Guadalajara Reporter

In 16th century Mexico the Roman Catholic church had its work cut out for it - it had to show the recently converted indigenous people the
power and grandeur of the Christian god and the difference between the
earthly and heavenly. With wealth pouring out of Spanish gold and
silver mines and talented Mexican artisans, the church was up to the
task.
Colonial religious art from a churches around the state of Jalisco are
now gathered in the Instituto Cultural Cabañas. The exhibit features
pieces and photographs of colonial-era churches from Tlajomulco to
Teocaltiche.
You can see the large detailed drawing for the baroque altar of the
cathedral of San Juan de los Lagos, full of figures of saints and
Christ with Da Vincian detail and intricacy. The neoclassical style
which came into vogue in the late 1700s is blamed for destroying much
of the baroque. For instance, the altar at San Juan de los Lagos has
been changed, its baroque splendor simplified. Yet the colonial
religious art faces a more formidable foe, time and neglect, as some
photographs show.
11th century retablos
The exhibition "Jalisco's Baroque Religious Art" features wood-carved
and polychrome statues of sword-wielding saints as well as the virgin
of Ocotlan. One of the 16th century baroque altars has a modernized
Jesus placed in a glass case at the center and boasting fluorescent
bulbs.
Both photographs and artifacts present the store of richly ornamental
religious art in Jalisco. Now through mid-January in the Instituto
Cabañas, visitors can behold these treasures without having to travel
around the entire state of Jalisco.
Orozco drawings
Visiting two roomfuls of preliminary drawings for Jose Clemente
Orozco's Guadalajara murals puts one right in the workshop of a great
painter. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the 1936 University of
Guadalajara Paraninfo Mural, the 1937 Palacio de Gobierno Father
Hidalgo mural, and the massive 1937-39 Hospicio Cabañas mural spanning
the Spanish conquest and mankind's future. The drawings in pencil and
some paintings in tempera show, on a minor scale, the motifs that
later grew into monumental murals. Details pencil-sketched hands and
fists fill up whole pages amd show Orozco's strong strokes. A flying
figure to grace the Paraninfo dome is slowly replaced by an allegory
of education. The preliminary paintings for the Cabañas show
interesting transformations as well. One painting of a group of horses
formed the basis of the two-headed horse, which Orozco created to find
a visual equivalent to how Mexico's indigenous peoples felt when first
gazing on the Spaniards' horses, unknown in Meso America. Oddly, a
tableau of indigenous figures becomes the basis of the final
painting's seated warriors, appearing to belong to the totalitarian
state. One also sees how Orozco incorporated pre-Hispanic elements
such as masks and deaths-heads into his murals - especially evident in
Orozco's rendering of the Governor's palace, which becomes a mix of
colonial baroque and pre-Hispanic. "Orozco Sketches and Preliminary
Paintings" will be on display at the Insituto Cultural Cabanas through
mid-January.

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