Published in Music in Antiquity, Middle Ages & Renaissance

Keywords: Keywords: 2 acatl, Augustinians, Façade, Ixmiquilpan, Nahui-Ōlin, Shield, Winged hippocampus.

The Plateresque façade of the temple of San Miguel Arcángel, has a harmonious and elegant composition, with a rich decoration based on grotesques, presenting a clear moralizing and reflective message for the Christian observer of the time; for the indigenous observer, the grotesques could contain the main symbols of their worldview by presenting familiar and mimetic forms, such as the four-petalled flowers representing the Nahui-Ōlin, the flamer cauldron shaped like the sign 2 Acatl, the shields of San Nicolás Tolentino with Atl tlachinolli, the tops of the columns as a representation of the Tlachieloni and the undulating forms like Xonecuilli. This cover also presents the unification of European elements with the local ones, such as the coats of arms that contain the local flora and fauna, as well as the representation of a territorial partiality in the pre-Hispanic way, through the Altepetl.