EASTFAÇADEMiguel de Ontiveros · 1744

The grammar of New Spanish abundance

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History and Style

A Summit of Ornamental Baroque

Miguel de Ontiveros · 1744

The east façade, whose first body execution dates to 1744, represents one of the summits of ornamental baroque in northern Mexico. Conceived by master Miguel de Ontiveros and continued in its second body by Pedro de Huertas, this façade is an exercise in perfect symmetry and a display of the "grammar of abundance" characteristic of the style at its height.

Symmetry and Exuberance

The bays are divided by Corinthian columns of extraordinary complexity; their shafts are not limited to support but become canvases where striations, rings, and anthropomorphic figures coexist among acanthus leaves and Solomonic spirals. The ornamentation is not excess: it is theology translated into stone.

Curatorial text: Museum of the Cathedral Basilica of Durango · Archdiocese of Durango

Historical research: Historian José Alonso Martínez Barrios

Miguel de Ontiveros · 1744

The First Body

Ontiveros projects three bays. In the lateral ones, aedicules house Saint Matthew (left) and Saint Mark (right), with the image of Christ behind dictating the gospel, all framed in the scallop shell alluding to rebirth and divine protection.

The central bay presents a splayed semicircular arch. The wooden door immortalizes in its coffers Saint Jerome of Stridon and Saint Ambrose of Milan. The ensemble is crowned by an entablature where the modillion cornice exhibits, among acanthus, the imposing figure of God Pantocrator.

Pedro de Huertas · 18th Century

The Second Body

Pedro de Huertas elevates the sophistication while maintaining symmetry. The central estipite columns flank the rectangular window, while the remaining ones show filigree shafts with caryatids and helical garlands.

The iconography is protective: Saint Barbara intercedes against the lightning that struck the region; Saint Petronilla advocates against famine. The crown displays the cathedral coat of arms with the Virgin's monogram crowned by seraphim, the episcopal galero with the inscription "Eclesiæ Novæ Cantabriæ Capitulum", and at the very top an angel extending perpetual blessing over the city, flanked by pyramidal urns.

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EAST FAÇADE — Catedral Basílica de Durango