A pair of lecterns on fixed iron s made in embossed silver plate and nailed onto an inner frame of cedar wood. Rectangular in shape, the is defined by its sinuous contours determined by the trace of movement of the rockeries and struts that are silhouetted at the edges. The top of the capstone is also configured as a gusset of rockeries around a spear-shaped mirror. However, despite its rococo decorative forms, the composition maintains a strict axial symmetry in the distribution of the motifs, based on the well-known rockeries; greenery, stem and flower scrolls, all relieved on a background that combines the matted areas to a striped base with smooth, polished surfaces. The central frame shows the engraved figure of the Savior of the World, medium-bodied and giving the gesture of blessing with his right hand, the left holding the orb surmounted by the cross or the Book of the Gospels.
Characteristic of Baroque silversmithing are this type of altar lecterns made of a wood core covered with laminates of embossed silver. Its design, with a central rectangular box girded by half-round molding on a smooth semi-conical bracket and sinuous profile concave-convex molding, is practically traced on a pair of church lecterns of the Isaac Backal collection (IB-018-A and IB-018-B), marked in Mexico City circa 1780.[1] Another pair of church lecterns in a private collection, assayed by Jose Antonio Lince around 1779-1788,[2] certify that this is a model lectern, only in combination with the sacred, which is typified in Mexican workshops of rococo during the last third of the eighteenth century. However, the pair of lecterns of the Amparo Museum, unlike the previous examples, is manufactured with a noticeable popular indigenous influence, visible especially in the images figured in the central space.
The absence of regulatory marking and delaying persistence of iconographic themes dating back to the early days of evangelization, point the same way to a provincial and archaic interpretation of the capital models made at a local secondary center, perhaps in the silver foundries of Oaxaca, the region from which some other pieces of the collection such as the chandelier that belonged to the church of San Mateo del Mar. Its greatest originality lies precisely in the Christological representations of medieval trace, replacing here the canonical Latin texts of the tabellae secretarum. Its iconography faithfully copies an engraving, possibly in wood. Proof of this is a small feather-work from the eighteenth century in the National Vice-royalty Museum (Tepotzotlan) with a similar representation of the Savior of the World, [3] certainly derived from a Gothic engraving (as denote the very defined folds), tailored with the technique of feather art or silver engraving, depending on the needs of worship and doctrine.
As is well known, Gothic prints, woodcuts and engravings were distributed by monks and missionaries among the indigenous peoples from the first moments of evangelization as a valuable tool for indoctrination. Printed mainly in German presses, particularly of Nuremberg, or Flemish during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,[4] their very loose-leaf nature made them the ideal means for spreading the faith through the image, as they became models of inspiration for Indian artists working in the imagery workshops, mural painting or feather art. The persistence of these archaic models is surprising (as evidenced these lecterns of the Amparo Museum) until the end of the viceregal period.
[1]. AA VV, 1994: page 36, nº 70.
[2]. Esteras Martin, 1989: pages 324-325, nº 99-99A.
[3]. Martinez del Rio de Redo, 1993: pages 116-117, 120 and 125.
[4]. Martinez del Rio de Redo, 1993: pages 119-120.
Sources:
Martinez del Rio de Redo, Marita, “La plumaria virreinal”, in El arte plumaria en Mexico, Mexico, Fomento Cultural Banamex, 1993.
