A painting to inspire faith
Yaxcopoil hacienda – within the municipality of Abalá, Yucatan, 35 km (22 miles) from Merida, is an important tourist attraction which combines architecture, archaeology, history and art.
The name of this ancient hacienda is Maya, and means “Place of green poplars”. Its history goes back to the 17th century, when it was founded as a cattle ranch. The estate reached its heyday in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, with the boom in sisal cultivation and export, becoming one of the largest and most productive in the state.
The buildings of the machine room, the workshops and the warehouses, built in an elegant neo-Classical style, reflect those years of economic bonanza, as too do the rooms of the main house, decorated with European furniture, porcelain and chandeliers.
Yaxcopoil hacienda has its own chapel, annexed to the house, and dedicated to St. Jerome, whose feast is celebrated from the 21st to the 30th September. This church houses priceless pieces of sacred art, both from the Colonial era and from the 19th century. Outstanding among them is a large painting entitled “The Descent from the Cross”, done in oils on canvas by an anonymous artist, possibly towards the end of the 18th century.
“The Descent from the Cross” captures the moments after Jesus’s death, and the marked chairoscuro helps create a sombre atmosphere. In the background we see three crosses and the ladders used to bring down the lifeless body of the Messiah, which fills the center of the painting, wrapped in a white shroud and cradled by Joseph of Arimathea and other disciples. To the far left, Mary the mother of Christ contemplates the scene with an expression of grief, while Mary Magdalene kneels next to the Lord’s body, in a final act of adoration.
This piece is part of a tradition of producing series of paintings in which various scenes from the Passion of Christ are depicted, following the Gospel narratives. The aim of these paintings was to awaken the devotion of those faithful who viewed them, inviting them to meditate on the tortures suffered by Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind.
Yaxcopoil operates as a tourist attraction and museum. Visitors can wander through the rooms, gardens and other areas of the old hacienda, including the chapel of St. Jerome, where they can see this treasure of sacred art.
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