Abstract
The murals in the Casa del Dean in Puebla, Mexico completed in 1584 by anonymous indigenous artists contain many plant illustrations in friezes including plants indigenous to Mexico as well as European plants. Five species native to New Spain (Iris fulva, Mentzelia hispida, Prunus mexicana, Prunus serotina subsp. capuli, and Symphoria globulifera) and three species introduced from Europe (Punica granatum, Rosa damascena ‘Semperflorens’, and Vitis vinifera) were identified. A number of fantasy or nebulous plants are recognized.
Highlights
The Casa del Deán was built in 1570-1580 as the residence of Don Tomás de la Plaza, the dean of the cathedral in Puebla, México from 1583-1589
Two scholarly works have recently been published on this remarkable work: Profecía y Triunfo: la Casa del Deán Tomás de la Plaza: Facetas Plurivalentes, which contains nine scholarly papers edited by Helga von Kügelgen (2013), and The Casa del Deán: New World Imagery in a Sixteenth Century Mexican Mural Cycle by Penny C
The first room called La Sala de las Sibilas (Salon of the Sibyls) contains a wrap-around mural of a parade of sibyls, female prophets of Greek mythology, who narrate the passion of Christ but mixes European symbols and aesthetics with indigenous ones, including regional mammals, birds, insects, flowers, and fruits that adorn the friezes
Summary
The Casa del Deán was built in 1570-1580 as the residence of Don Tomás de la Plaza, the dean of the cathedral in Puebla, México from 1583-1589. We compare images in the Casa del Deán murals with contemporary images, such as Book 11 of the General History of the Things of New Spain organized by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún Iridaceae (yopixochitl/iopisuchitl), copper iris The phytomorph portrayed on the bottom friezes of the Sibyls South mural
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