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Hispanic American Historical Review 81.1 (2001) 146-147



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Book Review

Architecture and Its Sculpture in Viceregal Mexico


Architecture and Its Sculpture in Viceregal Mexico. By ROBERT J. MULLEN. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. Photographs. Maps. Figures. Notes. Glossary. Index. x, 263 pp. Cloth, $45.00. Paper, $24.95.

The late Robert J. Mullen has written a reliable, readable, and well-illustrated book that covers, in six chronological chapters, a selection of the major monuments of Mexican colonial architecture during the period from 1521 to independence. In keeping with his aim to "serve the needs of the general reader or college student," he has kept the apparatus of the book simple and straightforward, with few footnotes but suggestions for further reading in English at the close of each chapter and a useful bibliography at the end of the book. There is also a glossary of Spanish terms like espadaña that a student is likely to encounter in reading about [End Page 146] Mexico, although some words are defined in a highly specific way. A reja, for example, is defined as a "large metal screen extended from floor to ceiling in a convent church which separates the nuns in their coro from the public attending Mass," whereas to most of us it is any metal grille that is used to divide or close off a space, usually inside a church.

There is a brief discussion of urban planning (chapter 1), which touches upon Philip II's ordinances (1573) for new towns, plazas and civil buildings, and establishes and maintains a distinction throughout the book between Spanish towns and indigenous pueblos. However, Mullen is primarily concerned with individual buildings, not with urbanism, and, in keeping with the aim of his manual, with buildings that are still extant. His third chapter entitled "Sixteenth Century: The Formative Era" deals with the convents of the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians in Mexico and considers the early open-air churches with a few well-chosen examples such as Tlaxcala (but not Cholula).

This chapter also introduces the reader to the theme of architecture and architectural sculpture, which is continued in subsequent chapters on cathedrals (chapter 4) and on late-seventeenth- and eighteenth-century religious architecture (chapters 5 and 6). Mullen is primarily concerned with church façades and in the altarpieces (retablos) inside. But he also includes entire interiors, such as the Capilla del Rosario at Santo Domingo in Puebla (completed in 1690), with its colorful all-over interior stucco sculptured decoration. Mullen tracks stylistic development from Plateresque through Baroque and notes the various styles that have been associated with indigenous production and iconography. Most of the monuments discussed are illustrated and one can see that the photographs were very handsome; but they were not well printed in my paperback copy and thus not as legible as they could be.

The reader will not find a consideration of contemporary documents, such as the maps of the Relaciones geográficas, accounts of festival celebrations, or city views that are the subject of much recent scholarship which attempts to understand visual culture of Spanish and indigenous peoples in Mexico. The author is concerned primarily with describing traditional stylistic categories. While he clearly had much more to say that he allowed himself to include in this book, he has produced a survey that is both coherent and reliable.

Catherine Wilkinson Zerner, Brown University

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