Exploring Colonial Mexico©
Exploring Colonial Mexico©
Visitors making
the journey from the city of Querétaro over the mountains
to the missions of the Sierra Gorda, are encouraged to stop en
route at Cadereyta, where two priceless works of colonial art
are on display: a painted 16th century cross and a superb gilded
18th century retablo.
Founded in the 1640s as an important
way station on the route leading east toward the Sierra Gorda,
Cadereyta was the site of a substantial Franciscan mission devoted
to the evangelization and later missionization of the various
Indian groups of the Sierra Gorda.
Two neoclassic fronted churches, the parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul and the later temple of La Soledad, face the plaza in this sunny crossroads town, located some 50 kms NE of San Juan del Rio off the Mexico City-Querétaro highway (Mex 57) on the dryer western side of the Sierra Gorda range.
St. Peter and St. Paul,
the former Franciscan mission church, was substantially altered
by the diocesan clergy in the 1700s and is home to both of these
treasures.
The Atrial Cross (above)
Carved from local stone and painted red, gold and green, this rare cross probably dates from the late 1500s and once stood in front of the church within a walled atrium. Reliefs of the Instruments of The Passion decorate the shaft and arms, with the sudorium, or face of Christ, at its center ringed by a crown of thorns. Foliated spurs decorate the arms of the cross which is crowned by the initials INRI - "Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews" - inscribed on a scrolled plaque.
Now preserved in the baptistry behind a monolithic stone pila, it is one of very few sculpted and painted crosses to survive from this period in Mexico.
The Retablo
The larger attraction at Cadereyta is the sensational gilded altarpiece filling the east end of the nave. Dating from the 1750s, the retablo has been documented as the work of the eminent Queretaran designer and sculptor Pedro de Rojas.
Designed in the late baroque manner, the retablo follows the clearly compartmented style of earlier Mexican altarpieces but with the addition of complex estípite pilasters and dense filigree relief ornament - masks, scrolls, strapwork and foliage - that crowd every surface and frame the neo-moorish niches.
The well illuminated retablo features paintings as well as statuary.
Four of the five statues specified in the original contract remain: the figures of St. Peter and St. Paul on the upper tier are believed to have been carved by Rojas himself, while those of St. Francis and Nicholas of Tolentino - the Augustinian saint and patron of Cadereyta - were products of his workshop. The statue of Paul is especially powerful: a commanding figure in the Mannerist mold with a strong, expressive face, assertive stance and boldly chiseled robes.
A modern painting of the
Virgin of Guadalupe occupies the curtained center niche, surrounded
by a group of superior 18th century paintings, recently restored
and attributed to the baroque artist Pedro José Noriega,
that illustrate scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin
Mary in a lively, neo-mannerist style using a palette of warm,
luminous colors.
Other notable retablos created
by Pedro de Rojas include those of Santa Ana (documented)
and San José in the transepts of the church of San Agustín,
Salamanca (Guanajuato). In Queretaro, Rojas designed
the retablos and carved statuary for the nun's churches of
Santa Clara and Santa Rosa, as well as the lost altarpieces
of of San Agustín, and San Antonio in that
city.
The 1752 contract for the Cadereyta retablo, signed by Pedro de Rojas - one of only two retablos securely documented as the master's work - shows that it was commissioned by the cofradía of the Holy Sacrament. The document was published by Mina Ramírez Montes in her study Pedro de Rojas y su taller de escultura en Querétaro (Documentos de Querétaro, 1988) together with other details of the retablo.
retablo
of Santa Ana, San Agustín: Salamanca (photo ©Ricardo
Castro) >
