No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Professional Artisans in the Hispanic Southwest: The Churches of San Antonio, Texas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
The rediscovery of classical civilization and the rapid spread of Humanism through the writings of Erasmus, ushered in the Renaissance. The reawakening turned people outward from the involuted, mystically oriented outlook of the Medieval era. It was a time of rapid change, the period of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The new philosophic outlook was manifested in the arts, and the Gutenberg press and copperplate engraving disseminated new ideas along with classicism. The discovery and publication in 1511 of the Roman builder, Vitruvius, was the catalyst to the renewed interest in Greco-Roman forms. These classical forms, however, were for the most part, an external expression of classic Roman “orders” (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite) imposed upon structural innovations formulated in the Gothic period. Since highly skilled craftsmen such as Cellini, Ghiberti, Donatello and Brunelleschi worked as painters and sculptors as well as architects, buildings tended to be treated as surfaces and backdrops for embellishment.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1983
References
1 On the subject of architects or other professionals associated with early colonial churches, see George Kubler’s Mexican Architecture of the Sixteenth Century or Pál Kelemen’s Baroque and Rococo in Latin America.
2 Céliz, Fray Francisco, Diary of the Alarcón Expedition into Texas, 1718–1719. trans. Hoffmann, Fritz Leo, Los Angeles: The Quivira Society, 1935 Google Scholar; Arno Press, 1967, p. 88.
3 Libros de Bautismos, Casamientos y Entierros. Archives of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Catholic Chancery, Microfilm copies also available in Archives of Clerk of Bexar County.
4 Sevillano de Paredes and Bustamente in Santos, Richard, “Proposed View of Mission San Antonio de Valero Circa 1790,” Texana, Vol. 3 no. 3,1965, p. 198,Google Scholar and Habig, Marion A., The Alamo Chain of Missions, Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1968, p. 45.Google Scholar
5 Libros de Bautismos, 1741, 1742; and “Criminal Cause Against Antonio de Tello Charged With Killing Matías Trevino” (Aug. 21-Sept. 2, 1744). Bexar Archives, Eugene Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin. Translation available by Helen Mar Hunnicutt.
6 Libro de Bautismos, 1744.
7 “Criminal Cause.”
8 Visita, 1745 of Fr. Francisco Xavier Ortiz. Celaya Archives, Franciscan Monastery, Nuevo León (includes archives from the Colegio de la Santa Cruz de Querétaro). Microfilm (Celaya 9:1265-84) in Old Spanish Missions Historical Research Library, Our Lady of The Lake University, San Antonio, Texas.
9 Libro de Entierros, 1749.
10 Xavier Ortiz, Fray Francisco, Razón de la Visita a las Misiones de la Provincia de Texas, 1756. México: Vargas Rea, 1955.Google Scholar
11 de los Dolores, Fray Mariano Francisco, et al, “Relación del estado en que se hallan todas y cada una de las misiones en el año de 1762.” In Documentos para la historia eclesiástica y civil de la provincia de Texas o Nuevas Philipinas, 1720–1779. Madrid: José Porrua Turanzas, 1961, p. 249.Google Scholar
12 Libro de Entierros, Burial of María Antonia Benítez in 1765 and Dionisio Núnez in 1766.
13 Ibid, 1770.
14 Libro de Bautismos, 1766.
15 Libro de Entierros, 1767.
16 Libro de Bautismos, 1767.
17 Ibid., 1755.
18 “Inventarios, 1772.” Archives of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Zacatecas. Microfilm (Zacatecas 3 and 4). Archives of Old Spanish Missions Historical Research Library, Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Texas.
19 Agustín Morfi, Fray Juan. History of Texas, 1673–1779, trans, and annotated by Castañeda, Carlos E. Albuquerque: The Quivira Society, 1935 Google Scholar; Arno Press, 1967, p. 93; and Francisco López, Fray José, “The Texas Missions in 1785,” in Wallace, Ernest and Vigness, David (eds.), Documents of Texas History. Austin: The Steck Co. 1963, p. 29.Google Scholar
20 Bollaert, William, William Bollaert's Texas (1807–1876), edited by Hollon, W. Eugene and Butler, Ruth Lapham, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956, p. 231 Google Scholar; and Roemer, Ferdinand, Roemer’s Texas 1845 to 1847, trans, by Mueller, Oswald, Waco: Texan Press, 1967, p. 125.Google Scholar
21 A proportional system is derived from commensurable ratios of width to length to height. Such architectural harmony was a concern of Renaissance artisans. For example, see Rudolph Wittkower’s Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism. An arithmetical-geometrical analysis is another approach (other than historical) to proving the professionalism of the church builders, but is beyond the scope of this paper.
22 Serlio, . Architectura di Sebastian Serlio Bolognese. Iacobum de Angelis, Venetia, 1663. Copy in Humanities Research Center Library, University of Texas at Austin.Google Scholar
23 Vignola, . Architettura del Baroceio da Vignola: Concernenti i cinque Ordini. Venezia: Presso Francisco Loceatelli, 1777.Google Scholar Copy in Humanities Research Center Library, University of Texas at Austin.
24 Everett’s watercolor drawings are in the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth. Steel engravings based on his drawings appeared in Lubbock’s Memoirs.
25 Texas in 1837: An Anonymous Contemporary Narrative. Edited with introduction by Muir, Andrew Forest. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1958, p. 98.Google Scholar
26 Bartlett, John Russell. Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora and Chihuahua, Two volumes, New York: Appleton and Company, 1854,1, 41.Google Scholar
27 FatherHabig, Marion. “Oldest Stone Church in U.S.,” The Alamo Messenger, December 18. 1970. San Antonio, Texas Google Scholar; and “Ortiz Visita 1745.”
28 Francisco Dolores, Fray Mariano, et al., “Relación,” p. 253.Google Scholar
29 “Inventarios, 1772.”
30 A more complete biographical sketch of Nicolás is provided under the heading “The Flores Family of Mission Concepción” in Schuetz’s, Mardith K. “The Indians of the San Antonio Missions, 1718–1821,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1980.Google Scholar
31 “Inventarios, 1772.”
32 A facsimile edition was published in 1969 by Editorial Gredos, S.A., Madrid.
33 “Fray José de Solís, Diary of 1767,” trans. Forrestal, Peter B., Preliminary Studies of the Texas Catholic Historical Society, Vol. 1, No. 6, Austin 1931, p. 181.Google Scholar
34 Morfi, p. 96.
35 Ibid., pp. 96–97.
36 Ibid, p. 97.
37 Corner, William, San Antonio de Bexar, San Antonio: Bainbridge & Corner. 1890 Google Scholar; and White, Robert Leon, “Mission Architecture of Texas Exemplified in San Joseph de San Miguel de Aguayo,” Master’s thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 1930.Google Scholar
38 Photographs in the DRT Library at the Alamo.
39 An examination of nineteenth century photographs shows the doors of the main portal in place up to 1876, but missing thereafter. The doors were reproduced by the Swiss carver, Peter Mahnsbendel in the 1940s. He must have worked from several photographs dated from the 1860s and 1870s which would have been available to him. According to an exhibit of Mahnsbendel’s work, which was shown by the University of Texas Institute of Texas Cultures in 1977, the artist carved the new doors in just six weeks.
Two or three missing panels from the carved wooden doors of the sacristy have been replaced by uncarved panels, but the doors are otherwise unrestored.
40 San José marriage registers for 1779, 1784, 1786, 1788, 1789, baptismal register for 1786, burial register for 1793. The censuses for 1792–94 were obtained from “Translations of Statistical and Census Reports of Texas, 1782-1836, and Sources Documenting the Black in Texas, 1603–1803,” microfilm compiled from various colonial archives in Texas. University of Texas Institute of Texas Cultures at San Antonio.
41 Page 212 and photograph 7-39. Book published by Thos. Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1969.
42 A biographical sketch of the Huizar family is in Mardith K. Schuetz’s “The Indians of the San Antonio Missions, 1718–1821.”
43 Schuetz, Mardith K., The Dating of the Chapel at Mission San Juan Capistrano, San Antonio, Texas. Texas Historical Commission, Office of the State rcheologist, Special Report No. 12, Austin, Tex., 1974.Google Scholar
44 Dolores, , et al, “Relación,” p. 258.Google Scholar
45 “Inventarios, 1772.”
46 For additional information on the Espada church, see “Espada Doorway: A Lesson in Harmony” by George, Eugene. Perspective. Vol. 9.Google Scholar No. 1, May 1980. Society of Architectural Historians, Texas Chapter.
47 San Antonio de Valero, Libro de Bautismos, entry No. 353, dated Nov. 18, 1731.
48 Morfi, p. 96.