| Note: | K66 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Object Name: | Cross, Monastery of Saint Augustin of Acolman | |
| Creation Date: | c. 1550 | |
| Culture: | Colonial Mexican | |
| Location: | Monastery of Saint Augustin of Acolman, Acolman, Mexico | |
| Repository: | ||
| Image source: | CSULA Visual Resources | |
| The monastery was founded by the Augustinian order in 1539, and the outstanding pure plateresque facade of its church was finished in 1560. The most astonishing tequitqui monument in Acolman is the atrial cross. Although there are precedents in Europe for open-air crosses along roads or in town squares, the Mexican crosses have a different iconography and an "exotic Indian flavor". The atrial crosses in general and specially the one of Acolman provide a dual system of meanings: the Christian and the idolatrous. The cross is the central symbol of the Christians and represents the death of Christ who with his resurrection made possible the redemption of human beings. The Acolman cross features at the top the INRI inscription, then the Augustinian emblem of the arrow-pierced heart, an impressive realistic head of Christ in bulk at the intersection of the arms and the shaft, a chalice, pliers, a ladder, the spear, a palm lead, a human bone and a skull. The arms of the cross are decorated with vegetal motifs like flowers, vines, and leaves. Each arm ends with a stylized fleur-de-lys. The base that supports the cross intends to emphasize the theme of Calvary, showing a crude image of the Virgin of the Sorrows surrounded by native iconography. The cross reflected the doctrine taught by the friars, but the very rooted idolatry induced the Indian to bury images of their gods underneath the atrial crosses and persist in the practice of old rituals. In time, these would become syncretic with the new religion A cross on top of a skull flanked by two bones representing the Resurrection and Triumph over Death is a composition of passion elements showing the bleeding wounds of Christ and a cross emerging from the central wound framed by a crown of thorns. Finally we find a carving that presents a set of Instruments of the Passion (Arma Christi) flanked on the left by an Indian head bleeding from the mouth and on the right by the grim face of a Spanish conqueror. This image may suggest many interpretations, but it should be pointed out that it communicates the native perspective of the painful cultural and religious syncretism that they were experimenting. | ||
