Oscar Wilde
 |
| Mundos de Mestizaje One could spend days looking at this fresco Here, you can admire a quarter of its full adobe canvas |
New Mexico is home to very deep, rich cultures, especially those of its Hispanic and Native American citizens. The magnificent fresco, Mundos de Mestizaje, created at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC), in Albuquerque, depicts these remarkable, closely intertwined, cultures and their long history.
Located in the 45-foot-tall
skylit cylindrical El Torreón (turret or fortified tower), this 4,300 square
foot (400 square meter), concave, buon (true) fresco, was created by Santa Fe’s
artist, Frederico Vigil, and completed in 2009. Mundos de Mestizaje
illustrates three thousand years of Hispanic and pre-Hispanic history
highlighting diverse cultural connections between people and places from the
Iberian Peninsula to the Americas. From the
in-depth research to putting brush to adobe, it took Frederico, with the help
of many others, nearly ten years to complete.
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The master himself, Frederico Vigil www.prnewswire.com |
Immediately, I gazed upward, upon arriving in this otherworldly space. It felt as if I had entered a grand cathedral, like the ones I visited in France, Spain, or Mexico. I was made speechless by the sheer conundrum of instantly being wrapped by hundreds of stories over thousands of years. It’s as if I could hear each character murmuring their unique narratives.
Even though the fresco
features many disturbing figures and troubled historical events, the overall
effect is, if not peaceful, at least one of richness and steadiness. I became a
bit dizzy looking up at this masterpiece, feeling the incredible power of this
extraordinary work of art and very long labor of love.
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To give you an idea of size… Scissor lift with two people against another quarter area of fresco |
Before I describe what a buon fresco (or fresco buono – paint with dry pigments on wet lime plaster. As the plaster hardens, a layer of crystal forms over the pigment, locking it into the surface) is or share more images of this work of art, let me start by quoting from the artist himself, Frederico Vigil:
Roman, Arab, African, Jewish, Native American – that makes us who we are today.
You could never capture the richness of that diversity in a smaller space.’
Mundos de Mestizaje is a sea of countless people, a dazzling circular array of color and form bursting forth from the adobe base of the wall. Its message, however, is simple: as Vigil tells it:
‘It’s who we are as mestizos (crossbreeds).’
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| The Torreón recalls the watchtowers that were built to facilitate the defense of villages, lands, and castles |
This Torreón is named for a castle tower, but its earth
tone and shape are also reminiscent of an aboveground kiva; one can almost
picture climbing down a long ladder from the inset oculus skylight. The refuge-like
space is a blend of the European and the Puebloan.
 |
Inset
oculus skylight surrounded by
Four phases of the moon, medicine, hope, music, science, peace, military, architecture, faith, justice, education, love, sacred earth, as well as nude men and women holding infants |
Unveiled in October 2010, on the 10th anniversary of NHCC, it is considered one of the largest concave (possibly the largest) buon frescos in North America. After much research, only verifiable facts, were included in the fresco.
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| Man sitting at center of justice is self-portrait of artist Equal justice for all, article 14, two-tray scale & Roman fasci All symbols of judicial authority and fairness See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil |
Born and raised in Santa Fe, Artist Frederico Vigil grew up infused with the rich history that has become the trademark of his art. Vigil was first involved with fresco during an internship in the 1970’s with Lucienne Bloch and Stephen Pope Dimitroff, who were notably, apprentices to Diego Rivera.
‘By
then they were in their 70’s or 80’s and they wanted to pass the tradition on,
I
was intrigued by the mystique … and the fact that fresco is public art.
People
don’t have to go into someone’s home to see it.’
Frederico Vigil
This initial experience
piqued his interest, and he has dedicated his life to creating frescos. Since
completing his first fresco in 1984, he has created twelve major frescos; the
one at the NHCC is his largest to date. Following
in the footsteps of fresco masters such as Giotto, Michelangelo, Masaccio, Goya,
and, more recently, muralists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco, Vigil
continues this time-honored tradition inside the Torreón of the NHCC.
 |
Entrance
to El Torreón’s grand mural
Notice three nichos at the bottom |
The scope of work - Five durable coats - Like creating colored limestone
A technique that dates back 5,000 years or more, buon fresco – or true fresco – involves the application of five layers of plaster. The first three layers (arriccios) can each take ten days to dry. Then come the last two layers. Called the ‘most noble painting technique’, it can last thousands of years.
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Slave
Trade
Approximately 17 million people came to the Americas via the Atlantic slave trade. This number doesn’t include those who died in transit. Today, one in four Latin Americans and a quarter of US Latinx identify as being of African descent. |
The long process of
creating buon fresco begins with a wall rough-plastered with two layers of
lime, cement and sand mixtures. The third layer is a smooth surface on which
the ‘sinopia’ or rough sketch of the overall design is drawn.
From the sinopia (so called for the red oxide pigment traditionally used to
draw it, the Roman sinoper), an outline of the drawing is transferred to
tracing paper. This design on translucent tracing paper is referred to as ‘the
cartoon.’
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Roman
Empire |
When the artist is ready, beginning at the top of the wall, an area sufficient for one day's work is covered with the final two layers of damp plaster; the last smooth layer is called the ‘intonaco’ (Italian term for the final, very thin layer of plaster on which a fresco is painted).
The next step is as
ingenious as it is bizarre: the cartoon’s outlines are perforated, held up to
the damp intonaco and ‘pounced’ with a bag of powdered charcoal. In this
way, the dotted silhouette of the design is transferred to the intonaco. The
artist then begins to paint on the damp plaster, following the black dotted outline
created with the charcoal powder.
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Viracocha
(Staff God, 2250 BCE)
Worshiped in Andean cultures |
This is the essence of buon fresco (unlike the fresco secco – not true fresco – where the images are painted on dry plaster): because the plaster is still damp, a chemical reaction takes place and the colors become integrated with the wall itself. Scaling cannot occur as it eventually does when paint is applied to the dry surface of a wall. The next painting day, the process is repeated: the wall is wet down, the 4th and 5th coats of damp plaster are applied, the perforated cartoon is pounced.
Touch ups on dry plaster are bound to be very visible so time is of the essence, the artist must work fast and effectively. It is, of course, essential that the new intonaco, and the painting, is carefully joined with that of the previous day so that the completed fresco appears as a continuous painting without visible joints.
A large fresco therefore is made up of many small sections, each corresponding to the amount of painting that the artist can complete before the plaster hardened. The sections are planned in such a way as to make the joining as inconspicuous as possible. Time given can change a lot depending on temperature and humidity. Fresco painting does not permit as much blending of colors as oil painting does, but it provides clear luminous colors, and its endurance makes it ideal for majestic and decorative paintings. However, since the technique is appropriate particularly for dry climates it has been used only rarely in Northern Europe.
As Frederico Vigil has come to understand, buon fresco is the most unforgiving type of painting. Once the pigment is applied, it becomes irreversible, leaving an indelible record of the artist's skill and mistakes.
History of Buon Fresco
and its Natural Connection to the Southwest
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Red
Clay (collected as pigment by Frederico Vigil)
www.abqjournal.com |
‘This is a dream wall, an unbelievable space.
It reminds me of those spaces I have traveled to in Mexico, Spain, and Italy,
the national buildings and chapels. Walls covered in fresco.’
Mundos de Mestizaje was painted with a lot of Joaquin Rodrigo’s guitar concerto Aranjuez as soundtrack.
‘Life
has its own rhythm, and so does fresco.
Try
to speed it up, and it doesn’t work. I can’t rush it.
And
I’m not going to rush it.’
Vigil believes that fresco’s physicality drew him to the art form. ‘Fresco is manual and tactile. You have to use your body a lot.’
Vigil's passionate adherence to the rigorous art of fresco has left an indelible record on various walls in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and numerous tucked-away New Mexican villages.
Design of Large Project Transcending
Geographic Boundaries & Cultural Norms
A group of respected New Mexico scholars were convened
to create a list of significant themes and images which could represent
Hispanic cultural history spanning the Iberian, Spanish, Mesoamerican and New
Mexico heritage. Vigil then researched and studied the subject matter in order
to build and weave his own visual interpretation of the historical content and
cultural layering which he eventually named Mundos de Mestizaje. It took seven historians and scholars, including Vigil,
two and a half years to come up with the images and have them approved.
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Matachines
(from matachin, medieval European sword dance)
Dance ritual drama performed in Native American and Hispanic communities Embodies extraordinary synthesis of history, culture, and religion. |
After
they decided on the location in 2000, it took that full two and a half years
before the committee came to a consensus as to which historical figures and
objects belonged in the fresco. Vigil describes a process wherein he and a
panel of scholars engaged in rich discussions inside El Torreón. He also read
deeply into the many contexts of Hispano history, making notes and sketches in
his notebooks, documentation very beautiful in its own way: the Arabic script
for water, Hunab Ku’s square and circle to symbolize the Mayan union of the
material and the spiritual, and the Aztec waning suns of El quinto sol, our present age of decline and
redemption. He captioned all the images in black ink with slanted handwriting.
For every figure, object, and word in the fresco, Vigil made sure he had at
least a couple sentences of contextual summary.
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Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent)
Creator of humanity and God of wind Symbol of death and resurrection |
When
it came time to begin the actual design phase in 2002, Frederico notes that it
took him a long time to figure out how to lay out the fresco. The key came from
a conversation he had with El Torreón’s architect, Sofia Márquez, when she
confirmed that the four narrow slit-like windows were aligned with the four
cardinal directions. Knowing that the nichos (alcoves) lined up with the
solstices and equinoxes, grounded the project, and Vigil felt he could
commence.
 |
Quinto Sol (fifth sun)
From oldest to newest sun (lower right to upper left) World of movement, combination of all the elements of rebirths Contrasts between light and dark, balance and change. Olmec Head large (sculptures 25-55 tons) From first recognized culture of Mesoamerica (1200-400BCE) Representing various rulers or players of ball games See ball player sitting next to pyramid Jadeite Figurine (also Olmec origin) |
The narrative depicted in the fresco and the process of its creation are inextricably blended; its art is a beautiful coordination of mind, body, and chemistry. Beyond the dialogue, the research, and the careful planning, the spatial intelligence required boggles the mind. It involved a constant adjustment of figures in relation to one another and to the space.
To visualize some of the more complicated
overlapping figures, Vigil created still-life dioramas in which oranges and
apples stood in for Olmec heads or wagons on the Camino Real. When he began
outlining the figures on the wall from his sketches, he realized that he hadn’t
calculated enough for the curvature of the wall; he was 50 square feet (4.6
square meters) short. So, he had a small, to-scale sheet metal version of El
Torreón built and adjusted again.
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Camino Real
Oldest ‘highway’ running N-S, used for extensive trading. At one time the longest road in North America. Lost its importance with arrival of railroad in 1885 |
Mundos de Mestizaje depicts more than 3,000 years of Hispanic history in the broadest sense, from Europe to Mesoamerica and into the American Southwest, illustrating the complexities and diversity of the Hispanic experience. The fresco is embedded with images that explore the historical connections among arts, sciences, language, migration and conflict along with a celebration of the creative cross-pollination of the cultural exchange of ideas as well as select iconic people and places.
Let the Work of Art Begin
It is one thing to hear about this intellectual alchemy; it’s quite another to smell the barrels of slaked lime, study the swatches of layered pigment, page through the piles of books and notes, and run a finger along the perforations of the cartoons. In fresco, the stories are ink and ocher and pinpricks before they can become ‘stone’.
After designs are done, there is the heavy labor
of mixing tons of sand and lime, ascending scaffolding, plastering four layers
of quicklime, and tracing the vast outlines of figures onto the wall. Then,
Vigil made cartunes (cartoons) by
tracing over the outlines on paper and rendering them in full color. Then he
applied a final, smoother layer of plaster called intonaco. While it was wet, he placed the cartoon
on top of the plaster and punched holes through the paper to create a
connect-the-dots outline in the intonaco. If those small perforations fill with
water, or he needs more definition, Vigil uses his thumbnail to trace
silhouettes in the plaster. After all this preparation, the painting is ready
to begin.
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Frederico Vigil
www.artsandculture.google.com |
The chemistry behind creating a fresco is no less inspired. In this ancient process, limestone (calcium carbonate) is first heated to become lime (calcium hydroxide) in a process called slaking. The lime is then mixed with sand to form a plaster. The pigments consist of ground-up stone, minerals, or even soil, which are then mixed with water to make paint. Bugs and leaves get ‘eaten up’ by the lime, notes Vigil, but anything inorganic is fair game; Vigil’s partner Luz Reyes mentions that in addition to constantly carrying a notebook for ideas, Vigil now always carries jars for collecting potential pigments from the local landscape. The pigments are painted on the wet intonaco, the more layers, the darker the hue. As the plaster dries, the pigments are absorbed, and the surface solidifies into limestone again. The figures in fresco, then, are not painted on the surface of the wall—they are, chemically and physically, part of the wall.
The blue background was a simple, natural choice for Vigil
to be able to simultaneously highlight and isolate figures, but it is also
beautifully reminiscent of sky, water, and lapis – historically chosen for the
Virgin’s blue manta because of its great
value. It gives El Torreón the feeling of a sanctuary in flowing
movement.
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Sketches
first
Pobladores; the Spanish- and Nahuatl-speaking settlers of the 18th century who populated New Mexico. |
Make No Mistake
Vigil paints onto the final, fifth layer, known as
the intonaco, while it’s still wet. He grinds pigments to a fine
powder, then brushes them onto wet plaster, following the outlines of his
sketches transferred earlier. The paint is absorbed into the damp wall,
resulting in luminous, durable hues.
Buon fresco is a complex process requiring great precision and concentration by the artist. It involves numerous coats of plaster, various stages of drawing, precise mixing of pigments and application of paint onto wet plaster.
The project’s scale means that Vigil can use a wider range of brushes and strokes, often working with his whole arm rather than his wrist. Still, fresco is unforgiving. Make a mistake and the section must be completely scraped off, replastered, and repainted. And El Torreón’s height and concave walls mean that perspective changes. More than once, Vigil has stood on the tower’s floor after completing sections near the ceiling only to realize that they didn’t work when seen from below.
In the project’s early
days, Vigil had to rely on ladders and scaffolding to reach the upper tower.
Now he also uses a lift outfitted with a weight bench, on which he can recline
comfortably as he paints. But his lift is wobbly too, and for a while Vigil
didn’t notice that he was gripping with his feet, putting such pressure on them
that the nails on his big toes fell off.
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Overlapping
figures create the kaleidoscopic impression that
no
one story is prioritized over another www.elpalacio.org |
The Extraordinary Outcome, a Pantheon of Figures, Concepts, and Female Energy
There are over 220 images in Mundos
de Mestizaje. Some images refer to specific people, documents, books,
religious figures, or technologies. Other illustrations represent concepts or
more abstract ideas. Within the fresco there are over a dozen languages and
writing systems represented including English, Spanish, Cuneiform, Phoenician,
Mayan, Incan, Arabic, Hebrew, and reference to the native languages of some
Pueblos in New Mexico.
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The Phoenicians
Occupied many of the coastal regions of the Mediterranean Including the Iberian Peninsula, 1,500 to 300 BCE |
In Mundos de Mestizaje, this beautiful coordination
results in a special shrine of figures. It is a gorgeous, kaleidoscopic codex.
And because it lacks a central focal point, the fresco can be initially
dizzying. It doesn’t say that one certain thing is more important than any
other. Instead, like the Mayan prophetic texts of Chilam Balam, time and presence are cyclical and
recursive.
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Between Courage and Fuerza (strength), upper
right
The faces of three women Doña Euphemia de Sosa (far right) one of the very courageous women who accompanied Oñate’s expedition through New Mexico Heart with bells represent the Sacred Heart Catholic Church Beams seen left came from World Trade Center after the 2001 attack |
Vigil intentionally levels the stories not only
spatially, but in terms of representation. He made a fresco that demonstrates
the equal, and in some ways superior, power of feminine energy. When I asked,
in this entire galaxy of lives, what stories he found the most inspiring, it
was this energy he highlighted. As he notes, ‘the maternal is the one who
will save the world: the mothers, the thinkers, the protectors.’ Vigil
specifically pointed out the faces of the three women who walked back and forth
among De Vargas’ ranks to give the illusion of greater numbers; they are framed
with the red block letters of ‘courage and fuerza.’
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| From sketch to ‘cartunes’ to painting |
Plurality of Cultures without Exclusionism, Uniting the Spiritual with the Secular
He also showcases the equal intellect and
accomplishments of the great Mesoamerican civilizations as compared to those of
the Iberian Peninsula: a rolling toy to symbolize their knowledge of the wheel,
treatises evidencing their use of zero in mathematics, the advanced Mayan
conceptualizations of the universe.
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Wheeled animal figurines date back to 600-900 CE
Found in Mexico, Panama, and El Salvador. They existed prior to contact with Europeans. |
Mesoamerican architecture, art, and hallowed texts have the same amount of wall space as the aqueducts of Segovia and the arches of la Mezquita (large cathedral in Cordoba, Spain). Vigil wanted to show the plurality of cultures in both southwest Europe and southwest North America. In Mundos de Mestizaje, exclusionism is impossible.
Vigil oriented around the four nichos on the
cardinal points: four nichos decorated with four star-like tangles of
primordial energy that represent the concepts of African animism and the
origins of life. From the four nichos there are four columns topped by four
virgins. The four virgins’ pedestals house four nude figures who hold up four
infants. These babies are the future generations, partnered with both the four
stages of the moon: in the frame of the oculus, the Creator hands these future
generations the four elements of wind, fire, earth, and water.
 |
Triskelion, Celtic symbol of Holy
Trinity,
of action and moving forward, or of three phases of the moon |
Another
column features the Celtic-Iberian infinity knot, La Señora de los Remedios, and the New Mexican
railroads; another, Nebrija, who published the first standardized book of
Castilian grammar; Our Lady of Guadalupe; and the trifecta of the Franciscans,
Maimonides, and Averroes. The last two were twelfth-century contemporaries in
Moorish-controlled Spain who each penned invaluable treatises attempting to
reconcile religion with philosophy – Maimonides within Judaism, and Averroes
within Islam. Over and over again through the fresco, you see great minds
seeking to unite the spiritual with the secular. Indeed, Maimonides’ A Guide to the Perplexed would make a very good
subtitle for Mundos de Mestizaje.
 |
Virgin of Guadalupe (late 12th century)
North pendentive From Extremadura, Spain |
The
Virgin de Guadalupe was found intact with documents proving its authenticity,
and a shrine was created for the statue. A chapel was later built on the site,
which became a very popular destination for pilgrimage in the 15th century.
It would eventually be the location where Columbus met with the monarchs
Isabella and Ferdinand in 1486 to negotiate a contract. This was also the site
where Cortés and his conquistadors would come to pray before they embarked on
their journey west.
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Chacmool,
pre-Columbian sculptures found throughout Mesoamerica
Associated with sacrificial stones or thrones Or offering table to receive human blood or hearts |
In between the columns, there are hundreds of stories more diverse as Seneca, Chacmool, an ox. The bison of Altamira, painted on a cave wall as early as 34,000 BCE, curl up near an Aztec altar, a Phoenician prow, and the shoulder of Celtic-Iberian statue La Dama de Elche. There are countless dates and plurilingual texts written on scroll-like banners that intertwine the fresco’s figures.
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Corn, harvest,
For its vitality and sustenance, honored in rituals and dances |
Penitentes near the kiva, kneeling by a basket of grapes and cabbage (imported European cultivars), seem to offer us one such banner: ‘para vos, para nos, y para los animalitos de Dios.’ The dicho of ‘for you, for us, and for all God’s creatures’ speaks of the local practice of saving part of the harvest for all of Creation. It also alludes to the sound environmental management practices of traditional Latinx agriculture and is a metaphor for the gift of this fresco’s rich bounty.
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Christopher Columbus
With his highly mixed and controversial legacy. From discoveries and colonization to exploitation and destruction of cultures |
Perhaps
the pantheistic religious invocations of the space can be jarring, given the
history along the fresco’s walls. In several places, we see a world poised on
the edge of the very violent paradigm shift of 1492: the Capitulations of Santa
Fe, the sack of Granada, Columbus praying on the sands of San Salvador. Most
stories in the fresco are like this; they, like the literal space, are layered.
 |
Benito Juarez (1806-1872)
One of the world’s great civil rights leaders and most important political figure in Mexican history who said: ‘Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace.’ |
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George Washington (1732-1799)
First President of the United States Horses and treasure chest represent support from Spain Bando 1780 sets abolitionist movement in motion |
Vigil
chose to veil some of the gorier elements of mestizaje history, because, he
says, today ‘violence is everywhere.’ He chose to step away from the ‘blood
and guts’ in his artwork. The closest you’ll find is a fractured skull,
punctured with the dates of Popé’s rebellion. Beside it is a Pueblo warrior,
smiling grimly as he brandishes an obsidian-tipped spear at a Spaniard lying on
his back. Because of the composition of the fresco, from one side the Spaniard
seems in danger of being crushed by Juan de Oñate; his hand on the other side
reaches towards children that symbolize the shared family ties that Spanish and
Pueblo peoples would eventually share. So even in the portrayal of dark
historical times, Vigil chooses to show the tender and the hopeful. ‘People
forget how mixed we are,’ he says; this fresco is a monument to mestizaje’s
humanity.
 |
Juan de Oñate (1550-1626)
Established first Spanish settlement in New Mexico Infamously known for the cruel battle of Acoma Pueblo Pueblo Revolt of 1680, lasted until 1692 |
For although Mundos de Mestizaje’s style is mythic, almost heavenly, it is also highly factual. There are replicas of many religious and national symbols and figures with mythic origins, and some stories are surely part fact and part legend. But there is perhaps only one character purely from myth: the lone black ant that carries a kernel of yellow corn, trundling along the braided border between the horno and the sculpture of a priest in the belly of a feathered serpent.
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A god in the form of a
black ant,
retrieving a kernel of corn for humanity especially at times of drought and starvation. |
That ant is simultaneously a perfect representation of Quetzalcoatl bringing the corn to the human race, of the connection that mestizo people have with the Earth, and of the tireless labor of Vigil, who, day in and out, painted the fresco over several years. And remember, for the pigment to be absorbed to become colored limestone, the intonaco must still be wet; if an artist makes an error, the layers must be scraped off and re-plastered. So, like the ant, the fresco artist must create with methodical hurry.
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Manifest
Destiny (coined
in 1846) Believed
to be the ‘divine right’ to expand throughout North America
Used
as justification for the Mexican-American war and
expansion of railroad ‘from sea to shining sea’ |
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in English, is the treaty between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican-American War in 1848.
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Dennis
Chávez (1888-1962)
First US-born (NM), Spanish-American elected to the US Senate Our Lady of Guadalupe (1531) Most important cultural and religious icons in Mexican and Mexican-American history and identity |
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“When I walked into this space and they said, ‘Here is the
wall for you,’
I felt like one of the luckiest guys in the world.” |
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How do you leave something you
worked on for 10+ years? Frederico
Vigil’s buon fresco is finished |
- Mundos de Mestizaje Curriculum - NHCC Learning (nationalhispaniccenter.org)
- www.elpalacio.org
- www.nationalhispaniccenter.org
- Colores | ¡COLORES! September 19, 2015 | NMPBS (knme.org)
- The Art of Fresco: Plastering (muralist.org
- Oil Paints Artists Materials - History and Technique of Fresco Painting Shop Artist Oils (naturalpigments.com)
- Fresco Painting Techniques | Fresco Arte
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