Just as travelers soon weary of visiting endless churches, the U.S. Southwest can become quickly clichéd by yet another book of dramatic mission photographs. Fortunately, these two recent publications are exceptions, and will probably become the classic references for the next generation. Marc Treib’s Sanctuaries of Spanish New Mexico is a simply superb condensation of New Mexican architectural history and an excellent compendium of individual sanctuaries. The Missions of Northern Sonora, as edited by Buford Pickens, is a far less anbitious publication, but every bit as useful and informative.
The first third of Treib’s volume carefully investigates the context of religious building, the materials, the techniques, and the “sittings” for the churches. The author describes in elaborate detail how these structures were built and why they have or have not survived. The historical section is adequate, although the omission of the role of the Patronato Real, whereby religious apostolates were set apart from colonial policies, weakens the interpretation. Nor does the treatment do justice to the presence of master builders on the frontier; friars are made to seem the only source of architectural expertise. Treib does differentiate, however, between the puddled adobe techniques of the Pueblo Indians and the measured adobe block approach of the Spaniards. Only the latter form was capable of supporting tall, weight-bearing walls, thus making the Christian religious structures imposing, if not ominous. The generous array of photographs, floor plans, and exploded views makes this volume attractive as well as useful. The University of California Press has provided a pleasing design and a comfortable balance of color and black-and-white photography.
Pickens, an architect like Treib, realized the solidity and importance of a 1935 field report done for the Tumacacori Mission of the National Park Service. Like the drawings Treib utilized in his study, the Tumacacori report preserved critically important floor plans, measurements, and descriptions of the northern Sonoran missions. The descriptive account and drawings were summarized by Arthur Woodward, archaeologist on the expedition. But the official account lay in obscurity until a Spanish version was published in Mexico and then resurrected by Pickens.
The Missions of Northern Sonora follows a format similar to Sanctuaries, but its discussion of the social environment, materials, and general architecture is not as elaborate. Pickens’ treatment, however, is perfectly in keeping with the tenor of the report itself. One of the genuinely graceful aspects of Missions is the classic photography of George Grant, whose artistry captures whole buildings and tiny, indigenous flourishes.
For the serious student of the Spanish Southwest, these two volumes are undeniable classics. They leave little to speculation; both are scholarly, complete, and well designed. And both books demonstrate the enduring importance of European contact in the Americas dating back to the seventeenth century.
