Baroque splendor in Tipikal
Eight kilometers (5 miles) from the ancient town of Maní, the village of Tipikal rises from amongst the exuberant vegetation. This little community does not figure on tourist maps, despite the fact that nearby lie the remains of one of the oldest Mayan settlements in the Peninsula, and that the village itself houses some of the region’s most valuable and precious jewels of sacred art.
The austere appearance of the church – modest, like Tipikal itself – might lead one to think it has little to offer. Yet a closer look at the church, built in the 16th century and dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, reveals several surprises.
The main feature of the building is the architectonic beauty of its facade, smooth, and crowned by two bell-cotes at the sides, with arches for three bells each, two below and one above. A fetching gable with a stone cross tops each one, and a simple yet attractive parapet joins the two bell-cotes.
But the best is waiting inside: a splendid set of Baroque wooden altarpieces dating from the 17th century, and according to Fernando Garcés Fierros, among the very few of similar design surviving in Yucatan.
Behind the high altar is the reredos of Mary Magdalene. It measures three meters by six and has two levels and a gable. Vertically, there is a single central section, and two small lateral divisions. The base is of plain masonry, and the predella has a wide, molded architrave and cornice, while each of the three sections of the frieze is decorated with a rosette, rinceaux, volutes and acanthus leaves.
In the center of the lower level is a semi-cylindrical niche with a fluted, shell-shaped quarter-sphere at the top. The niche has a rectangular frame, forming spandrels decorated with acanthus leave, imposts and pilasters whose shafts are ornamented with rinceaux. Inside the niche stands the statue of the church’s patron saint.
On either side of the niche is a pair of Solomonic columns, their shafts adorned with bas-relief grapevines, They have Corinthian capitals, and a decorated strip between them.
The second level contains a smaller niche with a carving of St. Isidore the Laborer, which was not an original feature of the altarpiece.
The gable is in the form of a rounded arch, with the crossed arms symbol of the Franciscan order in the center, surrounded by bas-relief rinceaux and volutes.
The side altarpiece of St. Michael Archangel measures three by four meters (10 ft x 13 ft), and consists of two levels with a single vertical section and, originally, a gable. The base is plain masonry with an attached altar table of the same material. The predella has a simple architrave, while the frieze and projections are decorated with rosettes and volutes, and the cornice is wided and molded. The altarpiece is bordered by a molded frame simulating a rope.
In the center of the lower level is a semi-cylindrical niche with a grooved quarter-sphere at the top. The niche is surrounded by volutes, and a strip on each side decorated with a motif repeated three times.
The whole is flanked by a pair of Solomonic columns on each side, with cylindrical shafts. To the sides are broad wings decorated with rosettes and intertwined volutes. In the central niche is a 17th-century statue of the Virgin of the Assumption.
The second level is shaped as a rounded arch, with a painting of St. Michael Archangel within a decorated frame in the center. The entablature has a simple architrave, a frieze and projections with the same ornamentation, and a broad, molded, serrated cornice. To each side, in the middle, is an emblem: Franciscan on the left and the Vatican on the right, surrounded by a decoration of acanthus leaves, and crowned by descending angels.
The decorated gable, rising from the arch, has been lost, although there are signs that it used to be there.
The side altarpiece of St. John the Baptist has the same dimensions and features as that of St. Michael: two levels, a single vertical section, and a gable. The base and its attached altar table are of masonry.
On the lower level is a semi-cylindrical niche with a grooved quarter-sphere above, holding a statue of the Patron saint. The niche is surrounded by volutes and rinceaux.
The second level is shaped as a rounded arch, with a semi-cylindrical niche in the center, crowned by a shell-shaped quarter-sphere, and decorated spandrels on either side. The niche contains an image of the Virgin. To the sides are emblems formed from anagrams of Jesus and St. Joseph, surrounded by volutes.
The gable was at the top of the rounded arch, but it is now missing, except for traces that it once existed, and was decorated.
Tipikal is an Maya name, the meaning of which is “place of flooded plains”, according to the Cordemex Maya Dictionary, from Ti (an adverb of place), pik (flooded plain) and al (possessive suffix).
The church of St. Mary Magdalene and the precious Baroque altarpieces it houses can be visited during the times of religious services in the church.
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