Exploring Colonial Mexico©
Exploring Colonial Mexico©
Colonial Corners of Guanajuato
During the Mexican silver boom of the 1700s, wealthy mining barons
poured money into the construction of religious buildings, especially
in the colonial city of Guanajuato, north of Mexico City, and
its surrounding mining communities. Elaborate baroque churches
and chapels were built that we can still admire, among them the
well known hilltop sanctuary of San Cayetano de La Valenciana,
and the silver temple at Cata. (about which more later.)
One of the wealthiest of
the Guanajuato mines, the Mineral de Rayas was a fabulously
rich silver mine located atop the mother lode, or veta madre.
In fact, the mine still partially functions behind its forbidding,
fortress-like structure set prominently in the hills above the
city. The Rayas mine was expanded during the mid-1700s - its most
productive years - by the proprietor, Vicente Manuel de Sardaneta
y Legazpí, a prominent criollo entrepreneur,
civic leader and first Marqués de San Juan de Rayas.
A significant part of his legacy was the Temple of San Juan
de Rayas, one of the most elegant of the silver chapels, erected
in the settlement of San Juan de Rayas located beside the mine.
It was completed in the 1770s, replacing a more modest chapel
dating from the 1500s, at a then staggering cost of 54,000 pesos.
THE RAYAS CHAPEL
When the Rayas mine played out towards the end of the colonial
era, the village of San Juan de Rayas came upon hard times, and
by 1850 was virtually abandoned. The neglected temple fell into
disrepair and by the early 1900s its integrity was threatened
by landslides and unstable mine workings.
In the mid-1940s, the chapel was in imminent danger of demolition
because of planned construction of the Panoramic Highway that
now encircles the city. At the eleventh hour, the local Rotary
Club came to the rescue, carefully dismantling the chief architectural
elements of the temple. The temple facade, along with the tower
and a lantern above the dome were brought down from the mountainside
stone by stone and reassembled to form a new front for the church
of Guadalupe de Pardo*, a former hacienda chapel located
west of the city center in the barrio of Tepetapa, where it now
remains.
The Rayas chapel is now
recognized as a masterpiece of the ornate Guanajuatan baroque,
an innovative and authentically regional style of architectural
design, developed by talented Mexican born designers and craftsmen,
based upon metropolitan and Spanish models. Although the author
of the chapel has not been definitively identified, we may infer
from its distinctive design and the close connection between the
architect and the Sardaneta family that it was the work of the
preeminent Mexican designer Felipe de Ureña.
Ureña's most innovative and securely documented work is the Jesuit basilica of La Compañia in the city of Guanajuato (right), completed in the mid-1700s under the impetus and patronage of the Jesuit priest José de Sardaneta, a brother of the first Marquis. This building, especially the facade, marked the first example of the barroco estípite style in the Bajío region. It inaugurated a distinctive architectural tradition that was further refined by Ureña's family and successors during the late 18th century. This is sometimes known as the felipense style, in homage to the master. Sculpted in high relief from rose-colored limestone, the triple portals of the basilica mark the starting point-many would claim the high point-of Churrigueresque architecture in the city and the nation.
Formerly thought to be
derived from the Sagrario facade of the cathedral in Mexico
City, a seminal work by the Spanish designer Lorenzo Rodríguez,
Felipe de Ureña's Guanajuato front is now known to predate
the metropolitan facade, thus making La Compañía
the earliest masterpiece of the style in Mexico - and by a Mexican
born architect.
Many of the architectural
innovations of La Compañía are also present in the
Rayas chapel. In addition to its magnificent west front, many
other ornamental and structural elements of the Rayas chapel,
including the single south tower, the octagonal dome with its
pendentives and lantern and, not least, its superb gilded retablos,
were, we surmise, personally designed by Ureña or his son
Francisco Bruno, and expertly fabricated by craftsmen from
his celebrated family workshop.
The Facade
"A filigree in stone"
as Manuel Toussaint, the late dean of Mexican colonial art studies,
once called it, the Rayas facade, with its intricately layered
estípite pilasters, expansive "moorish"
doorframe and exuberantly scrolled gable, displays all of the
signature features of the mature felipense style.
In the Rayas facade the architectural elements are sinuously layered,
set one upon another against a tapestry of modeled floral relief
- reflecting a horror vacui traceable to Spanish Plateresque
design as well as pre-hispanic sculptural traditions in Mexico,
and much beloved by Mexican designers.
The Iconography
The intricately carved tableau of the Baptism of Christ, framed
by an elaborately festooned niche and prominently placed in the
center of the gable, reflects the temple's original dedication
to St. John the Baptist, the namesake of the founder of San Juan
de Rayas.
It is worth noting here that, in contrast to the sophisticated
treatment of the architectural elements, this carved relief evokes
a popular, "folk baroque" feeling, especially in the
arrangement and detailing of the figures. This is generally true
of Mexican architectural sculpture from almost every period -
another legacy both of Spanish popular art and pre-hispanic forms.
In addition to the John the Baptist relief, other ornamental motifs
evoke water symbols traditionally associated with baptism, such
as seashells, the undulating doorway arch and upper pediment,
the dripping stalactite pendants on the lower columns - and even
the wavelike window frame. The single south tower, while still
ornate, is less extravagant than the facade. Tall and elegant,
its large bell openings are framed by slender but finely carved
estipites capped with caryatids. A circular, temple-like cupola
caps the square tower. The transplanted lantern set atop the original
oval Pardo dome, (only partly visible at this angle) is also elaborately
ornamented with prominent estipites and projecting cornice.
However, not all of the
salvaged remnants of the Rayas Temple are to be found here at
the Pardo. Two other groups of essential ornamental components
have found homes elsewhere in Guanajuato.
The Pendentives
Because of the existing
oval configuration of the Pardo dome, the Rayas dome and its supporting
structure, although salvageable, could not be placed in that location.
The dome is unfortunately lost, but the pendentives - four triangular
painted reliefs of the Four Evangelists - have been preserved
and can now be seen mounted above the principal stairwell, adjacent
to the School of Architecture, of the Unidad Belén
of the University of Guanajuato, formerly the Bethlemite
monastery in Guanajuato. Carved in low relief and originally
painted in bright colors, each panel portrays one of the Evangelists
with his respective attribute: Matthew (angel), Mark (lion), Luke
(ox) and John (eagle).
< St. Mark
The Rayas Retablos
El Santuario de Villaseca is another extraordinary silver
temple situated in the picturesque mining village of Cata,
located not far from Mineral de Rayas along the Panoramic Highway
above the city. This chapel now houses two side altars rescued
from the Rayas Temple. As with other churches and silver chapels
of 18th century, the gilded altarpieces, or retablos, were
among the most treasured objects in the Rayas Temple. Although
the fate of the main altarpiece is unfortunately not known, two
elegant side altars have survived and are now located in the transepts
of the Cata chapel.
The retablos have related themes: one is dedicated to Christ portrayed
as the Man of Sorrows, and the other to the Virgin of Sorrows
(Dolores), to whom the Sardaneta family was especially devoted.
The overall design of the two retablos is virtually identical
and follows closely that of the Rayas temple facade: framed by
slender, paired estípites, stalactite lambrequins and flamboyantly
scrolled pediments. Although the Man of Sorrows altarpiece has
been modified with the addition of modern statuary, the Dolores
retablo appears to be in its original state and features large
painted reliefs of Saints Joachim and Anna - the parents of the
Virgin Mary. Once again, although the reliefs are framed in sophisticated
rocaille cartouches, the santos themselves are almost folk art
- awkwardly draped figures with plain expressions.
Dolores retablo
>
Other pieces of the
puzzle...
Finally, in addition to the architectural elements of the Rayas
Temple so far identified, parts of the original dome, window frames
and fragments of other ornamental stonework are alleged to still
exist elsewhere in Guanajuato. Some were incorporated into neocolonial
buildings designed there by the 20th century Italian architect
and sculptor Jorge Belloli (see our page on Marfil). Although we have been unable
to track down their exact location, this might be an intriguing
project for a future researcher!
Thanks to the civic pride
and foresight of an earlier generation, in an era when preservation
of its colonial monuments was not a national or even regional
priority in Mexico, the principal architectural and decorative
elements of the Temple of Las Rayas, a gem of 18th century design
and craftmenship, have survived and must counted among the finest
of Guanajuato's distinctive and abundant baroque heritage.
Known as El maestro transhumante, the "peripatetic master", Felipe de Ureña was the most influential of the Mexican born architect /designers to introduce and expand the Churrigueresque style into New Spain. During the second half of the 18th century, together with family members, he was primarily responsible for the spread and subsequent evolution of this ornate late baroque style into cities across Mexico, especially along the silver routes north of Mexico City.
Primarily an innovative designer and fabricator of altarpieces, he later adapted the barroco estípite style as it was called, for church facades. His elegant and distinctive designs are recognized and known as the felipense style.
This page is the first is a series of feature articles on various works attributed to Felipe de Ureña and his immediate family.
Permission and
acknowledgment are requested for reproduction of any material
from this page.
