Mass of St. Gregory in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2018

Mass of Saint Gregory, A.D. 1539


Object Details

Date: A.D. 1539

Geography: Mexico, Mexico City

Culture: Nahua

Medium: Feathers, gold, wood, pigment

Dimensions: 26 3/4 × 22 1/16 × 7/8 in. (68 × 56 × 2.3 cm)

Classifications: Wood-Paintings, Feathers

Credit Line: Musée des Jacobins, Auch (986.1.1)


Based on a European print, this colonial feather mosaic represents the melding of indigenous and European artistic traditions. Combining colorful iridescent feathers with gold sheet, it depicts the sixth-century pope Gregory consecrating the Eucharist. Christ’s body miraculously appears behind the altar, proving to the doubting congregation the miracle of transubstantiation, the belief that the sanctified Host turns into Christ’s flesh. The inscription details that Friar Pedro de Gante and Don Diego Huanitzin, Mexico City’s governor, commissioned the work as a gift to Pope Paul III, whose 1537 papal decree defended the rights of indigenous people.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/722118