A vision of the beyond
In one of the permanent exhibition halls of the Archdiocese of Yucatan Gallery of Sacred Art, housed in the old monastery of St. Francis of Assisi in Conkal, there is an interesting oil painting that depicts a scene of Souls in Purgatory, a common theme in religious art and oratory during the Colonial era.
The picture used to hang in the church of St. Francis in Cansahcab, Yucatán, which was built between the 17th and 18th centuries. The Mayan name of the village means “Place of four caves of white earth”. Among its most notable sons was Rubén Darío Herrera Martínez, a musician and composer of some of the best-known jaranas in Yucatecan folklore.
According to testimonials from the people of Cansahcab, the painting of the Souls in Purgatory hung for many years in one of the rooms of the priest’s house annexed to the parish church. However, in an interview published in the Diario de Yucatan on the 21st April 2001, art expert Fernando Garcés Fierros states that the painting probably dates from the late 16th century, and would originally have belonged to an altar for the departed, which were normally located at church entrances.
In Catholic tradition, Purgatory is a place where the souls of the faithful departed stay so that they can be purified until they reach spiritual perfection and are thus able to enter Heaven. To reduce the time spent there, religious practices were established whereby it was possible to obtain what are called indulgences. To this end, those who celebrated masses at a church’s altar for the departed could earn special dispensations for their deceased. So these liturgical spaces fulfilled an important devotional function for the believers.
The painting is remarkable for its beauty and the handling of its subject matter. The artist is unknown, but the brushstrokes suggest a local folk painter. At the bottom of the picture are the souls of men and women, stripped of their clothing, expressing their contrition in the midst of purifying flames.
Above the clouds, we see the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph rescuing two penitent souls, while in the center of the composition the Archangel Michael carries a pair of scales as a symbol of divine justice and the final judgement. At the top the Holy Trinity sit in celestial glory, depicted as three identical, bearded young men. This way of representing the Trinity, called Christomorphic, is unusual in Yucatecan religious art.
The painting of the Souls in Purgatory is framed in a contemporary altarpiece of carved, polychrome and gilt wood, and can be seen during the opening times of the Gallery of Sacred Art.
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