Programs: Exhibits
Sidney David Markman Photographs of Antigua, Guatemala

Rebecca Hankins and Philip S. MacLeod, Curators
Spring Semester 2001

This exhibit showcases the photographic collection of noted art historian and expert on the colonial architecture of Central America, Sidney David Markman. This exhibit represents a fraction of the hundreds of photographs, slides, negatives, and manuscript materials donated to the Latin American Library by this scholar. These photographs offer an interesting perspective on the architecture of Antigua, Guatemala, many of these buildings are remnants from the 17th< and 18th centuries. They have been damaged and rebuilt after numerous natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. This exhibit of Markman's photographs looks at the enduring legacy of education, art, and religion that has sustained the architecture of Antigua, Guatemala for centuries in spite of these adversities. All the images are found in Markman's book Colonial Architecture of Antigua Guatemala. Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society, 1966 (LAL Stacks NA 777.A6 M3).

Antigua, Guatemala was founded in 1541. The city was originally known as La Muy Noble y Leal Ciudad de Santiago de los Cabelleros de Guatemala. For more than two centuries Antigua served as the seat of the Audiencia of Guatemala, that ruled the area from the Mexican state of Chiapas to Costa Rica. At the zenith of its power the city was home to an estimated 35,000 people and numerous religious institutions. The city was plagued by a series of natural disasters including earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In 1773 a series of earthquakes destroyed much of the city and capital was moved to present-day Guatemala City. In 1979 the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization included Antigua on its World Heritage Site List. The city remains one of the foremost examples of Spanish architecture in the New World.

The curators of this exhibition are Rebecca Hankins and Philip MacLeod, the LAL Manuscripts Curator. Ms. Hankins is the Archivist for the Amistad Research Center. Rebecca worked on the Sidney David Markman Collection as part of a practicum to obtain her Masters of Library and Information Sciences from Louisiana State University.

Exhibit Case I

1. University of San Carlos. Cloister. Detail, east corridor. Pg. 120
2. University of San Carlos. Cloister. Volcan de Agua in background to south. P. 120
3. San Francisco. West facade. Detail, upper story of central retablo. P. 250

Exhibit Case II

1. San Cristobal el Bajo, 17^th Century.
2. La Merced. West facade. Detail, central retable. P 256
3. San Cristobal el Bajo, West facade. Detail door. P 241
4. La Merced. West facade. Roofs of tower belfries were rebuilt about 1960. P 255.
5. Santuario de Guadalupe, 1874. North facade. P 240
6. La Merced cloister. (Fountain, modern restoration)
7. Capitania (Palace of the Captain Generals), North facade. Detail, central bays. P 325

Exhibit Case III

1. Seminario Tridentino, Cloister. Detail, north arcade. P 316
2. San Francisco. Entrance room to convent. Detail, mural paintings. P 252
3. La Concepcion, 1694. Convent entrance. P 287
4. Ayuntamiento. South facade. Lower corridor. P 303
5. Plaza Mayor, 1963. Same view as that drawn by Catherwood, who places the volcanoes too far to the east. P 231
6. Seminario Tridentino, ca. 1758. North side. Detail, main door. P 315.
7. El Calvario, 1720. Gatehouse. North facade. P 278

Exhibit Case IV

1. Fuente de las Delicias, seventeenth century. Entrance to convent of La Concepcion to right. P 269.
2. Pila de la Alameda del Calvario, 1679. Gatehouse of the church of El Calvario in the distance. P 267.
3. Fuente near La Merced, seventeenth century. P 271.
4. Fuente de los Dominicos, Detail, bowl. P 270
5. Fuente near La Merced, Detail, basin showing mermaids.
6. Fuente de los Dominicos, 1618 (?) P 269