Processional Banner

1600-1700

Name(s) currently unknown

Guatemala, GTM, Museo Popol Vuh, Universidad Francisco Marroquín (current location)

Like processional crosses and standards, banners like this one were designed to be held aloft during religious processions. This banner was likely made in Guatemala, where it is now housed, and gives a sense of the range of devotional objects created to celebrate religious faith.

The banner is pieced together from smaller sheets of silver, cut carefully and joined with nails. More elaborate works for richer cofradías would have been made of larger, single, sheets. At the center of the banner, the artisan affixed a circular emblem bearing the image of a monstrance. Typically, the reverse side has a different image related to the Eucharist. When in use, the banner would have been brilliantly polished. But for conservation reasons, it is not kept in high polish.

Processional banners, crosses and standards, often made of wood and silver—as is this one—, were typically commissioned and owned by cofradías. And it was a member of the cofradía who would have held this banner when marching in religious processions.

The banner, made of silver, measures 52 x 49 cm. The pole is 1.93 cm.

Reproduced courtesy of the Museo Popol Vuh, Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala

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

Alonso de Rodríguez, Josefina. 1981. El arte de la platería en la Capitanía General de Guatemala. 2 vols. Guatemala: Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.

Esteras Martín, Cristina. 1994. La platería en el Reino de Guatemala, siglos XVI-XIX. Guatemala: Fundación Albergue Hermano Pedro.