Cuernavaca No. 1

An MA thesis by Daniel Balboa Chávez, Ideología y arquitectura: El espacio litúrgico de la catedral de Cuernavaca en la época franciscana y durante el obispado de Sergio Méndez Arceo (Cuernavaca: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Facultad de Arquitectura, 2018) [http://riaa.uaem.mx/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.12055/490/BACDHN03T.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y] [accessed 28 September 2023] notes that the location of the baptismal font within the church interior changed through the times ["Según Gómez de Orozco: “La gran pila bautismal de piedra con el escudo de la orden franciscana… fue instalada primero en la capilla abierta, y posteriormente en la antigua sacristía” ([F.] Gómez de Orozco, [El Covento Franciscano de Cuernavaca (Mexico DF: Centro de Estudios Franciscanos,] 1943, p. 25)"]; the same source states that the font had been outside the church for a time but was brought into the interior, near the west entranceway ["iniciando en el acceso poniente se encuentra la pila bautismal, del siglo XVI, que antes se encontraba fuera del templo"], and set in a well three steps below the level of the ground. Listed in the state's web site [gro.inegi.gob.mx] as a large stone baptismal font ornamented with the Franciscan cingulum all around. Illustrated in Lara (2008). [NB: a second stone object, probably a holy-water stoup, adorned with the Franciscan cingulum is the Cathedral is listed as Cuernavaca No. 4 -- another baptismal object also ornamented with the Franciscan rope belt is located in the Museo Regional Cuauhnahuac, aka Palacio de Cortés -- cf. Index entry for Cuernavaca No. 2] [NB: the 26 March 2018 blog entry for Cuernavaca Cathedral: The Baptismal Fonts by Richard D Perry [http://colonialmexico.blogspot.com/2018/03/] [accessed 28 September 2023] writes that "the new Bishop of Cuernavaca initiated drastic changes to the interior of the Cathedral [...] One element of this liturgical 'cleansing' was the placement of a new baptismal font in a sunken circle just inside the west door of the cathedral, replacing the monolithic 16th century font of the church, which was banished after 400 years to the sacristy, where it remains. Although an attempt was made to retain some colonial forms in the new font, notably in the knotted cord rim, its bland symmetrical lines have none of the character or patina of the monolithic original, carved with the Five Wounds and inscribed with the Latin words of the sacrament of baptism: in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. The replacement of an authentic 16th century font by a modern basin in the name of a return to the 'primitive' church of the early Franciscans can be seen as an unintended irony." -- the blog entry is accompanied by two illustrations of two fonts: one is captioned "The 'new' font" and shows the baptismal font at the west end of the nave; the second illustration captioned "The 16th century baptismal font" shows a basin that shows partially the decoration described above [i.e., the Five Wounds and the inscription] on the font claimed by Perry to be in the cathedral sacristy -- we have not been able to corroborate the existence of the latter font in any other source]. Sergio Méndez Arceo