The Mural Paintings of the Santa Clara de Asís Convent in Dzidzantún, Yucatán. General Terms of the Different Four Phases of Execution

Abstract

Until a few years ago, it was only possible to regard the mural paintings in the Franciscan convents located in the northern Yucatan peninsula as a small set grouping fragmented and unconnected elements, which exhibited, moreover, a gradual and continuous deterioration; this complicated their recording and examination, making it difficult to arrive at a hypothesis regarding the order of the pain-tings’ execution. The finding of the murals in the Santa Clara de Asis convent transformed the panorama since these form a large group of paintings, most of which have never been altered /interfered with, distributed over several different layers of whitewash. These features helped identify and define several phases that were placed in order and sequentially organized. The murals’ restoration in 2011 brought other examples to light, providing additional information helpful in pinning down a series of relevant details that complete the classifi-cation. The analysis defines the features that characterize each one of the phases in the sequence and the results are an important con-tribution to the study of mural painting preserved in other regional convents.