Mexico has a rich heritage of works of great historic and artistic value dating from the viceregal period. The initial evangelization process, carried out with great fervor, and the subsequent catechizing of the population, left behind many constructions by the various religious orders, and the similar layouts of different monasteries can make them appear all the same. Variations, however, lie in the craftmanship informed by the orders’ differing mindsets and aesthetic and theological ideas.

The Augustinians, who built this beautiful monastery, brought in a Christ-centered discourse through painting, and introduced a religious perspective revolving around the life of Jesus.

A large number of prints and books depicting religious scenes were brought over to New Spain in the sixteenth century by the friars themselves, and they form the basis of the images still visible today in these murals; the skill and sensibility shown in these paintings reveal the involvement of friars experienced in this field of art and talented indigenous artists: both were undoubtedly needed for a project of this magnitude.

The murals were created using the fresco technique and the use of grisaille with the occasional touches of ocher and blue; in this painting we can discern the reason behind the evangelical and catechismal work, as well as their religious focus.

This painting can be seen to have different purposes depending on its target audience, and this was how it was recorded in the different monastery spaces. On both floors we can find calligraphic friezes including the words of Saint Augustine in reference to the friars’ life in community and relation to God, which could have formed the basis for a harmonious, caring and generous collective life, as prescribed by the message of Saint Augustine.

The scenes portraying the birth, infancy and passion of Christ are predominant in this monastery. Didactically, the indigenous people were shown these episodes of the life of—what was for them—a new deity, and they were told how his sacrifice had saved people’s souls. This was combined with the depiction of the Augustinian saints who guided their spiritual life.

These scenes sought to give the indigenous people an induction into the new religion, firstly through the infancy of Jesus (ground floor of small cloister) and, once they achieved (or believed they had achieved) conversion, they could then move onto Christianity’s more complex aspects, such as those relating to the Passion and the sacrifice of God become man (upper floor of large cloister).

Parts of this mural relate to life in community and are designed to strengthen the vows of each friar, as well as to orient and catechize the new converts to Christianity, as visible in the pilgrims’ entry through images representing the theological virtues (fragments), and the message would probably be complemented by the (subtle) representation of the sins and their punishment. In the church, figures are clothed in Augustinian habits, simulating a choir worshipping the God recently revealed to the indigenous people, or admiring the image of Saint Catherine as the transformer of infidels, all of which reinforces the Augustinian intention to show the benevolence and grace attainable to those observing—and believing in—these images.

These figures now recall a way of life, a community assembled to carry out work, a vast undertaking both to introduce new ideological and cultural ideas and to annul pre-existing ones, an important and defining period in our history now transformed into an artistic vision from our twenty-first century perspective.