Atrio Cross, Acolman, detail of base

1550-1575

Name(s) currently unknown

Acolman, MEX

This is the base of the stone cross set in the center of the church courtyard of Acolman, an Augustinian monastery in the Valley of Mexico.

This figure at the base of the cross is one of the mourning Marys that usually appear at the Crucifixion. The arched structure to the right may be Christ’s tomb. The figure’s copious hair under her cloak and her presence at the tomb suggest she is Mary Magdalene, the redeemed prostitute. Beneath her, the skull identifies this as Golgotha (“Place of the Skull”) where the Crucifixion took place. The twisting serpent at the base of the sculpture is a symbol of Adam’s fall, which came from eating fruit proffered by the serpent from the Tree of Knowledge. Through his crucifixion, Christ was believed to have redeemed humankind from this fallen state.

Photo: Jaime Lara.

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

Estrada de Gerlero, Elena Isabel. 1990. "Atrial Cross." In Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries. Pp. 250-251. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lara, Jaime. 1996. “El espejo en la cruz: una reflexión medieval sobre las cruces atriales méxicanas.” Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas 18 (69): 5-40.

Lara, Jaime. 2004. City, Temple, Stage: Eschatological Architecture and Liturgical Theatrics in New Spain. Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.