reason four complete mural cycles
in Augustinian establishments best illustrate native survivals and syntheses those at Ixrniquilpan , Actopan , Santa Maria Xoxoteco, and Malinalco.
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Ixmiquilpan

As was the case with all native artists working under the Augustinians, the
muralists at Ixmiquilpan were permitted and, I believe, encouraged to draw
from their own heritage. In order to make the Christian faith and the Spanish
way of life more relevant, the regular clergy sought to relate their teachings to
many facets of the lives of local congregations. The well-known battle scene
murals on the church walls of Ixmiquilpan depict, on one level, a moral struggle
between the forces of good and evil." On another level, as Elena Estrada Gerlero
has suggested, they depict one in a series of historical conflicts known as the
Chichimec Wars (abo ut 1569-72)." Donna Pierce has identified the figures and
beasts, through their distinct pre-Hispanic dress and weaponry, as two local
sixteenth-century Indian groups living in the Hidalgo region. The centaurs and
the native warriors who wear little clothing and carry bows and arrows are
identified as the hostile, pagan Chichimecs. In contrast, those natives who wear
elaborate warrior dress and wield macanas (obsidian-edged 'swords' associated
with the Aztecs ), are the more pacific, Christianized Otomi. While the allegorical
allusions of the battle scene painted on the Ixmiquilpan church walls may have
escaped the native, whose own world view was not dominated by the Christian
dichotomy of good and evil, the recasting of the moral in the guise of the longstanding animosity between Chichimecs and Otomi would have sent a clear
message.The victory of the civilized Otomi over the barbarian Chichimec served
to dramatize the benefits of living in a Christian, Hispanicized state.
1
'

Actopan and Santa Maria Xoxoteco

A second example of syncretic imagery, using native images for Christian purposes, is evident in two cognate mural cycles in the State of Hidalgo: in the
open chapel at the monastery of Actopan and at Santa Maria Xoxoteco, a visita
of Metztitlan. In her iconographic study of these murals, Gerlero concludes that
both Actopan and Xoxoteco depict the Seven Deadly Sins set against a back ground of the Last Judgment . On the east or apse wall of both chapels are
portrayed the Genesis stories of Creation an d the Fall of Man, with the devour ing maw of Hell given a prominent position. On the side walls of both chapels
are panels representing the seven sins or temptations and their consequences in
terrifying forms of corporeal punishment.
I will discuss only one of these panels, best preserved at Xoxoteco, the panel
representing the transgression of drunkenness as portrayed by a pulque-drinking
scene (figu re 5). Pulque, octli in Nahuatl, is the native alcoholic drink obtained by
fermenting the sap of the maguey. In the mural, a native woman in a wrap-around
skirt and huipil!i (tunic with decorated neck panel ) is shown in a traditional
1

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Figure 5. Drawing of mural panel depicting pulque drinking.
Church wall painting , Augu st in ian visita of Santa Maria Xo xo teco , H idal go . After Juan B.

Artiga s, La pie! de la arquitectura (Mexico, 1979), figures 39 and 44.

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kneeling pose, drinking pulque from a dish. On the left a man who is barefoot and
wearing a common man's tilmatli (cape knotted at the shoulder) is bringing
another bowl of pulque to a more Hispanicized Indian wearing Spanish shoes,
shirt, and pants and the longer tilmatli of the elite.
The three homed devils behind the drinkers, as traditional Christian symbols
for temptation and sin, leave no doubt as to the friars' intent to sermonize on the
overeating and excessive drinking that constituted the sin of gluttony. However,
a far more ambivalent meaning is conveyed by the two pre-Co nquest objects in
the foreground. To the left is visible a portion of a large earthen jar, tinaj6n, used
to store pulque and at the center is a vertical drum, huehuetl. Sixteenth-century
accounts of Aztec rituals at which pulque was served describe the large open jars
over-flowing with pulque as well as the song and dance accompanied by musical
instruments, such as the drum." Similar pulque-drinking scenes can be found in
sixteenth-century manuscripts such as the Codex Mendoza (figure 6), in which
the reader is warned that 'the vice of drunkenness sometimes leads people to
become thieves.' The figural composition as well as the ritual drum and jar
suggest that the source for the frescoes was a native style pictorial manuscript, or
that the muralists and illustrators were one and the same, or both.20
The fans and smoking cane held by the Xoxoteco drinkers, as well as the cape
of the man, identify them as members of the upper class. It was the native aristocracy that was singled out by the friars to set examples of good conduct. Yet in
Aztec society it was precisely the Aztec lords, seasoned warriors, and old men and
women who had been allowed to drink pulque at certain ritual and social occasions .
According to pre-Conquest proscriptions, drinking was prohibited to some and
allowed, even in excess, to these others. Thus the vety imagery the Spanish friars
permitted at Xoxoteco in their campaign against alcoholism effectively neutralized
and even subverted the message for the native viewer; the depiction of a traditional ritual drinking scene would have condoned acceptable limits to imbibing
rather than condemning it altogether.
In addition, although both Christian and Nahua cultures viewed drunkenness
as disruptive and dangerous, as Burkhart points out, drinking had its place in
Aztec society as one of life's pleasures and, although punishable if abused , excess
did not affect an individual's destiny in the afterlife.21 Only the Catholic church
censured drunkenness as a sin of the flesh leading to eternal damnation. Both in
the imagery selected as well as in the meaning, therefore, this mural scene is a
composite of native and Euro-Christian conventions. Ironically and tragically, one
of the consequences of the Conquest was to disrupt pre-Hispanic proscriptions
against excessive drinking.
1
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(j

;·,·,.·,
Q . .·..···;·:.
..

Q

Figure 6. Pulque-drinking scene.
From Codex Mendoza, commentary by Kurt Ross (Fribourg, 1978), n5.

The difficult task of instilling foreign concepts of reward and punishment
necessitated that the mendicant clergy forcefully recreate Heaven and Hell in
words, theater , and art. " Among the forms of demonic punishment graphically
illustrated in the Actopan and Xoxoteco murals are some modes of death that
were unique to native American cultures, as suggested by Gerle ro." A reference
to Aztec ritual cannibalism is made through the depiction of a butcher 's shop
where devils behead, dismember, and disembowel their victims. Another hellish
'punishment' includes a figure being positioned spread-eagle against a wooden
scaffolding as in the pre-Conquest arrow or scaffold sacrifice ( tlacacalizt li ). All
sacrificial practices were so abhorrent to the friars that these acts were meant to
connote the fearful tortures of Hell. Adopting these indigenous images, however ,
may have failed to instill the same degree of horror in the native viewer. Prior to
the Conquest, neither ritual cannibalism nor sacrificial death in general had

punitive connotat io ns;" sacrifice, in fact, was one of the modes of death rewarded
by Aztec society with the promise of a positive celestial afterlife. The message
conveyed by the 'he llish' imagery to the native viewer then may have subverted
its intended function of deterrence.
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Figure 7. Detail of Paradise Garden murals. Lower cloister wall (east side), Malinalco.

Malinalco
The positive altern ative , the rewards of a Paradise Garden, is the message conveyed by the monastic murals of Malina lco." The central register of the garden
murals on the lower cloister walls recreates a luxuriant array of flora and fauna
with three medallions that enclose the sacred monograms of Jesus Christ and
Mary as Queen of Heaven and the Augustinian emblem (figu re 7). The sources
for the garden frescoes are predominantly European, most likely a combination
of graphic and tapestry designs. However , despite a degree of stylization, I have
identified as native twenty-four plants, thirteen of the forty-eight birds, and all
but one of the twenty-one animals represented. The symbolic importance of a
particular species to either the European or indigenous cultures is determinable
on the basis of its geographical distribution at time of contact . Some of the
plants and animals carry traditional Christian symbolism associated with the
church, the Passion of Christ, or Marian iconography. Such specimens are the
domesticated grape vine, acanthus, thistle, and certain birds, including the heron,
sparrow, and dove. The pomegranate and rose, unknown in Mexico prior to
contact, cannot have held any meaning for native Americans; they were symbols
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of the ' New Life' in Christianity with paradisiacal implications. Similarly, the dolphin, without argument, is traced to its European source, where it was important
as ' King of Fishes' and, frequently, as a christological symbol.
Yet , within the over-all Renaissance design scheme the muralists who worked
at Malinalco were given the freedom to select native flora and fauna that had
continuing importance in post-Conquest Mexico. Among the twenty-four native
plants identified (in cluding five tentative possibilities ) nineteen were endemic
only to the Americas in the year 1519. Many of the native flora depicted in the
murals, such as the huacalxochitl, 'basket flowe r,' were held in high esteem by
the Aztec culture as prestige and ceremonial items. Most are documented as
having medicinal value in the sixteenth century and continue in use to the
prese nt-day , like the hallucinogenic ololiuhqui, morning glory. Some were
selected for their resemblance to other critical elements of native life, as was
true of the xiloxochitl, 'corn-silk flowe r.' The yolloxochi tl , ' heart flower' (figure
8), is an excellent example with multiple associations: it was one of the most
important flowers offered to the Aztec patron deity by the ruler Motecuhzoma
II, and it was also a classic example of the correspondence between therapeutic
plants and the body parts they resemble. The yolloxochitl is still considered a
potent medicine, stemming in part from its resemblance to both an egg and the
heart . Flowers such as these, which alluded metaphorically to power and lifesustaining functions, were often appropriated by the ruler and upper classes in
Aztec society.
There are also species of fauna depicted in the garden frescoes indigenous
only to the Americas, such as the coyote, the chachalaca (a pheasant-like bird),
and the tree opossum or tlacuache. Like the plant life depicted, many of the
animals related to some aspect of the political hierarchy, supernatural beliefs, or
pharmacopo eia of the Aztecs. Certain of these represented aspects of the cosmos
and the deities that controlled natural forces and were adopted by the Aztec
ruling hierarchy. The snake became associated with both the fertile and fatal
aspects of the earth, the hummingbird with renewal and birth, and the tlacuache,
that indispensable component of the native curer 's medicine chest, with the
female principle of fertility.
Where certain flora and fauna were common to both continents, they often
shared a bicultural importance that can be traced to pre-Conques t as well as to
Euro-C hristian sources. The owl's nocturnal lifestyle, for examp l e , made it a
feared omen of death in both native American and European cultures. Where
each culture brought a different set of associations to the painted image, we can
speculate that the sixteenth-century native viewer, whether aware or not of the
European meaning, retained an interpretation derived from his heritage. In both
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Figure 8. Yollox ochitl , ' hea rt flower .'
Detail of the garden murals. Lower cloister wall (south side), Malina lco, Mexico.

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cultures the falcon and eagle-hawk were birds associated with kingship and the
highest deity; interesting in the murals is the fact that they are represented
eating their prey. Here the falcon's consumption of blood was probably being
compared to the Aztec tribal god Huitzilopochtli's need for blood sacrifice.'•
The emphasis on the rapacious aspect of the birds as hunters in the murals
appears to underscore pre-Hispanic more than European connections.
T hus, while important species in the native cultures were used to convey
Christian themes, they must have also retained their older meanings of longestablished usage. In his study of persistent Nahua practices and concepts,
Lockhart has called the resulting mutual miscomprehension by native and
European viewers of such motifs 'double mistaken identity.' " Other examples
are found in plant representations. The white sapote tree painted on Malinalco's
east wall played a central role in Aztec ritual life and was prized for the narcotic capabilities of its leaves, branches, and fruit. Sixteenth-century accounts ,
however , stress the resemblance of the fruit of the sapote to that of the apple
tree ." And this sapote-apple tree functioned within the overall Augustinian
mural program as the Tree of Life or Knowledge located to the east in the
Garden of Eden ." Yet, the use of a native fruit tree with narcotic properties
instead of an apple tree could not have been accidental; it would be naive to
assume that the sapote ceased to hold its older, indigenous importance even
after decades of Christianization.
The monkey's role in the frescoes, as interpreted here, is another example
of divergent meanings dependent on associations brought to the motif by
different viewers. Although for both cultures the monkey symbolized overindulgence in physical appetites (sexual excess and drunkenness), the positive,
valued connotations of the monkey for the Nahuas is underscored by its pictorial
context (figure 9). Two monkeys are seated in and dangling from tree branches
situated on the east wall (the upper monkey is only partially visible due to the
deterioration of the mural ). The placement of the monkeys in a cacao tree
linked two exotic and prized Aztec tribute items, the cacao (or chocolate ) pod
having been used as both currency and an elitist beverage. This conjunction
would have had little relevance for the Augustinian friar. Instead , according to
prevailing Christian iconography, the monkey signified devilish vices, and
particularly , original sin.' 0 Although a single apple-eating ape was the m
st
o
commonly used metaphor for the temptation of Adam , a variant using paired
monkeys appears in a 1533 engraving by the German artist Erhard Altdorfer, where
two monkeys are seated in the tree behind Adam and Eve ." One monkey is
reaching for an apple being offered by the other while Eve points to this
exemplar of man's temptation and fall.
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Figure 9. Monkeys and cacao (chocolate) pods.
Detail of the garden murals. Lower cloister wall (east side). Malinalco, Mexico.
At Malinalco the Christian Paradise theme reflected the mendicants' broader
utopian aspirations in their New World mission. The message of the Paradise
Garden was also reinforced by parallels with the Aztec celestial 'House of the
Sun,' a convergence that enhanced the promise of an anticipated afterlife for the
native population. But why were the muralists allowed to select specific plants
and animals from their own environment that had continuing associations with
ancient cults, the elite class, and curing? Did the friars not suspect their enduring
relationship with the older way oflife? These questions can be answered on two
levels, the clandestine and the authorized. On one level, the friars were simply
not conscious of the degree to which some of the species in the garden frescoes
were still affiliated with the ancient civil and supernatural structure. This was
not always strictly a function of mendicant ignorance, but rather a form of selfdeception. Even those friars who were aware of the important roles of certain
flora and fauna denied this knowledge, along with that of many other persisting
practices that were almost impossible to cont rol."
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On another level , perhaps the official level , mendicant friars and Spanish
authorities in general felt that the depiction of flora and fauna was 'safe' subject
matter for native artisans. In the hierarchy of sacrilegious possibilities, the
painting of plants and animals was considered relatively harmless compared to
the potential irreverence of misrepresenting holy figu res."
Although these reasons help to explain native intrusions into Malinalco's
ima ge ry, what of the figural work at Ixmiqu ilpan , Actopan, and Xoxoteco? The
fact remains that native muralists were prominently involved with every type of
mural painting including the depiction of holy figures, and the various edicts
prohibiting figural work and intended to placate anxious European painters, in
actuality were never enforceable ." More importantl y, the use of figures in the
murals dressed in pre-Hispanic garments, using pre-Conquest ritual paraphernalia
and weaponry, and at times even involved in activities associated with their
ancient society, was not only self-consciously selected by the native artist but
also eminently useful to the Spanish patrons. It is best understood in light of the
entire mendicant program to Hispanicize as well as evangelize the native peoples.
Conclusions
In spite of the divergent imagery, the mural programs that we have examined
have many aspects in common.
1. All four programs have irrefutable evidence of Indian workmanship closely tied to

sixteenth-century manuscript paintings.
2. They are all located in the public or semi-public areas of the monasteries, accessible to,

and primarily intended for, the neophyte Christians and native community (the open
chapel or capilla abierta, the church nave walls, and the lower cloister walls).
3. They are propagandistic in intent, as their subject matter makes obvious.
The four cycles are related, directly or indirectly, to eschatological themes,
including the Last Judgment, Hell, and the Paradise Garden. These themes
set in the context of the mendicant program were to inculcate a Christian
and distinctly Spanish way of life. At Ixmiquilpan, the battle to win over the
pagan segment of the native population painted in large-scale murals was
intended not only to save souls, but also to promote the stability and success
of the new Spanish colony. Pierce has hypothesized that a Last Judgment
scene, similar to those at Actopan and Xoxoteco, may have been found in the
apse of Ixmiquilpan, endowing the battle scene with an eschatological
imperative." An essential part of the mendicant program included the reinforcement of behavioral patterns with forceful demonstrations of the wages

30

SY N T H ES I S A N D S U R V I VAL

of sin. The murals of Actopan and Xoxoteco re-enacted , with grotesque vividness, the demonic punishment awaiting transgressors, just as the rewards of a
celestial heaven were recreated in the appealing garden scenes of Malinalco.
4. These four murals represent a range of acculturative solutions.

Elements that were strongly pre-Hispanic in flavor persisted undetected or
were allowed because they were not recognized as impinging on the Christian
belief system. Convergence of mean ing, and occasionally of form , occurred
where interpretations by native and European cultures coincided. There were
also examples of co-existence, or of 'double mistaken identity,' where each
culture brought its own interpretation to the image. Although appropriated
for Christian duty, the very use of ancient pictorial forms recast and thus
reformulated the Christian message in a distinctly native mode.
5. Finally, almost all murals with overt native features have been uncovered in Augus-

tinian monasteries.

This reflects, in part, the Order's liberality, their confidence in the spiritual
capacity of the native population, and their broad exposure to humanist thought.
Although they maintained strict paternalistic control, the Augustinians, more
than the other orders, trusted the Indians' ability to absorb religious instruction and were the most liberal in allowing their participation in all the sacraments.36 T hus, they permitted greater flexibility in choice of subject matter .
The Augustinians, for example, allowed classical themes, as in the wall paintings of the ancient Greek philosophers at Atotonilco el Grande, Hidalgo. It
was this more tolerant outlook that gave the native muralist working under
the Augustinians the leeway to draw from his own artistic idiom and cultural
experience. Given this freedom , artists fulfilled their own hidden agendas,
which at times opposed or, at the very least, neutralized the Christian intent.
Certain Augustinian murals offer the strongest evidence for the active
involvement of the native in choices that sustained pre-Conquest patterns
into the last decades of the sixteenth century.

31

NAT I VE A RT ISTS AND PATRONS I N CO LO N IAL LAT I N AMER I CA
86; Charles Gibson, The Aztecs Under Spa nish

N otes

Rule: A Hi story of the Indians of the Valley of
r. ' In theShadowof Empire:New Directions

Mexico, 1519-1810 (Stan ford, 1964 ), 122-27, 224,

in Mesoamerican and Andean Ethnohistory,'
edited

246; Reye s-Valerio , Arte indocristiano;
Jean ett e F. Peterson, The Paradise Garden

by George A. Collie r, Renato I. Rosaldo, and

Murals of Ma linalco: Utopia and Im perial Policy

John D. Wirth (London , 1982), 1-20. A few of
the most recent studies on the persistence of

in Sixteenth-century Mexico (Aus tin , 1993 ),

native customs, institutions, and ideas in six-

5. Quoted from Diego Valades, in Esteban

in The Inca and Aztec States,

1400-1800,

chapters 2

and 3.

teenth-century Mexico areJames Lockhart's

J. Palom

'Viewsof Corporate Self and History in Some
teenth Centuries,' in Collier and others, Inca

(Mexico, 1962 ), 276. Positive evaluatio ns of
native painti ng abilities can also be found in
ToribiodeBenaventeor Motolinia, Memoria les

and Aztec States , 367-93; Lockh art's 'So me

e historia de los indios de la Nueva Espana

Nahu a Conce pts in Postco nq uest Guise,'

(Madrid, 1970), 104; Geronimo de Mendieta ,
Historia eclesiastica indiana , Ill (Mexico, 1945),
75; Alo nso de Zorita, LifeandLaborinAncient

Valley Towns , Late Seventeenth and Eigh-

History of European Ide as, VI ( 1985 ), 465 -82;

]. Jorge KJo r de Alva 's 'Spiritual Conflict and
Accommodati on in New Spain: Toward a

e ra, Fray Diego Valades, OFM: Su obra

Mexico: The Brief and Summary Relation of the

Typology of Aztec Responsesto Christianity,'

Lords of New Spain, translated by Benjamin

in Collier and others, Inca and Aztec States,

Keen (London, 1963 ), 173.

345-66; Louise M. Burkhart's 'Moral Deviance

6. Franciscode! Barrio Lore nzot,Ordenanzas

in Sixteenth-century Nahu a and Christian

de gremios de la Nueva Espana (Mexico, 1921),

Thought:The Rabbit and the Deer,' jou rnal of

21-25. Although the ordinances ostensibly

Latin American Lore, X II (1986 ), 107-39; and
Christ ian Mo ral Dialogue in Sixteenth-century

closed the advanced ranks of the craft guilds
to non -Span iard s, these discriminatory
policies were unenforceable. See Francisco

Mexico (T ucson, 1989 ).

S. Cruz , Las artes y los gremios en la Nueva

Bur khart ' s The Sli ppery Earth: Nahua -

2.

La escultura colonia l m exi cana (Me xico,

Espana (Mexico , 1960 ), 36; Gib son, Aztecs

1942).

Und er Spanish Rule, 397-402. Document ed

3. John McAndrew ,The Open-Air Churches of

conventos: Los murales del siglo XV I en la Nueva

references to native muralists in the colonial
period are limit ed; historical records have
substantiated by name onl y one native
m ur ali s t, Juan Gerson ( Rosa Camelo
Arredondo, Jorge Curria Lac roix , and

Espaiia (Mexico, 1989).

Co nsta ntin o Reyes-Va le rio , J ua n Gerson ,

Sixteenth-century Mexico (Cambridge, 1965 );

Constantino Reyes-Valerio.A rteindocristiano
(Mexico, 1978); and Reyes-Valerio,ElPintorde

4. For a discussion of the native contribu -

tlacuilo deTecamachalco [Mexico, 1964], 13-35).

tions to the mendicant building program, see
George Kubier, Mexican Architecture of the
Sixteenth Centu ry, I (New Haven , 1948 ), 134-

7. The best known art schools were established by the Franciscans in the capita l of
Mexico City at Sanjose de los Naturales and

32

SY NT H E S IS A N D SU RV I VAL

Santiago Tlatelolco. The Augustinians also
had a well-developed arts curriculum at their
monastery of Tir ipetio, Michoacan. See P.

Mexico, PhD dissertation [Universi ty of New
Mexico, 1987], chapter 5). The Crucifixion
scene painted in Malina lco's upper cloister

Diego Basalenque, Historia de la Provincia de
San Nicolas de Tolentino de Michoacan (Mexi co,
1963), 68; Matias Escobar, Americana tebaida,

is visually close to the woodcut of the
Crucifixion found in a widely distributed
Spanish theological text of1535 titled Epistolas

second edition (More lia, 1970), 75; Esteban j.
Palomera, Fray Diego Valades, OFM: El hombre
y su epoca (Mexico, 1963), 57-72; McAndrew,
Open-Air Churches, 368-74. The Augustinian

i evangelio s (Peterson , Garden Murals of
Mali nalco,chapter 4).
11. See George Kub le r, ' On the Colonial
Extinction of the Motifs of Pre-Columbian
Art ,' in Essays in Pre-Columbian Art and

chronicler Escobar (109-10) stresses that
painters, unlike stone masons, were trained
in Mexico City where there was a concentra-

Archaeology , edited by Samuel K. Lothrop
and others (Cambridge,1961),14-34. Although
negating the significance of native survivals
in art , Kublerwas the first to systematically

tion of talent; on this,seeBasalenque , Historia,
6o;Juan de Grijalva, Cr6nica de la Orden de NPS
Agustin en las provincias de la Nueva Espana,
1533-1592 [1624], second edition (Mexico,1924),
223;Toribio de Benavente or Motolinia,History
of the Indians of New Spain, translated by E. A.

characterize different types of survivals
(convergences , juxtapositions , fragments,
and so forth).
12. On the form and function of the malinalli
g lyph, see Jeanette F. Peterson , 'Sacri ficial
Earth: The Iconography and Function of

Foster (W estport, 1950), 241.
8. Ilhuitl is a Nahuatl word meaning 'day,'
'ceremonial day,' or 'sun's orb .' Although it

Malinalli Grass in Aztec Culture,' in Flora and
Fauna Imagery in Precolumbian Cultures :
Iconography and Function, edited by Jeanette

may have ast ronomica l significance, H.B.
Nicholson (' TheTemalaca tl ofTehuacan ,' El
Mexico Antigua, VIII [1955], 95-132) also relates

F. Peterson (O xfo rd , 1983), u3-48. Other
toponyms in sixteenth-century sculpture
and painting are discussed by Reyes-Valerio
(Arte indocristiano).
13. Pierce ( Frescoes of Ixmiquilpan, 106-13)

the ilhuitl to the painter-scribe or tlacuilo. On
the glyph-like symbols in the Malinalco
murals, see Peterson, Garden Murals of
Ma linalco , chapters 3 and 6.

identifies the origin and local bearer of the
coat of arms; she further suggests that the
speech scrolls may indicate a discussion
related to the Chichimec war campaign
between the eagle, as symbol of the Spanish,
and the jaguar, representative of the Otorni,
with the second jaguar with bow and arrow,
signifying the Chichimecs.
14. Abelardo Carrillo y Carie!, Jxmiquilpan
(Mexico, 1961).

9. Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca , commentary
by Paul Kirchhoff (Mexico, 1976), 129.
ro. Ideas about the reliance of colonial
muralists on fiftee nth- and sixteenth-century
European graphics have been refined in
recent studies, as in Camelo Arredondo and
others (Juan Gerson) on Tecamachalco, and
Donna L. Pierce on lxmiquilpan ( The Sixteenth-century Nave Frescoes in the Augustinian
Mission Church of Ixmiquilpan, Hidalgo,

33

NATIVE ARTISTS ANO PATRONS I N CO LO N IAL LATI N AMER ICA
15. ' El friso monumental de Ixmiquilp an,'

ever , suggests that shooting victims with
arrows was a pre-Columbian form of punish-

Acts of the XLII International Congress of

ment for moral deviance , in w hich case
a rro w sacr ifice would have been jo int ly
viewed by Christian and Nahua as punitive
and appropriate to Hell.

Americanists, Paris, 1974 , X (1976), 9-19.
16. Donna L. Pierce, ' Id entificat io n of the
Warriors in the Frescoes of Ixmiquilp an,'
Research Center for the Arts Review , number 4
(1981), 1-8; and Pierce, Frescoes oflxmiquilpan.

25. The s ub seque nt i nfo rmat io n o n Malinalco's lowe r cloister Paradise Gar den mu-

17. The mura ls of Xoxoteco were first descr ib ed by Juan B. Artigas ( La piel de la arquitectura: Mu rales de San ta Maria Xoxoteco
[ Mexi co , 1979]) and analyzed by Elena

rals is derived from the aut hor's analysis of
the iconogr aphy, meaning, and function of
the frescoes within their historical context
(Peterson, Garden Murals of Ma lin alco).

Estrada Ge rlero (' Los temas escatol6gi cos
en la pintura mural novohispana de] siglo
XVI,' Traza y Baza, VII [1978], 71-88).

26. Sahagun, Florentine Codex, Book X I, 44.
27. ' Double mistaken identity' occurs when
a group thinks a 'give n form or concept is

18. For ritual drinking , see Be rnardino de

j. 0. Anderson and Charles E. Dibbl e, S
antFe,

operating in the way familiar within its own
traditio n and is un aware of or unimpressed
by the other side's inte rpretation' (Lockhart,

1950-82, Book I, 33, 35, 48-49; Book II, 36,

'Some Nahua Concepts,' 477).

Sahagun, Florentine Codex: General History of
the Things of New Spain, translated by Arthur

148, 153-54; Book IV,17, On the Aztec denun -

28. Francisco Hern ande z, Hi sto ria natural

ciation of drunkenness which is compared to

de Nueva Esp ana , I / I I I of Obras completas

over-eating, the taking of hallucinogens, and

(Mexi co, 1959), 92.

in discrimi nate sexual activ ity, see Sahagu n,
Book I, 26; Book VI, 68-71; Book X, 16, 20, 37,

29. Genesis 2:8 -10. The app le came to be
favored as the tree with the forbidden fruit
because of the Latin etymo lo gyof apple from
malu m, meaning both app le and evil.

46, 49, 56.
19. CodexM endoza ,commentary by Kurt Ross
(Fribourg,1978), rr4-15.
20. For a simil ar vie w, see Gerlero,' Temas

Middle Ages and the Renaissance ( Lo ndo n,

escatol6gicos ,' 83.

1952),107-44.

21. Bur khart, Slippery Earth ,159-69.
22. Heaven and Hell were also reenacted for
the natives through edifying morality plays
and street theater ; on this , see G rijalva,
Cronica, 229, 322, 333; Motolinia , His tory, rn309, 119; Robert Ricard , The Spi ritua l Conquest
of Mexico , t ran slated by Lesley B. Simpson
(Berke le y and Los Angeles ,1966), rn4.
23. ' Te mas escatol6 gicos,' 80-82.

31. Engraving titled 'Adam and Eve,' illu strated in janson , Apesand Ape Lore, plateXIXa.

30. H.W .Janso n, Apes and Ape Lore in the

32. The friar-chron icler Diego Duran ( Book
of the Gods and Rites and The Ancient Calendar,
translated and edited by Fernando Horcasitas and Doris Heyden [No rman , 1971], 121)
sho ws himself vu lnerable to this form of
'wishful thinking,' describing the practice of
decorating the churches with ' bouquets,
flo wers, and grass,' which is 'now permitt ed

24. Burkhart (' Mora l Deviance ,' 120), how 34

SYNTHESIS AN D SU RV I VAL

'flowers , an imals, bi rds, romanos [ that is ,
'gro tesqu e' designs] and other such things

since it is not a superstition but simply an
ancient custo m.' Yet Duran (238-39 , 290 )
himself also warns the reader of the Indians '
'ancient blindness ' or pagan reverence for
all plants and anima ls.
33. Native depictions of flowers , anima ls ,
and other design elements always drew un-

to avoid the problems caused by bad
painters of saints (Ba rrio Lore nzot,Ordenanzas degremios, 23).
35. Pierce, Frescos ofixmiquilpan,170-71.
36. On this, see Richard E. Green leaf, Zuma.r-

raga and the Mexican Inqu isition, 1536-1543

reserved praise from the friars. ' There were
good artists who painted from nature, especially birds , anima ls, trees , greenery , and

(Washington , 1961 ), 28-29 ; Ricard , Spiritual
Conquest, 107-08, 125-27. The writings of St
Augustine were used in support of the spiritual capabilities of all men (Grijalva , Cronica ,

such things ... But people they did not paint
beautifully' (Mendieta, Histo ria , III, 55). The
mendicants' reservations about native figu-

n 3). The chronicler Escobar ( Americana

tebaida, 355) implies that Augustinians
allowed native believers to be initiated into

rative work were colored by their moralistic
stance and paranoia concerning heretical
beliefs Quan de Torq uemada , Monarquia
indiana, V [Mexico, 1975], 313).
34. According to the gu il d ordinances of

thecontemplative life. On thehumanist education of the regular orders, see Peggy K.
Liss, Mexico Under Spain, 1521-1556 (Chicago

1557, native painters were allowed to paint

and London, 1975), 15-17.

35