the church Santiago Apóstol, in Nurío, Michoacan, devoured by the flames on March 7, had on its roof or undercover not only a work of great aesthetic beauty, but also a document about the conception of a theocentric universe, that is, in which God is the center of the universe and also had the existence of three types of music: the mundane one, associated with the divine; the human, bound to the soul, and instrumentalis, real music, produced by stringed instruments, wind and human voice. And it was one of the oldest bushes in the country.
That’s what the doctor of history says, Antonio Ruiz Caballero, one of the scholars of this church who, after the fire, found a “practically total” loss, according to Secretary of Culture, Alejandra Frausto, as only the stone walls and the façade of the 17th century church remain. To date, according to local and federal authorities, decisions are ongoing and cases have not been determined. The insurer Agroasemex made a first inspection, so the negotiations started.
In this sense, Frausto says that, as can be seen in the images that have circulated on social networks, the loss of the sotocor, which, according to Ruiz Caballero, is one of the oldest in the country, is total.
This is what the Nurío temple looked like before, where the inhabitants celebrate Santiago Apóstol. Photo: Taken from social media
“The community is working with INAH. The insurance has already left to do a review. The loss of the murals is total. In a community, when the temples suffer as in the earthquakes of 2017, these properties are meeting points and we must reach a common project with the community, but first we must complete the assessments not only of specialists but also of their own. . inhabitants “, says the official.
In Nurío, the community is crying. photographer Enrique Granados, a native of Paracho, who lives in Morelia, came the next day fire. He was reluctant to allow graphic documentation of the disaster, but especially with residents who deeply regretted its loss.
Art details on the ceiling
Read and the community is in mourning for the accident
“It is a very important church, the city’s festival is in honor of the Apostle Santiago. I arrived and people looked at the misfortune, they were members of the community trying to put out the flames that were rekindled. They saved some pictures and some banks. There was a lot of sadness, many women were crying “, says the documentary filmmaker.
He adds: “It is a very close community. On the day of the fire they were not very open, I had to ask permission. I don’t know why it happened and they will have to wait for opinions, but they have two theories: for a fire or for a short circuit in old electrical installations ”.
Photo: The kindness of Irene Medina Sapovalova.
What was lost?
Antonio Ruiz Caballero, Professor of Scientific Research at National School of Anthropology and History, author of the research “Music of the universe in a sotocoro in New Spain: music, angels and Neoplatonic tradition in the temple of Santiago Nurío, Michoacán, seventeenth century”, published in the book De Música y cultura en la New Spain and Mexico independent: testimonies of innovation and survival (Aesthetic Research Institute. UNAM, 2017), explain:
“In Michoacán there are several churches that have these wooden ceilings that are known by different names, such as coffered ceilings or coffered ceilings, in this case they speak of sotocoro because of the place where it was placed. In principle, it must be said that they have a great aesthetic importance, if we conceive it in a modern sense, its beauty is undeniable. In this regard, Nurío sotocoro was special, because in the region most of the ceilings with cassette that is preserved – and that the architect Manuel Gonzalez Galvan, one of the first scholars of these artifacts, defined them as “ceilings with historical tapes” – they tell a story. The vast majority have an invoice that we could call popular and we have the names of the painters, so it is clear to us that they are indigenous painters from the region. “
In the case of Nurío’s sotocoro, he adds, this is not very clear, because the name of the painters is not known, but it is believed that it was made “by craftsmen trained in a cultured tradition”. However, this was not uncommon, as there are references, such as altars, that were crafted 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’m talking about 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 that come from the Middle Ages and that we can frame in the Neoplatonic conception, ie the recovery and restoration of the philosopher’s ideas Plato, in the context of Christianity. There were, above all, two ideas of Neoplatonism that seem to me to be behind this visual program. The first is the conception of a theocentric universe, meaning God is the center of the Universe, and this was clearly represented in the substrate, because the first thing I saw when I entered was a dazzling golden shape that had the shape of the sun, “explains Ruiz Caballero .
He adds that this center was surrounded by choirs of angels. “The angels furthest from the sun were musicians, and in the Neoplatonic conception, angels and archangels are those with a lower hierarchy among angelic figures, so they were the ones who could come into direct contact with human beings,” he says.
Sotocoro had all three archangels the best known, Miguel, Rafael and Gabriel; as well as Mary Magdalene. In addition, he had the portrait of the bishop who is believed to have sponsored the work, Francisco de Aguiar y Seijas. For this reason, the church can be dated back to 1681.
Photo: The kindness of Irene Medina Sapovalova.
The second Neoplatonic idea, referring to history, is that in that universe there was talk of the existence of three types of music: the world, ie the music of the universe that was produced when the stars moved and generated sounds that man played. he could not listen and was therefore associated with the divine; the human, an inner music of the human being, associated with the soul; and instrumentalis, real and concrete music that human beings could listen to and produced by stringed instruments, wind and human voice.
“This is clearly expressed in the visual program of the choir. So, in addition to the aesthetic vision, the enigmatic beauty, there is an importance cultural very important. It is really important to see how deep theological concepts, of Neoplatonic derivation, were embodied in a subforest of an indigenous population, in the high indigenous areas of Michoacán. Art researchers in New Spain have seen how these concepts are behind literary and visual works, such as this sotocoro, “says the specialist.
(With information from Antonio Díaz)