Administered by Archdiocese of Santa Fe 223 Cathedral Place Santa Fe New Mexico 87501
Located St. Francis Cathedral Church 131 Cathedral Place Santa Fe New Mexico
Date:
1986. Dedicated Oct. 1986
Notes:
Save Outdoor Sculpture, New Mexico survey, 1993.
Modern Casting, April 1987, pg. 47-49.
Image on file.
Modern Casting, April 1987, pg. 47.
Shidoni (S) (On far left panel, left door:) Donna Elizabeth Quasthoff (copyright symbol) (On 13 other panels:) D.E.Q. (copyright symbol) (On right door, second panel on right:) D.E.Q. (copyright symbol)/14 (On right door, third panel:) D.E.Q. (copyright symbol)/13 (On first panel, in flag:) NUEVA MEXICO/1583 (Many panels have a year inscribed in them, one on each panel in various locations incorporated into the design:) 1598 / 1680 / 1693 / 1790 / 1846 / 1852 / 1869 / 1880 / 1960 / 1986 signed Founder's mark appears.
The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.
Summary:
A series of 16 bronze door panels depicting the history of the Catholic church in New Mexico. Panels are reliefs and are done in Romanesque style. The first panel depicts Fray Marcos de Niza when he first sighted the Zuni Pueblos. Another panel shows Gen. Don Diego de Varga kneeling before a Franciscan friar, formally returning the city and mission to the mayor and clergy after the "reconquest" from the Indians. Another plaque depicts the Spanish colonists retreating from the burning village in the 1680 Pueblo Rebellion. The last panel depicts the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Pio Laghi, assisted by Archbishop Robert F. Sanchez, celebrating the centenary of St. Francis Cathedral while an Indian woman signs the Our Father in Tewa.
Between the panels and around the outer edge of the doors is decorative bronze trim patterned in an intricate design. The door handles are an integral part of this trim, and are in the shape of stylized lions, with hind feet and tail at the bottom of the handles, heads near the top and fore-feet stretched above the head.
