Style of the Altarpleces

In the artistic development of the altarpieces of colonial Mexico, there were three stages. In the first, approximately between 1550 and 1630, the influence of Renaissance art of two kinds was clear. On the one hand were classicist altarpieces, and on the other were plateresco altarpieces, which could be identified by the peculiar use of columns with balusters, known as candelabra columns because they were inspired by those works of art in silver or gold. The altarpieces of this phase consisted of discreet structures, using cornices, friezes, wooden sections, and capitals modeled on classical art.

In approximately 1620, Baroque art began to develop. One of the first varieties to flourish in the seventeenth century, still rather attached to its classical structures, involved the use of panzuda (paunchy) columns, completely covered by tightly woven bas-relief. Almost simultaneous in its development was the well-known form called salomónica (Solomonic), characterized by its use of spiral-shafted columns. This type of column is similar to those in the basilica of St. Peter's in Rome, and which traditionally are said to come from the Temple of Solomon. Practically all the altarpieces from the last third of the seventeenth century are Solomonic, and occasionally they are to be found in altarpieces built well into the eighteenth century. The Solomonic columns always have capitals in Corinthian style. There are some with a completely smooth shaft and others covered in vine leaves, with their bunches of grapes symbolizing the Eucharist. Images of pomegranates and other symbolic and geometric forms sometimes decorate them.

The eighteenth century proved to be the richest period for the creation of retablos in New Spain. Generally large and ornate, these altarpieces frequently employed estipíte (sticklike) pilasters, which were introduced in Mexico with the arrival of the Spanish master Jerónimo de Balbás and the erection of altarpieces at El Perdón and Los Reyes and at the metropolitan cathedral, all works done between 1718 and 1737. This style was widely accepted and considered one of the characteristic expressions of Mexican Baroque, also known as churrigueresco.

The estipíte pilaster owes its name to its distinctive shaft, which has the form of an inverted pyramid. The estipíte pilaster is a geometric synthesis of the human body, seen thus: the base represents the feet; the estipo, the legs; a shaped narrowing, the waist; the round turret, the thorax; another shaped narrowing, the neck; and the capital, the head. At the same time as the churrigueresco, there proliferated around the country other styles such as the barrocoanástilo (Baroque without style), so named because it can do without props, folding itself back against the wall. Yet another is the barroco-losángico, the pilasters of which are in the form of rhomboids.