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Salvador De Ocampo, A Mexican Sculptor*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Heinrich Berlin
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Abstract

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , April 1948 , pp. 415 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1947

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Footnotes

*

The present paper is mainly based on my research in the Archivo General de la Nación and the Archivo de Notarías, of Mexico City. Here I should like to express my deep gratitude to Lie. Julio Jiménez Rueda and Lie. Clicerio Diaz, directors respectively of these archives, for their kind permission to publish the results of my findings. I am likewise indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Pal Kelemen for putting at my disposal the photographs of the choir of San Agustín in Mexico City. I also wish to express my thanks to Lie. Basurto for his kind assistance in the Archivo de Notarías. Last but not least my warmest thanks go to Miss Elizabeth Wilder, who not only lent me her photographs taken on a joint trip to Metztitlán, but also assisted me with her valuable advice on this paper and finally undertook the tiresome task of translating it from the original Spanish into English.

The Archivo General de la Nación is referred to as AGN in these notes, and the location of material is designated by the volume numbers of the ramos, by which the documents are grouped there. As most of the volumes are not numbered in pages, no page reference can be given.

The Archivo de Notarías is designated by AN, with an added reference to the respective escribano (notary), and his identification number, using the so-called “old” numbers. These can be checked in El Archivo de Notarías del Departamento del Distrito Federal (México, D. F.) by Agustín Millares Carlo and José Ignacio Mantecón in the Revista de historia de América, México, no. 17, junio 1944, p. 69-118. These escribanos very often did not number their pages, but as their entries are made in chronological order, the reference can be located by the date I indicate.

All churches and monasteries mentioned in this paper are situated in Mexico City, unless otherwise stated.

References

1 José, Moreno Villa. La escultura colonial mexicana. México. 1942 Google Scholar.

2 AGN. Ramo Hospital de Jesús, leg. 368, exp. 7.

3 en bianco: that is, unfinished, without paint or gold leaf.

4 “en el modo, fábrica y forma que se halla el de la Soberana Reyna de los Angeles, María Santísima de las Tres Necesidades…” AN. Escr. 14 (6/xi/1741) See also Cervantes, Enrique A. El colateral de Santo Domingo en la ciudad de Puebla (Revista mexicana de estudios históricos, México, v. 2, no. 1, enero-febrero 1928, p. 10-17)

5 dorador: gilder, professional applier of gold-leaf; estofador: painter of sculpture, which is then termed estofado. Both gold and paints are applied on a gesso ground.

6 See Cean Bermúdez, Juan Agustín. Diccionario histórico de los mas ilustres profesores de las bellas artes en España. Madrid. 1800. v. 1, p. 182 seq.

7 AN. Escr. 361 (19/x/1767)

8 Cf. Moreno Villa, op. cit., p. 82 (Felipe Ureña).

9 AN. Escr. 760 (l/vii/1727) During 1727, Francisco Martínez received the money agreed on in three payments; so we can be sure that the work was executed and the contract fulfilled. (AN. Escr. 760 [2/vii/1727; 26/viii/1727; 19/xii/1727])

10 The fiador was a guarantor who made himself responsible for the execution of the terms of the contract.

11 AN. Escr. 132 (3/xii/1723).

Obligacion de un Colateral

En la ciudad de Mexico a 3 días del mes de diciembre de 1723 años ante mí el escribano y testigos parecieron de la una parte Don Alonso Vite, gobernador actual de los naturales del pueblo y cabecera de Metztitlán, residente en esta dicha ciudad y de la otra Francisco Martínez, vecino de ella y maestro de pintor y dorador y dijeron que por cuanto el dicho gobernador necesita para la iglesia de dicho su pueblo de un colateral estofado y dorado para el culto de nuestra señora de los Dolores, cuya imagen de bulto tienen en dicha iglesia, el cual ha de tener desde su socio hasta su coronación diez varas y de ancho siete, que es su correspondencia, llevando en medio el nicho para Nuestra Señora y encima otro nicho en que se ha de colocar un señor Eccehomo, como el que hoy venera la escuela de Christo en la iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, Redención de Cautivos de esta ciudad con el tamaño de siete cuartas en cuerpo entero y en su guarnición los tableros de pintura de la pasión de Nuestro Señor, según el mapa, que dicho maestro had de entregar firmado de su nombre, cuya obra tiene ajustado con dicho maestro en la cantidad de 1300…dentro del plazo de cuatro meses que corren y se cuentan desde hoy día de la fecha de esta escriptura en adelante el referido colateral tallado y dorado según y como se contiene en el mapa que tiene dado a dicho gobernador…”

12 Cervantes. Op. cit., p. 14-15. Cf. also the contract, in 1704, for an altar mayor for the Chapel of the Cofradía de Morenos in the church of La Merced; the maestro “recibe también en pago el retablo viejo”. AGN. Ramo civil, vol. 1952 (19/ix/1704).

13 Cervantes. Op. cit., p. 13.

14 AN. Escr. 101 (29/xi/1746).

15 A very high percentage of the retables still in existence, as well as choirs, pulpits, etc., fall into this period. Cf. Francisco de la Maza. Mexican colonial retables (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, series 6, v. 25, no. 3, march 1944, p. 175-186).

16 AN. Escr. 101 (20/ii/1742).

17 Cervantes. Op. cit., loc. cit.

18 AN. Escr. 132 (24/iv/1687).

19 AN. Escr. 132 (19/vi/1693).

20 See the contract for the altarpiece of San Agustín, Appendix I, p. 510.

21 AGN. Ramo Media Annata, vol. 40.

22 AN. Escr. 132 (12/i/1678).

23 Cervantes, Enrique A. Catedral metropolitana; sillería del coro. México. 1936.

24 Appendix IV, p. 517.

25 Appendix I, p. 510.

26 AN. Escr. 760 (21/vii/1698). For this work they were to receive 8000 pesos and they had to finish it in eight months. There is also an entry of the 15 of March, 1699, which states that the master has fulfilled the terms of the contract.

27 AN. Escr. 760 (12/viii/1698).

28 AN. Escr. 132 (9/iii/1714).

29 Appendix II, p. 512.

30 Appendix I, p. 510.

31 AGN. Ramo Media Annata, vol. 165.

“Señor Juez Privativo del derecho de la Media Annata: Los Maestros, Alcalde y veedores del oficio de carpintero han examinado del dicho oficio en lo perteneciente a Ensamblador, Entallador y Arquitecto a Salvador de Ocampo, vecino de esta ciudad. Doy cuenta a VS. por lo que debe al derecho de la media annata. Mexico y Octubre 5/6 de 1698. Gabriel de Mendieta Rebollo.”

32 AN. Escr. 235 (22/viii/1732).

33 For information on the altarpiece, see the Catálogo de construcciones religiosas del Estado de Hidalgo. México. 1940. v. 1, p. 464-480, pl. cvii-cxi.

34 A detailed study of the choir, with full photographic documentation, is given by Rafael García Granados in Sillería de San Agustín, published by the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas (México. 1941).

35 When visiting Metztitlán in 1946, I omitted to look for signatures on the paintings. At my request, Father Martinez kindly looked for them, and sent me this information. The four upper pictures are not signed. Nevertheless I feel justified in adding all six of these paintings to the already long list of the work of Nicolás Rodríguez Xuárez.

36 For a review of the existing information about the choir, the reader is referred to García Granados’ study.

37 García Granados calls these the M-series, op. cit.

38 García Cubas, Agustín. El libro de mis recuerdos. México. 1904. p. 111. The testimony on the recent history of the choir is full of discrepancies, as can be seen in García Granados’ review of it.

39 Contributing evidence is García Granados’ statement that six of the C-panels are replacements: “…pues de estos últimos faltan seis que fueron substituidos con tablas modernas de motivos decorativos”. He makes no claim, however, that all these panels are modern; to assume that a whole set of panels has been “lost” is taxing credulity.

40 The reliefs themselves offer the best evidence that they were taken from prints, probably in some illustrated Scriptures or scriptural handbook. García Granados has shown an indubitable resemblance to some old French engravings, perhaps not the source, but certainly in the same iconographical tradition. He illustrates these (op. cit.).

41 “…chaparras, cabezones, y de proporciones infantiles”, as Moreno Villa says. Op. cit., p. 53.

42 Manuel Toussaint had already advanced the hypothesis that Thomas Xuárez and Andrés de Roa had a part in the choir.

43 AN. Escr. 235 (22/viii/1732).