EX-CONVENTO - MUSEO DEL CARMEN
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This museum of colonial art traces the history of the Carmelite order in New Spain and its austerity
On June 19, 1615, the Descalzo Carmelites ("deschaux" or barefoot, in reference to that branch of the order that wished to recover the austerity of their religious ancestors in the convent of Mount Carmel, in Palestine) laid the first stone of the college of San Angelo Martir, in what was then a wooded area with rich agricultural land. Shortly afterwards, the settlement around the convent became San Ángel. The studies were reserved for boys, around a library whose volume would reach 12,000 books. Closed like all the religious establishments after the Reform of 1858, it became a museum in 1929. This museum of colonial art recalls first of all the history of the Carmelite Order in New Spain and its austerity, which can be seen in the proportions of the cloister and its sobriety. This restraint disappears completely in the sacristy, whose ceiling is covered with gilded Mudejar motifs, paintings by Cristóbal de Villalpando and some ostentatious furniture. The same decorative abundance is to be found in the magnificent mortuary chapel, covered with blue-toned azulejos and frescoes with Moorish arabesques. The exhibition rooms for colonial paintings have also retained their old-fashioned charm, a more rustic charm, with walls covered in large paintings, between beams and parquet or glazed terracotta tiles; the remains of a stone aqueduct can be seen in the gardens.
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