LA CRUZ DE LAS CUATRO FLORES:

EXAMINATION AND AUTHENTICATION

By

Manuel Aguilar, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Art

California State University, Los Angeles

On December 8, 2005 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, at the invitation of Fred R. Kline, I inspected firsthand a small carved wood cross called La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores (The Cross of the Four Flowers), an object in the Fred and Jann Kline Family Collection (see attached Record for specific details). During several previous years, I had the opportunity to study transparencies of Cuatro Flores and to review Mr. Kline’s research regarding his extraordinary discovery.

In my capacity as an art historian who has for many years specialized in and written about the 16th Century Mexican art genre called Tequitqui (early Indian-Christian works), it is my opinion that La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores is a unique and important Tequitqui work of art and can be considered as well a rare masterpiece of New World Christian art.

The singular Tequitqui qualities of Cuatro Flores include: its unique iconography and symbolism pointing to the fusion of the ancient Mesoamerican religion of Mexico and the newly introduced Christian religion of Europe; its small portable character suggesting that it was probably used in early processions and altars among the newly converted Indians; its medium of carved wood, representing an amazing survival, quite apart from the most common Tequitqui artifacts of carved stone—notably, the atrial crosses found in the early monasteries (to which Cuatro Flores is stylistically related) and the diverse architectural ornamentation carved on churches and buildings after the conquest of Mexico and during the period of rebuilding.

According to a dendochronological analysis of Cuatro Flores made by Dr. Louis Scuderi (see attached Record for specific details), Dr. Scuderi found that Cuatro Flores was made from a pine tree cut circa 1535 in the Puebla region of Mexico, an area I had earlier suggested. In consideration of Dr. Scuderi’s scientific data, I would offer a circa date of 1535-1560 for Cuatro Flores.

In all probability, the Indian master artisan who made La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores [Fig. 1] worked in Puebla at the Franciscan monastery of Huejotzingo. The four floral or clover-leaf symbols on Cuatro Flores are almost identical to the flower-like or quincunx designs carved in the portería (entry porch) of the monastery of Huejotzingo [Fig. 2]. I also find that the overall craftsmanship and style of carvings in the Huejotzingo portería suggest the same hand that made Cuatro Flores. I would support Fred Kline’s attribution to “The Indochristian Master of the Huejotzingo Monastery Motifs”.

The flowering cross represented by Cuatro Flores suggests a comparative relationship to the style of a medieval Christian cross—a variation of the Cross of St. Benedict is a possibility. It is plausible that Cuatro Flores may have been modeled after a small woodblock print of a cross that illustrated a friar’s Bible.

Additionally and importantly, the motif of the flowering cross is also found in Mesoamerican mythology, a noted example of which is the circa 1350-1521 Mixtec-Aztec “World Tree” painting illustrated in the ritual book Codex Fejervary-Mayer, which delineates the Mesoamerican Cosmogram of the Center and the Four Directions of the Universe (cardinal points). The world tree designated “North Tree”, to the left of the also north-facing central deity, exhibits remarkably comparative features to Cuatro Flores.

Both Mesoamerican and Christian flowering crosses represent the notion of resurrection. The death of Christ on the cross for the redemption of humankind was seen by the Indian people as a parallel of the concept of human sacrifice and rebirth in nature. This idea can be recognized in La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores where flowers sprout from the parts of the cross where the head, the two hands, and the heart of Christ (pierced dramatically by an iron nail) are located, suggesting that from blood and death emerges life. The base of Cuatro Flores, which is a representation of seedpods integrated into the Earth, represents rebirth or resurrection in the spirit of the World Tree.

La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores, held in the Fred and Jann Kline Family Collection in Santa Fe, may be appreciated, as Mr. Kline has suggested, as a lost crown jewel of Mexican art history. It is an exceedingly rare New World object from the first transitional years of struggling evangelization and nascent religious practice which followed the conquest of Mexico. I find it to be a masterful object that embodies, through its rare and exquisite design, the historical reality of the spiritual conquest of Mexico.

It can be said that La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores is a Mesoamerican symbol that describes the cosmos, a universal Tree of Life related to the fertility of all nature, and a cross of Christ that that embodies Christian ideology and mysticism: as such, it can represent the living heart of Mexico. As an art historian who is deeply involved in the art history of Mexico, I feel fortunate to be among the first to examine and describe La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores.

Signed: M. Aguilar

Manuel Aguilar, Ph.D.

May 24, 2006

Record

Attributed to the Indochristian Master of the Huejotzingo Monastery Motifs

Puebla, Mexico/The Viceroyalty of New Spain, presumed active circa 1530s-1540s

World Tree Cross (called La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores)

(In an Indochristian tequitqui style) Circa 1535-60

A Carved Wood Cross on a Carved Wood Base:

Comprised of three carved sabino-pine sections (two sections of the cross and one section of the base); one wrought-iron nail (holding the two sections of the cross together); a tiny remnant of green paint on one flower.

Dimensions (inches):

Cross and the base (two separate but integrated pieces):

13 ¼ high x 7 ¾ wide x 3 ½ deep

Cross (only): 10 ¾ high x 7 ¾ wide x ½ deep

Base(only): 2 ½ high x 4 diameter (both top and bottom diameters)

Condition:

Good overall condition. There is a small missing wedge of carved wood at the rear top-and-bottom of the base within an apparently continuous motif; probably an early loss. Notable fly-specking on front and back of cross. The wood has no added finish and no restoration.

Provenance:

Private Collection, Guadalajara, Mexico.

James Caswell (dealer), Historia, Santa Monica, CA, until July 1999 (as “Moorish-Hispanic Cross ca. 1700”).

Fred and Jann Kline Family Collection, Santa Fe, NM, since July 1999 ( Here first attributed by Fred Kline as “Indochristian tequitqui World Tree Cross ca. 1521-1550”).

Consulting Scholars

Dr. Manuel Aguilar

Leading U.S. scholar in Indochristian-Tequitqui art and architecture of 16th c. Mexico. Associate Professor, Art History (Mesoamerica), California State University, Los Angeles; author of Tequitqui Art of the Sixteenth Century: An Expression of Transculturation (Ph.D dissertation, 1999; publication pending). Written agreement with Kline Indochristian Tequitqui hypothesis of Cuatro Flores; research assistance 2003; suggested pre-1550 comparative iconography found in the Franciscan Monastery of Huejotzingo, Puebla .

Dr. Louis Scuderi

Associate Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico. Noted dendrochronologist. Confirmed Kline circa 1521-1550 date hypothesis; dating & location of the cross dendrochronologically (tree-ring analysis) to circa 1535, Puebla region of Mexico, in report “Dendrochronologic Dating of The Cross of the Four Flowers (La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores) ”, January 22, 2004.

Dr. Khristaan Villela

Noted Maya scholar. Thaw Professor & Chairman, Art History(Mesoamerica) & Director, Thaw Art History Center, College of Santa Fe. Agreement with Kline Indochristian-Tequitqui attribution of Cuatro Flores in public lecture; initial research assistance 1999.

Lecture

Public slide-lecture by Dr. Manuel Aguilar: “Tequitqui Art of 16th Century Mexico” [La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores featured example]. December 8, 2005, College of Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM.

Public slide-lecture by Dr. Khristaan Villela : “Mexican Art and Architecture in the Sixteenth Century: European Mannerism and Indochristian Tequitqui” [ examples featured from Kline Collection: La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores & *La Virgencita del Nuevo Mundo *see Burkhart, illus.]; July 29, 2000, Fred R. Kline Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.

Exhibitions

La Cruz de las Cuatro Flores: An Indochristian World Tree Cross”, Fred R. Kline Gallery, Santa Fe, July 29-August 30, 2000; periodic exhibition thereafter through December 2005. Note: The work has not been for sale.

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