The church Santiago Apóstol, in Nurío, Michoacandevoured by flames on March 7, had on its roof or undercover not only a work of great aesthetic beauty, but also a document on the conception of a theocentric universe, that is, in which God is the center of the universe, and the also had the existence of three kinds of music: the mundane, associated with the divine; the human, related to the soul, and the instrumentalis, the real music, produced by stringed instruments, wind and human voice. And it was one of the oldest undergrowth in the country.
This is how the doctor in history establishes it, Antonio Ruiz Caballero, one of the scholars of this church who, after the fire, determined a ‘practically total’ loss, according to the Minister of Culture Alejandra Frausto, as only the stone walls and facade of the 17th-century church remained. According to local and federal authorities, the rulings continue so far and the causes have not been determined. The insurer Agroasemex has carried out an initial inspection, so negotiations have started.
In this regard, Frausto says that, as can be seen in the images distributed on social networks, the loss of the sotocoro, which according to Ruiz Caballero is one of the oldest in the country, is total.
This is what the Nurío Temple used to look like, where residents celebrate Santiago Apóstol. Photo: Taken from social networks
“The community works with the INAHThe insurance company was already going to do a review. The loss of the murals is total. In a community, when the temples suffer like in the earthquakes of 2017, these properties are meeting points and we have to reach a common project with the community, but first the evaluations have to end not only of the specialists but also of the own ones. inhabitants, ”said the official.
In Nurío, the community is crying. The photographer Enrique Granados, originally from Paracho, living in Morelia, arrived the day after the fireShe was reluctant to allow graphical documentation of the disaster, but especially from residents who deeply regretted the loss.
Art details on the ceiling
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“It is a very important church, the festival of the city is in honor of the apostle Santiago. I arrived and people watched the accident, there were community members trying to put out the flames that had been lit again. They saved some statues and some benches. There was a lot of grief, a lot of women were crying ”, says the documentary maker.
And he adds, “It’s a very close community. The day of the fire they were not very open, I had to ask permission. They don’t know why it happened and will have to wait for the opinions, but they have two theories: for fire or for short circuits in old electrical installations ”.
Photo: Courtesy of Irena Medina Sapovalova.
What was lost?
Antonio Ruiz Caballero, professor of scientific research at the National School of Anthropology and History, author of the study “The music of the universe in a new Spain sotocoro: music, angels and Neoplatonic tradition in the temple of Santiago Nurío, Michoacán, 17th century”, published in the book De Música y cultura en la New Spain and the Mexico independent: testimonials to innovation and survival (Institute for aesthetic researchUNAM, 2017), explain:
“In Michoacán there are several churches with these wooden ceilings that are known by different names, such as coffered ceilings or coffered ceilings, in this case I speak of sotocoro because of where it was located. Basically it must be said that they are of great size importance for aesthetics, if we take it in a modern sense, its beauty cannot be denied. In this sense, the Nurío sotocoro was special because most of the coffered ceilings in the region have been preserved – and that the architect Manuel Gonzalez Galvan, one of the first scholars of these artifacts, defined them as “historiated coffered ceilings” – they tell a story. The vast majority have a bill that we could classify as popular and have the names of the painters, so it is clear to us that they are native painters of the region. “
In the case of Nurío’s sotocoro, he adds, this is not very clear, as the name of the painters is unknown, but it is believed to have been made “by craftsmen trained in a cultivated tradition.” However, this was not uncommon as there are references such as altarpieces worked by Creole, Spanish and Mestizo artists trained in an academic tradition.
“In Michoacán there are churches with these wooden ceilings known as coffered ceilings, I speak of sotocoro, of undeniable beauty”, Antonio Ruiz Caballero, historian.
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“Nurío responded to a much more complex visual program, there are very deep visions from the Middle Ages that we can frame in the Neoplatonic conception, that is, the restoration and reworking of the philosopher’s ideas. Plato, in the context of Christianity. There were two ideas of Neo-Platonism in particular that I think shine behind this visual program. The first is the conception of a theocentric universe, that is, God is the center of the universe, and this was clearly reflected in the undercoat, for the first thing we saw when we entered was a dazzling golden shape that was shaped like the sun. , ”Explains Ruiz Caballero.
This center, he adds, was surrounded by choirs of angels. “The angels furthest from the sun were musicians, and in the Neoplatonic view, angels and archangels are the ones with a lower hierarchy among angelic figures, so they were the ones who could come into direct contact with humans,” he says.
The sotocoro also had all three archangels best known, Miguel, Rafael and Gabriel; as well as Mary Magdalene. In addition, it had the portrait of the bishop believed to be the sponsor of the work, Francisco de Aguiar y Seijas. For this reason, the church can even be dated to 1681.
Photo: Courtesy of Irena Medina Sapovalova.
The second Neoplatonic idea, the historian points out, is that there existed in that universe three kinds of music: the mundane, that is, the music of the universe that was produced when the stars moved and produced sounds that the man ear He could not listen and therefore he was associated with the divine; the human being, an inner music of the human being, connected with the soul; and instrumentalis, real, concrete music that people could listen to and that was produced by stringed instruments, wind and human voice.
“This is clearly reflected in the visual program of the sotocoro. So that, in addition to the aesthetic vision, the enigmatic beauty, an important cultural very important. It’s really important to see how deeply theological concepts, of Neoplatonic derivation, were embodied in an understory of an indigenous people, in the indigenous highlands of Michoacán. The scholars of New Spanish art have seen how these views also stand behind literary and visual works such as this sotocoro, “the specialist points out.
(With information from Antonio Díaz)