BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Ussel C., Aline. Esculturas de la Virgen María en Nueva España (1519-1821) [Sculptures of the Virgin Mary in New Spain] , N^o  24, Mexico, National Institute of Architecture and History [INAH], 1975, 150 pp, Scientific Collection, Catalogues and Bibliographies. P. 16-17.

 

Bravo Saldaña, Yolanda, Los Estofados Guatemaltecos, Cultura Sur, bimonthly publication of the Frontier Cultural Program in the States of Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Yucatan, 1991 volume 2; number 17, January-February, pp 23-28.

 

Carrillo y Gariel, Abelardo, Técnica de la Pintura de Nueva España, [Painting Techniques of New Spain], Autonomous University of Mexico [UNAM], 1983, 204 pp.

NOTES

 

The History of the Construction of the Cathedral of Mérida

 

1. Diego López de Cogolludo, Historia de Yucatán (1654), lib. 3, cap. 7

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, 1, 334.

 

1. A.G.I., Mexico, 2999 (I), Cédula Real de Agosto 31, 1561, cited by Miguel Bretos, Iglesias de Yucatán, 40; García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 334; García Preciat, Encyclopedia Yucatánense, IV, 495; Scholes y Adams, Don Diego Quijada Alcalde Mayor de Yucatán, 1561-1565, II, 9.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del estado de Yucatán, I, 335.
2. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 335. For details concerning this period in the cathedral ́s history, see Iglesias de Yucatán, 41, in which Bretos presents material from Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla: A.G.I., Mexico 359, Gómez y Carillo de Albornoz a la Corona, March 9, 1587, and A.G.I., Mexico 2999 (IV), Cédula Real, June 20, 1581.

 

1. Bretos, Iglesias de Yucatán, 41-43. The Cathedral’s many innovative features are discussed in the next section. Unanswered still is the question of who conceived of these innovations. Bretos argues that Magaña may have played a major role in its final design. See Bretos, Iglesias de Yucatán, 41, citing A.G.I., Mexico 365, ¨El Lic. Bustamante Andrada…,¨ April 4, 1587 for a discussion of Magaña´s replacement in 1587 when a new governor, Antonio de Vozmediano, gave the job to his son Alvaro de Vozmediano. The change proved unsatisfactory.

 

1. Eugenio Llaguno y Amírola, Noticias de los Arquitectos y Arquitectura de España desde su Restauración (Madrid, 1829) III, 67 cited by Bretos in Iglesias de Yucatán, 43.

 

1. Llaguno y Amírola, Noticias de los Arquitectos y Arquitectura de España desde su Restauración, III, 67 cited by Kubler in Mexican Architecture of the Sixteenth Century, I, 124.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 336-7.

 

1. Bretos, Iglesias de Yucatán, 43-44, citing ¨Cuenta y Razón¨, 1588, A.G.I., Mexico 370.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 336; García Preciat, Enciclopedia Yucatánense, IV, 495; Bretos, Iglesias de Yucatán, 43. Scholars sometime cite 1599 as the date of completion because a blazon on the façade is inscribed with that year. See Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, I, 30.

 

1. Camargo Sosa, ¨La catedral: apuntes sobre su historia, tradiciones y leyendas,¨ Diario de Yucatán, 8 January, 1998, 8.

 

Architecture

 

1. Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, I, 26. The first cathedral in the New World is the Cathedral of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic in the West Indies. Kelemen dates the placement of the first stone of the Cathedral at either 1521 or 1523. It was dedicated in 1541.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 339.

 

1. Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and Their American Dominions 1500 to 1800, 66.
2. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 336; Mullen, Architecture and Its Sculpture in Viceregal Mexico, 87.

 

1. McAndrew, The Open-Air Churches of Sixteenth-Century Mexico, 599. McAndrews comments that while it is rare to find a dated inscription on the exterior of Mexican churches built at this time, the presence of a dated inscription inside of a church, as seen in the ring of the dome of the  Cathedral of Mérida, is rarest of all.

 

1. Mullen, Architecture and Its Sculpture in Viceregal Mexico, 90.

 

1. Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and their American Dominions 1500 to 1800, 76. For further discussion of the dome in the New World, see McAndrew, The Open-Air Churches of Sixteenth-Century Mexico, 568.

 

Campaniles

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas de Yucatán, I, 340. Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, 1, 30, notes that most of the early cathedrals were planned with only one tower. The addition of a second tower to the Cathedral´s south side is consistent with the twin-tower scheme that came into general use toward the middle of the 17th century.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 340.

 

1. See García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 340. The author gives a detailed description of the 2 towers, commenting that ¨30 more stairs lead to the roofs, and 25 to an exterior platform from which 54 stairs lead from both towers to a platform at the height of the balustrade of the central part of the façade. From the first platform there is another spiral staircase with 39 steps, leading to the second level of the towers, and stopping there. To get to the third level there is only a wooden staircase in such bad condition that it is dangerous to use it.¨

 

Interior

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 337.  The longitudinal basilica ground plan was favored in the New World, according to Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, I, 30.

 

1. Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal their American Dominions 1500 to 1800, 66.

 

1. Mullen, Architecture and Its Sculpture in Viceregal Mexico, 88.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 337.

 

1. Mullen, Architecture and Its Sculpture in Viceregal Mexico, 90.

 

1. Mullen, Architecture and Its Sculpture in Viceregal Mexico, 90.

 

1. Justo Sierra O´Reilly, ¨La Catedral de Mérida,¨ Registro Yucateco, II (1845): 131-142, reproduced in Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 348.

 

1. García Preciat, Enciclopedia Yucatenense, IV, 503. The first choir and the third choir were located in the central section of the nave. These were removed because they obstructed the view of the nave lengthwise, thereby distracting from its full visual impact. The second choir, constructed to one side of the presbytery by the architect Zaparí, was demolished because it was small and inconvenient.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, 338.

 

1. García Preciat,  Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 339. The Cathedral had five chapels until this century. The Chapel of St. Joseph (San José) and the Chapel of the Rosary (Rosario), located on the southern side of the Cathedral, were torn down after the Revolutionary Cathedral, were torn down after the Revolutionary uprising of 1915 to make way for the Pasaje de la Revolución.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 338. The Chapel of St. Ann (Santa Ana) was located where the Metropolitan Sacristy (Sagrario Metropolitano) is found today.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 338.
2. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 338. Don Lucas Rodríguez de Villamil y Vargas donated the funds for the chapel, as well as chaplainship and a perpetual flame, in gratitude for having been cured of a terminal illness.

 

1. Justo Sierra O´Reilly, ¨La Catedral de Merida¨, Registro Yucateco, II (1845): 131-142, reproduced in Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 348-349.

 

Annexes

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 343.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 343.

 

1. Bretos, Iglesias de Yucatán, 36.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 343.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 343.

 

1. Yucatán en el Tiempo, I, 387-388.

 

The Episcopal Palace

 

1. Yucatán en el Tiempo, 1, 387-388.

 

Saints and Virgins

 

1. Camargo Sosa, cited in ¨El 456 aniversario de Mérida,¨ Diario de Yucatán, 8 January, 1998, 8.

 

1. Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, I, 106.

 

1. Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, I, 106.

 

1. ¨Tesoros del arte catedralicio,¨ Diario de Yucatán, 27 November, 1998, 10.

 

1. See ¨Los Cristos de la Catedral,¨ Diario de Yucatán, 4 November, 1997, 8. The figure of Christ is 7.65 meters high; the cross on which it rests is 12 meters high. This is believed to be the largest free-standing crucifix in the world.

 

1. For an eye-witness description of the main altarpiece, see Diego López de Cogolludo, Historia de Yucatán (1654), lib. 4, cap. 11, reproduced in the Catálogo de Construcciones religiosos del Estado de Yucatán, 1, 345; and Justo Sierra O´Reilly, ¨La Catedral de Mérida¨, Registro Yucateco, II (1845), 131-142, reproduced in the Catálogo de Construcciones religiosos del Estado de Yucatán, I, 348.

 

1. García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, I, 348.

 

1. ¨Tesoros del arte catedralicio,¨ Diario de Yucatán, 27 November, 1998, 10.

 

Commemorative Monuments and Funerary Pieces

 

1. García Preciat, Enciclopedia Yucantánense, IV, 497. The use of design elements to frame texts is a custom adopted from ancient Roman decoration.

 

1. For a more detailed discussion of the practice of placing text within decorative elements, see Elizabeth Wilder Weismann in Art and Time in México, 92; and Jeanette Peterson in The Paradise Garden Murals of Malinolco, 70.

 

1. Bretos, Iglesias de Yucatán, 42.

 

1. Archivo General de la Arquidiósesis de Yucatán, Mérida, Libro 6, Folio 115.

 

Woodworking and Cabinetry

 

1. Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, See I, 263. Kelemen observes that the pulpit, in terms of its importance to the congregation, is second only to the main altar.

 

1. Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, See I, 263, for a review of pulpit designs found throughout Latin America. This fine piece was made by Dr. Carlos Pino Gómez at the end of July, 1993.

Metal Objects

 

1. During the Exposition the monstrance is placed over the tabernacle. For more information on the articles and materials used in liturgy of the Church, refer to a Catholic missal, or Mass book.

 

Paintings

 

1. Manuel Toussaint is a fundamental source for scholars of art in colonial Mexico. See La pintura en México durante el Siglo XVI; Arte colonial en México; and Pintura Colonial México. For a source in English, see Colonial Art in Mexico, translated and edited by Elizabeth Wilder Weismann.

 

1. Marita Martínez del Rio de Redo, ¨Magnificencia Barroca,¨ Artes de México, 25 (July-August 1994): 60.

 

1. A sacre conversación shows the Virgin with saints, often of different epochs, in the same picture space, regardless of the time period in which they lived. For a full explanation of the sacre conversacione see James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects & Symbols in Art, 331.

 

Documents

 

1. Cngo. Juan Castro Lara, cited in ¨La Catedral hoy: Administración y Oficios,¨ Diario de Yucatán, 4 November, 1997, 10.

 

1. ¨La Catedral hoy: Administración y Oficios,¨ Diario de Yucatán, 4 November, 1997, 10.

 

1. Archivo General de la Arquidiócesis de Yucatán, Mérida, Libro 1, Folio 1, June 3, 1543.

 

Conclusion

 

1.  García Preciat, Enciclopedia Yucantánense, IV, 506.

 

1. García Preciat, Enciclopedia Yucantánense, IV, 506.

 

1. Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and Their American Dominions 1500 to 1800, 73. Kubler observes that before 1585 builders of cathedrals in the Americas favored the hall-church design. The Cathedral of Guadalajara (1571-1618) as well as the Peruvian cathedrals at Lima and Cuzco, use this plan.

 

1. Kelemen, Baroque and Rococo in Latin America, See I, 26. The first cathedral in the New World is the Cathedral of Santo Domingo (dedicated in 1541), in the Dominican Republic, on the island of Hispanola in the Caribbean.

 

1. Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and Their American Dominions 1500 to 1800, 76. The earliest true dome in the Mexican highlands, over the crossing of the Cathedral of Puebla, was designed by Pedro García Ferrér in the 1640s.

 

1. Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and Their American Dominions 1500 to 1800, 76.

 

1. John McAndrew, The Open-Air Churches of Sixteenth-Century Mexico, 568.

 

Sources and Historical Texts

 

1. Bernardo de Lizana, Historia de Yucatán. Devocionario de Nuestra Señora de Izamal y Conquista Espiritual (escrita en el año 1633); Francisco de Cárdenas Valencia, Relación Historica Eclesiástica de la Provincia de Yucatán de la Nueva España (escrita en el año 1639); and Diego López de Cogolludo, Historia de Yucatán (written in 1654).

 

1. Eligio Ancona, Historia de Yucatán desde la Época más Remota hasta Nuestros Días; Crescencio Carrillo y Ancona, El Obispado de Yucatán, Historia de su Fundación y de sus Obispos; and Juan Francisco Molina Solís, Historia de Yucatán Durante la Dominación Española.

 

1. Pedro Angulo Iñiguez, Historia del Arte Hispano-Americano; José García Preciat, Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán, 329-350; García Preciat, Enciclopedia Yucatánense Conmemorativa de IV Centenario de Mérida y Valladolid (Yucatán), IV, 495-559; and José García Preciat, ¨La Catedral de Mérida,¨ Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología, 1935, II, 73-93.

 

1. Justo Sierra O’Reilly, ¨La Catedral de Mérida,¨ Registro Yucateco, 1845, II 131-142. Sierra O ‘Reilly´s description is reproduced in the appendices of Diccionario Universal de Historia y Geografía, by D. Manuel Orozco y Berra, I, 544. According to Bretos (1992: 44, n. 1) this work originally appeared in the Registro Yucateco under the pseudonym José Turriza. Bretos adds that it has been reprinted, and is now included in Catálogo de Construcciones Religiosas del Estado de Yucatán. The Cathedral of Mérida entry in the Catálogo correctly cites Dr. Justo Sierra as the source of this comprehensive description of San Ildefonso and its history.

 

1. Federico E. Mariscal, ¨Arquitectura en México¨ de Siete Conferencias Sustentadas por el Arquitecto en la Biblioteca de Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público el año de 1929.

 

1. ¨Arqutectura Dolonial Religiosa,¨ in Yucatán, en el Tiempo: Enciclopedia Alfabética, I, 316-321; and ¨Cathedral de Mérida,¨ in Yucatán en el Tiempo: Enciclopedia Alfabética, II, 149-152.

 

1. ¨El 450 Aniversario de Mérida,¨ Diario de Yucatán, 8, 9, 20 January, 1998, in the Sala de Cabildos del Ayuntamientos, Mérida.

 

1. Mr. Andrés Novelo Alvarez wrote in the Diario de Yucatán concerning the artist´s explanations of the painting and its measurements:

 

My intention was to represent the festive fervor through that most popular religious manifestation, the guild that processes along the paved street amid canticles, standards, and banners; in the background the cathedral rises majestically under a sky that radiates joy.

 

The figure of the fresh, young, virginal mestiza represents the new Church. The model for this image was Miss Lenny Andrea Duarte Tec, from Valladolid. The standard which the young girl carries represents Marian fervor; in the center of the canvas is the Virgin of Izamal, radiating light, and a pair of peasants making offerings to her; the man offers the fruits of the earth and of his labor, the produce of his field; while the woman offers the fruit of her womb, her firstborn child.

 

The cabinetmaker and surgeon Carlos Gabriel Pino Gómez, who made the frame for the painting, explained that the piece, which took three weeks to make, is of red mahogany, carved and given a bright finish.

 

The details evoke the porticoes and facades of 17th and 18th century houses that existed in Tabi, Sotuta, Izamal, and Tahdzibichén.

 

The work measures 4.6 meters in length by three in height.

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