Exploring Colonial
Mexico©
Exploring Colonial
Mexico©
A Heavenly Vision La Capilla del Señor de Los Zapateros de Tlalpujahua Tlalpujahua is a colonial mining town in eastern Michoacán close to the Mexico State line. Noted for its spectacular baroque church of San Pablo y San Pedro, it also has several important barrios. One of the best known of these is the ancient barrio of Los Zapateros. Founded by dissident miners in the 1500s, the barrio and its chapel flourished in later colonial times under the aegis of a wealthy and powerful cofradia.
Among the chapel's many notable artistic features are its rustic carved doorway, stuccoed façade and the primitive stone atrium cross* carved with the Instruments of Christ's Passion.
In the apse stands a fine gilded altarpiece designed in the ornate, Churrigueresque manner - the only extant example of this style in Michoacán. There are also paintings of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel signed by the eminent baroque artist Juan Correa.
Los Zapateros, the atrium cross >
The Ceiling
But the most striking feature of the chapel is the painted wooden artesonado ceiling that spans the nave*.Its deep blue expanse is accented by folkloric depictions of the Twelve Apostles in a palette of browns and ochers, accented with red and blue. Seated on individual banks of clouds, each portrait bears the saint's name and attributes as well as the appropriate quotation from the Apostles Creed.
This celestial theme is enhanced by a dazzling "Gloria" painted on the apsidal vault. A golden sunburst emanates from the chalice at its center, bordered with rose tinted clouds and winged cherubs and ringed by angels holding the Instruments of Christ's Passion - for the parishioners a radiant vision of Heaven.
< composite image © Gloria Alvarez Rodríguez
Text © 2010 by Richard D. Perry. All rights reserved. photographs by Diana M B Roberts and Gloria Alvarez Rodríguez See our earlier pages on the painted chapel of Michoacán: Nurio; Pomacuaran; *Look for our forthcoming illustrated guide to Mexican Carved Stone Crosses for details on other colonial monuments of Michoacán and west Mexico, consult our guide book Blue Lakes & Silver Cities *Look for forthcoming publications and exhibits on the painted ceilings of Michoacán
