Time to Hope: Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York Museo de San Francisco, Santiago de Chile

Anglican Theological Review, Winter 2004 by Winter, Jacqueline B

"One hundred and one beautiful pieces," Melendez writes, "to tell a tale and give hope" (p. 34). To form a bridge from past to present and to join the Episcopal and Roman Catholic Churches. Most important, to fill the eyes, the hearts, the minds of the visitors, and to give solace to a people searching for Gods love.

There is a little museum that I visit as often as I can, a museum which represents to me so much the museums of our country cannot achieve: a living spirituality and openness, and a breathing testimony to Christ's message in the world. The Museo de San Francisco is located in downtown Santiago, Chile. Housed in the cloister of the Franciscan monastery, the museum is attached to the oldest standing church in the city.

The Franciscans first arrived to Chile in 1553. Built with a donation from Philip II, the cornerstone of the church was laid in 1572 and construction completed in 1618. The museum, open only since 1969, is housed in the main cloister of the monastery. A central patio with a lush garden and a small pond creates a peaceful mood in the midst of a busy city. One large arched glass links the cloister and the church, allowing a full view into the church.

The art of the Counter-Reformation so pervasive in Time of Hope is fundamental to the colonial period in Chile which the Museo de San Francisco features. The conquest of New Spain was accomplished through both force and faith, and evangelization was carried out through the visual arts. Not only were paintings sent from Spain to fill the churches, monasteries, and convents of the New World, but artists and craftsmen traveled to these new lands. Until the mid-eighteenth century, the Captaincy General of Chile was never a center of the visual arts, but rather relied on other artistic centers, especially Cuzco.

The collection of the Museo de San Francisco is charmingly eclectic. It includes many works from the school of Cuzco, as well as later works from the Bavarian-inspired Jesuit workshops of Chile. In addition to painting and sculpture, the collections include displays of silver, ecclesiastical ornaments and vestments, furniture, and altars. One small room contains the works of Gabriela Mistral, the Chilean poet and Nohel prize winner, who donated a small collection to the Franciscans.

The museum is most famous for the series depicting the life of Saint Francis. This dramatic set of fifty-four paintings is now housed in a new building, an uninteresting modem space built specifically for these large canvases. The works are approximately two by three meters in size. Painted between 1668 and 1684, they were commissioned by the monastery in Santiago and once decorated the entire space. Though some paintings in the series have been lost, the group is considered to be the most important colonial work in Chile today.4 They have been restored thanks to the Comite ProRestauracion Convento San Francisco.

The series was painted in the workshop of the indigenous artist, Friar Basilio de Santa Cruz, and includes signatures of Juan Zapaca Inga and Fedro Lozano. As in most works of the mestizo school, any number of painters and assistants were surely responsible for this enormous project. Influenced by the school of Seville, these pictures engagingly mix the figures that fill the paintings of Zurbaran with local Peruvian landscapes and architecture. This confluence of Spanish art with the indigenous hand makes for a striking scries. The burial of Saint Francis is painted with a view of the main square of Cuzco at the end of the seventeenth century. In the procession are both ecclesiastical and political dignitaries of Cuzco society-a rich and worldly funeral for this humble saint. As with most works of the series, this painting includes a signature, date, and a medallion with a description of the story.