Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Mass of Saint Gregory
Not on view
Based on a European print, this colonial feather mosaic represents the melding of indigenous and European artistic traditions. Combining colorful iridescent feathers with gold sheet, it depicts the sixth-century pope Gregory consecrating the Eucharist. Christ’s body miraculously appears behind the altar, proving to the doubting congregation the miracle of transubstantiation, the belief that the sanctified Host turns into Christ’s flesh. The inscription details that Friar Pedro de Gante and Don Diego Huanitzin, Mexico City’s governor, commissioned the work as a gift to Pope Paul III, whose 1537 papal decree defended the rights of indigenous people.
Según un estampado europeo, este mosaico colonial de plumas representa la unión de las tradiciones artísticas indígenas y europeas. El mosaico retrata al Papa Gregorio del siglo VI consagrando la Eucaristía con una combinación de coloridas plumas tornasoladas y hoja de oro. El cuerpo de Cristo aparece milagrosamente detrás del altar, probando de esta manera a las congregaciones que dudan el milagro de la transustanciación. La inscripción señala que el Fraile Pedro de Gante y el gobernador de la ciudad de México, Don Diego Huanitzin, encargaron la obra para regalársela al Papa Pablo III. Su decreto papal de 1537 defendía los derechos de los pueblos indígenas.
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