Procession, San Francisco El Grande, Antigua

1890-1916

Yas, Juan José de Jesús (photographer; 1844-1917)

Antigua Guatemala, GTM, Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica (current location)

Colonial statues and images were (and are) frequently carried out of churches to circulate among believers. In this photograph, taken at San Francisco in Antigua, Guatemala at the turn of the 20th century, the dressed statue of Jesus is carried out by the faithful.

The church, one of a series on this site, originally dates from the late 17th century. Its collapsed vaulting, the result of the earthquake of 1773, is visible through the unglazed window at the top of the façade. Above it, the third layer of the façade had been destroyed in the 1773 earthquake. While only a few churches in Antigua were rebuilt after this earthquake, the interior of this church has since been restored. The frieze is decorated with twisting Solomonic columns, fashioned of brick and covered with plaster, typical features of Guatemalan churches from the 18th century. In the arch above the doorway is a double-headed eagle holding the coat of arms of the Habsburgs, the royal family of Spain, who chose Franciscans to evangelize in the New World. This heraldry would have been familiar to most viewers as it also circulated on coins. Emerging from the doorway is a statue of Jesus, depicted during the Passion, as he strains under the weight of the cross. Typically, statues would be brought out of churches on Good Friday, as the Passion was reenacted. The statue is carried on a covered platform called an anda. While this one appears to be made of wood, in silver-rich regions like Potosí, these might be made of silver.

Juan José de Jesús Yas was a local photographer in Antigua at the turn of the century, an immigrant from Japan. He ran a portrait studio in town (which provided his primary source of income), but he also took his camera into the streets to photograph its dramatic ruined architecture and the civic rituals of the city. Today, his studio archive of glass plates is kept at the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica in Antigua.

The photographer, Juan José de Jesús Yas, worked with a large camera on a tripod and used glass-plate negatives, a cumbersome technique compared to photography today. The reaction of the crowd in the foreground of this photograph suggests curiosity about his presence.

The church of San Francisco, the archway of its main door visible in the background of the photograph, has had many incarnations. The first structure on this site dates from the mid-16th century, but major renovations were required across the centuries, in part due to the earthquakes that wracked Antigua, in part due to the growing strength and wealth of the Franciscan order. In the late 18th century, seismic shaking left the church in ruins, with vaults crumbled and a roofless nave. It remained in this state through the 19th century, during which time some of the buildings in the large complex were raided for building materials. In the 20th century, the church was rebuilt, although much of the complex still lies in ruins.

In this image, San Francisco becomes a site where colonial elements, such as the façade of the building and the practice of carrying statues in procession, intersects with modernity, through the new medium of photography.

Reproduced courtesy of the Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica

Dana Leibsohn and Barbara E. Mundy.
Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.

Guatemala ante la lente: Imágenes de la Fototeca de CIRMA/Picturing Guatemala: Images from the CIRMA Photography Archive, 1870-1997. 1998. Antigua, Guatemala: Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica.

Markman, Sidney David. 1966. Colonial Architecture of Antigua Guatemala. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: The American Philosophical Society.