page_title: Mission Dolores mural
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Mission Dolores mural / Description
caption_attribution_description: Detail of heart pierced by three daggers
context_page_description: The Mission Dolores mural is an 18th-century work of art in the Mission San Francisco de Asís, the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. In 1791, the Ohlone people, Native Americans of the San Francisco Bay and laborers for the church, painted the mural on the focal wall of the sanctuary. Five years later, an altarpiece known as a reredos, was constructed in front of the mural, blocking it from view for more than two centuries. The mural remained mostly unseen in the intervening years, decaying slowly as it was protected from light and moisture behind the reredos enclosure.
  In the 2000s, archaeologist Eric Blind and artist Ben Wood digitized the mural, allowing the public to view it for the first time. Painted on plaster, the mural is adorned with abstract patterns and Christian imagery, in ochre, white, red, yellow, black, and blue/grey colors. The mural is an historically significant work of art from the early era of Spanish missions in California, and is considered "the best-preserved example of art from the period of first contact with Europeans".
context_section_description: The construction of adobe walls for the mission church began in 1788 with the manufacture of 36,000 bricks by native laborers. By 1790 the walls were completed, plastered, and whitewashed. It is most likely between this time and the dedication of the church on August 2, 1791 that the mural was painted.  The mural covers the entirety of the rear wall of the church, behind the historic wooden altar. It measures 22 by 20 feet and includes two statuary niches. It was eclipsed in the year 1796 by an impressive baroque-style relief sculpture shipped from San Blas, Mexico, called a reredos. A reredos is often wooden with niches and holds statues or paintings. This reredos continues to stand as the backdrop to the mission altar and has concealed the wall painting for over 200 years. For about five years before the mural was covered by the ornate wooden reredos, friars, soldiers, and native people saw the mural each day.
  Part of the mural depicts the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  In Christian art, the Sacred Heart is often portrayed as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by the lance-wound, surrounded by a crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross and bleeding. Sometimes the image is over Jesus' body with his wounded hands pointing at the heart. The wounds and crown of thorns allude to the manner of Jesus' death, while the fire represents the transformative power of love.  In the Mission Dolores mural, the Sacred Heart appears on either side of the upper third of the mural, with a decorative recessed wall, or statuary niche, in the center, decorated at the top with a shell motif. The upper niche is richly ornamented with scroll motifs and flanked on either side with more scrolling decorative patterns. The interior of the lower niche is less decorative and painted in red. Similar ornamental motifs are found elsewhere in the old mission on the archway above the sanctuary, as well as chevron patterns on the ceiling. We know these are original native patterns as we see the same pattern in the original basketry woven by local native women over 200 years ago. According to the California Missions Foundation some of the design resembles traditional Ohlone patterns found on rock art in the region.
  In the mission church behind the huge canvas depicting the last supper there are also decorative patterns painted on the wall.
  A defining factor in the preservation of the mural over the centuries is the mural's situation in a dark, cramped space behind the historic reredos. The mural is situated on a wall about two feet behind the reredos. It is only partially visible from an oblique angle through a trap door that opens from the attic above.
  Certain areas of the mural have deteriorated over time, particularly a section at the top of the mural that has been severely abraded, possibly when an electrical cable was installed in front of the mural.  Besides being an engaging piece of art, the mural is an intriguing artifact from a seemingly remote past. An artifact which silently stood witness for five years as a few missionaries on the frontier edge of an extended empire endeavored to convert the numerous native peoples to Catholicism and a Spanish colonial vision of civilization.
caption: Detail of Sacred Heart pierced by three daggers
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