| We walked down from Cerro de la Bufa and eventually
found our way to the Museo Rafael Coronel. It is housed in the old Convent
of San Francisco. There are several separate exhibitions. The first is of
figures from pre Mayan times. |  |
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Most of the figures are small and at the end is a separate section of
Mexican musicians in the Mariachi style. |
| The next exhibition is of puppets but musicians still
feature strongly although there are many different groupings. |  |
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Most unusual is a collection including a bull so that a bullfight can be
portrayed. |
| There is a display of pottery from various periods.
Some of it is quite unusual and very sophisticated in design. |  |
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As we have seen before in native pottery, anthropomorphism (adding human,
animal or, less common, plant features) is very common. |
| The convent is a ruin today but in the past it was
quite a major complex. There are several models of how it would have looked
at different times. |  |
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Then there is an exhibition of miniature figures. The theme of this display
was cooking with many figures doing something to do with cooking. The front
was full of miniature plates and dishes. |
| Then we got to the main event. The Mexicans have a
long tradition of making and using masks. Rafael Coronel was an artist who
was also fascinated by masks. About 3,000 ritual and dance masks are on
display, but the his collection contains over 10,000, and they have come
from all over the world. |  |
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Unfortunately we had to rush since the museum was closing shortly. The range
and complexity of the masks was huge. Some are realistic and others are
quite fanciful. |
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This display is all of black African faces. |  |
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The masks are used for mummer type plays which frequently include a bull.
These are bull masks and there are also animal bodies a bit like hobby
horses. |
| Outside we found another wall which they had built
with bits which had come from the buildings in earlier times. |  |
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Many of the walls are still standing although the roofs have long since
fallen in. We would have liked to have longer here but we had to go. |
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