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6550

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N Burchvood, Katharine Tyler
6550 The origin and legacy
of Mexican art.

Burchwood, Katharine Tyler, 1891-

The origin and legacy of Mexican art South Brunswick. A.
S. Barnes [1972. cl971]
« 159 p. aius. 29 cm. $12.50

Bibliography: p. 153-154.

1. Art. Mexican— History. I. Title.

N6550.B8 709'.72

ISBN 0-498-07840-X /

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Library of

New College of California

The Origin

and

Legacy

of Mexican Art

Also by Katharine Tyler Burchwood
Art Then and Now (with Kathryn D. Lee)

The Origin

and
Legacy

of Mexican Art

Katharine Tyler Burchwood

SOUTH BRUNSWICK AND NEW YORK: A. S. BARNES AND COMPANY
LONDON: THOMAS YOSELOFF LTD

.It

A. S. Barnes and Co., Inc.
Cranbury, New Jersey 08512

Thomas Yoseloff Ltd

108 New Bond Street

London WIY OQX, England

ISBN 0-498-07840-X
Printed in the United States of America

To my Mother,
Ellen Richmond Tyler

Contents

Acknowledgments 9

1 Art Begins 13

2 The Art of Building 25

3 Monte Alban 33

4 The Aztecs 42

5 The Colonial Period, 1521-1821 54

6 Independence in Art and State 74

7 Art Awakens 82

8 Mexican Murals 91

9 Diego Rivera, 1886-1957 102

10 Jose Clemente Orozco, 1883-1949 110

11 David Alfaro Siqueiros, 1898- 118

12 Modem Mexican Art 126

13 Popular Arts of Mexico 144
Bibliography 153
Index 155

Acknowledgments

My grateful appreciation and thanks are ac-
corded the following for permission to use
illustrative material and their help in obtain-
ing it:
Miss Inez Amor, Galeria De Arte Mexicano,

Mexico City.
Mr. Edward Barry, Art Editor, The Chicago

Tribune.
Miss Dorothy Bishop, Department of Arts,

International Business Machines Corpora-
tion Collection, New York.
Miss Anita Brenner, Mexico City.
Mr. Michael E. Carbine, Director of Public

Relations, Mundelein College, Chicago.
Miss Renee D. Gallindo, Secretary, Art of

Mexico, Mexico City.
Mr. Charles E. Guptill, Mexican Government

Tourism Department, Mexico City.
Mr. Kermit Holt, Travel Editor, The Chicago

Tribune.

Miss Ursula Kiihl, Foreign Department, Artes
De Mexico, Mexico City.

Mr. A. J. Misrachi, Central Art Gallery, Mex-
ico City.

Miss Enricjueta Sanchez, Director, Mexican
Government Tourism Department, Chi-
cago.

Mr. David Weber, Correspondent, The Chi-
cago Tribune, for Mexico City.

Mr. Comad White, Granville, Ohio.
Also to:

Ari:es De Mexico. Publication by The Na-
tional University of Mexico.

Galeria De Arte Mexicano, Milan, Mexico
6D.F.

Mexican Government Tourism Department.

National Banks of Mexico, Tourism Service.

National Railroads of Mexico.

The Origin

and

Legacy

of Mexican Art

ART BEGINS

The legacy of Mexican art is rooted in mys-
tery—in a peoples' unquenchable love of
beauty. Across centuries of alternate torture
and triumph, in a land both hospitable and
cruel, the creative urge rose again and again
over natural and human catastrophes which
should have fractured its tradition perma-
nently. But each time, a new synthesis was
formed, until in the flowering of the twen-
tieth century native art combined the earth-
iness of cactus with the mysticism of eternity.

The land itself is framed in contrasts, with
Eden-like shore lines, impassible jungles,
desolate deserts, rich verdured plateaux,
mountains soaring thousands of feet above
sea level, volcanos smoldering under icecaps,
and gigantic mountains towering as guard-
ians over all. Owing to the varying altitudes
and to location in both temperate and tropi-
cal zones, the climate is diversified, ranging
from tropical to cool temperature. Average
temperature in the central plateau is 60 to
70 degrees F; in the coastal plains 80 to 90
degrees. (Plate 1. Popocatepetl. Viewed from
Ameca, depicts such scenic contrasts).

Mexico's political history rivals the geo-
graphical. Origins have vanished in a pre-
historic past or remote antiquity, while later
times present fabulous panoramas. Obscure
tribes grow to imperial power, then fall into

obscurity or utterly vanish with equal mys-
tery. Immense cities, rivaling in beauty those
of the ancient world, rise as if by magic from
jungle or plain or are abandoned abruptly
to vines and the elements, to be discovered
almost intact centuries later by scientists
whose ancestors did not know of the builders'
existence.

The Mexican people are largely descended
from Oriental tribesmen who crossed Bering
Strait from northeastern Asia, entering the
western hemisphere at the end of the last
Ice Age. Trekking southward, they reached
this land where their descendants founded a
new civilization known as Mesoamerican. To-
day's population of 30,000,000 includes many
living in isolated mountain villages who still
speak the Nahuatl language and wear the
same type of clothing as did their ancestors
who met the Conquistadores. Roughly esti-
mated, a third of the people are pure Indian
of remote Asian heredity. Another third, ap-
proximately 10,000,000 are Mestizo, a blend
of Indian and Spanish, closely integrated
with Western culture. They are strong, force-
ful people of dignified bearing, with ex-
emplary qualities which have made them
leaders in government, the army, the pro-
fessions, and the arts. A few inhabitants are
a blend of Indian and Negro, while the re-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 1. Popocatepetl, viewed from Ameca.
Courtesy Mexican Government Tourism Depart-
ment

maining population, of pure Spanish descent
and known as "Castillian," boasts 500 fami-
lies living today in urban centers.

The tenacity with which ancient tradi-
tion clings is illustrated by the people of
Anahuac— Valley of the Waters— an important
early art center. Although this rich farm land,
where background mountains rise like mono-
liths against its sky, was rent asunder by
Cortes, natives still speak the Aztec-Mexica
tongue. Their unique descent from an Ori-
ental-Occidental amalgam is reflected in an
art that combines awareness and appreciation

of nature's beauty and the chastening eflFect
of a long history of tribulation, which be-
came Mexico's art legacy.

Areas near coastal stretches on the Gulf
bordering humid jungles, known as "rubber-
hot-lands," were the home of art-minded
people about 1000 b.c. Their artists carved
huge stone heads which have been submerged
in jungle growth near southern Vera Cruz,
Chiapas, and western Tabasco. For centuries
these colossal heads remained embedded
near tribal burying grounds and pyramids.
The heads, many over nine feet high, were

PLATE 2. Olmec stone face. Relic of Mexico's
oldest civilization. Plaster reproduction. La
Venta, Tabasco. Courtesy American Museum of
Natiu-al History, New York

skillfully modeled, realistic renderings of
round-faced young men. The Spanish called
the primitive sculptors who had carved them
Olmec ( deriving the name from olli meaning
"rubber"), and the strange idols are believed
to symbolize strength and power attributed
to a god or important person. The heads are
characterized by Mongolian features, having
flat noses, broad nostrils, thick lips, and nar-
row eye-slits, and they are carved in direct,
forceful style (Plate 2. Olmec Head. A m,as-
sive relic of Mexico's oldest civilization).

These ancient Mexican idols bear a strong
resemblance to the arts of Asia, Polynesia,
and Oceania, as was noted when relics from
both sides of the Pacific were shown at the
1950 exposition of pre-Columbian Art, Mu-
seum of Natural History, New York, where
interesting comparisons were made with stone
relics excavated by Dr. Matthew Stirling in
Mexico. An idol wearing a cap resembling a
football helmet, discovered by the Smith-
sonian Institute, was named "El Ray" by the
archaeologists, who believed it to be the
image of an ancient king. Other Smithsonian
relics of heads show spreading tiger-like
fangs carved in dynamic style. This type of
pattern became dominant throughout Mexi-
can ancient history, and many such carvings
were found at Tres Zapotes and dated by
radio carbon at around 30 b.c. Also discov-
ered there were stela (grave stones) and
calendar calculations with dot-bar cuts which
indicate a primitive Mexican numeral sys-
tem. Although tribal sources yield few cer-
tainties determining origins, these relics and
art findings of stone do ofiFer reliable clues.
Archaeologists have uncovered skillful carv-
ings in three-dimensional form which may be
viewed equally well from all sides. Among
these small works in blue-green jadeite are
masks and figurines discovered in the Olmec
homeland (Plate 3. Head of a Woman).

Early migrations ended about 1000 B.C.,
and invaded peoples who had trekked from
the far north began settling on farms in fer-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

tile areas. Their dependable food crop of
com (maize or teosinte) encouraged wan-
dering hunters to remain and form agrarian

PLATE 3. Head of a Woman. Olmec style. Jadeite,
of uncertain provenance. Courtesy London Illus-
trated News, June 21, 1947

communities, which resulted in forming an
agricultural civilization wherein tribal settle-
ments were bound by blood ties. The Indians
bom into a clan or calpulli claimed common
heritage and gradually, as numerous tribal
subgroups and villages formed, they enlarged
into great nations: Toltec, Zapotec, Olmec,
and Tarascan (Plate 4. Map: Pre-Conquest
Tribes).

During the long period ending with the
arrival of the Spanish, the tribal nations were
shocked again and again by wars causing
them to fall and rise. Fortunately, it was an
established Mesoamerican practice for invad-
ing, conquering peoples to settle and live in

Art Begins

peace with vanquished tribesmen, which en-
abled them to absorb valuable learning and
skills. For example, it is believed that after
the artist people of the hot-lands had been
conquered, probably by the Maya, they, in
turn, fell before barbaric northern invaders
who absorbed sections of Olmec territory,
thus creating a new and strong tribal strain
which produced the Toltec nation. In later
time, when another tribe, the Chichimecs,
captured the Toltec capital city of Tollan in
a surprise attack, they gradually extended
control over a large plateau area and the con-
quering invaders took a place among the
other Mesoamerican nations. Interestingly
enough, the early tribesmen, despite innum-
erable defeats and conquests, were able to
fuse and retain traditions and customs, in-
cluding popular handicrafts. Dependable
knowledge of ancient tribes is to be found
in art relics such as clay figurines and pot-
tery; though loosely labeled, they supply
helpful sources for tracing cultures.

Inspired by a deep love of beauty, native
art persisted, despite devastating wars, fi-

PLATE 4. Map showing distribution of Mexican
tribes. The Aztecs were in the area first occupied
by the Toltecs.

nally to reach a chmax three thousand years
later— in our own time. Ancient tribal farmers

so adjusted their time as to allow leisure
for worship, participation in religious cere-
monials, dreaming, sorrowing, enjoying Hfe,
and creating arts and handicrafts. By nature
the Indian is not competitive, as we under-
stand that term, and because a primary love
of beauty was ingrained in him, he willingly
spent time in the development and perfec-
tion of art skills. He listened to hidden pres-
ences in sky, cloud, mountain, plant, and
animal, expressing in art what he felt and
saw. After meditation he had an urge to pro-
duce something beautiful. Many remains of
the ancient hunter-farmers of the Valley have
been found in the region around Anahuac
(Plate 5. Seated Man).

In Mexico, as elsewhere, tribal arts were
always preceded by handicrafts, and ancient
weaving that served many practical pur-
poses made use of readily available cactus
fibers of various types known as agave, ma-
guey, oi metl. Tribal women were the first
weavers, and they soon learned to design
their weavings with geometric, stylized, all-
over patterns, the motifs being derived from
plants, birds, men, animals, and fish. The
first looms were of the primitive saddle-back
or horizontal type, consisting of two wooden
bars between which warp threads extended
lengthwise. Sometimes one bar was fastened
to a tree or pole, the other to a leather belt
around the weaver's waist, and the weaving
of the woof thread was done with a single
shuttle. This type of loom, known as the "old,"
is still used by many weavers who produce
beautiful textiles featuring creative nature
designs. The petate (Aztec for "mat") is a
practical and popular woven wrap which is
as popular and useful now as in pre-Conquest
days. Basically it provides a bed or mattress
of woven reeds, covered with a cloth woven
from maguey fibers; this often serves as a
burial wrap for humble Indians. The ancient
craft of weaving has become an important
and profitable Mexican industry today, and
many skilled artisans in Puebla, Guerrero,

PLATE 5. Seated man. Pre-Columbian Mexican
sculpture of Jalisco, Mexico. Courtesy Chicago
Natural History Museum

Art Begins

and Oaxaca are engaged in the large-scale
production of woven articles.

Settled agrarian living created the need
for domestic implements and containers,
hence pottery-making wsis an early craft.
Mexican soil provides quantities of clay well
suited for pottery and the earliest bowls and
jugs were made of coarse, red-yellow clay
fired under burning wood, though later pot-
tery for utilitarian needs (corriente) was
baked in ovens or kilns. Craftsmen learned
to mix limestone with cement, which they
crushed to a fine sand and combined with
an adhesive to provide a smooth surface on
which designs could be etched or painted.
The first designs consisted of flowing curvi-
linear motifs rendered in black or white
strokes on reddish clay vessels. The patterns
were applied in bands around the sides of
bowls and on the necks of jugs.

Women made most of the household pot-
tery, using simple molds such as basket con-
tainers, though pottery for domestic use was
often the work of an entire family in the
average home, where children learned to be
little craftsmen, their efforts being regarded
with special pride. Pottery became a popular
medium of exchange at the weekly tiaquiz
and tribes developed stylistic differences in
their wares. Early potters at Cholula became
noted for their red and black wares, and they
also excelled in making weapons and carving
figurines in clay, terra-cotta, and jade. An-
cient pottery and carvings are prized by
archaeologists, for these relics offer more ex-
act cultural information than architecture
and folk-lyric legends.

After their fame in ceramic skills spread
throughout the central highlands, experts
among Olmec and Zapotec craftsmen were
sent as roving tutors to instruct other tribal
groups. In time, capable artisans located near
die great religious centers dominating the
Valley of Anahuac— at Cholula, Monte Alban,
and Teotihuacan. During the most prosperous
period of the Toltec nation, professional pot-

ters formed guilds for production of cere-
monial vessels and elaborate mortuary vases
for use in symbolic-religious services. Many
rare ceramic treasures have been found in
tombs at Monte Alban, where beautifully
decorated funeral pieces were intended to
contain food and drink for the dead. These
were polished to a deep, high luster achieved
by vigorous rubbing and burnishing with ob-
sidian scrapers and agate stones. Though pre-
Columbian pottery was unglazed, a shiny,
glaze-hke effect was achieved entirely by
hand. Made without the aid of a potter's
wheel, famous primitive funeral vases are
perfectly shaped and the elegant polished
black ware, produced between 272 b.c. and
A.D. 1, is regarded as among the finest pottery

PLATE 6. Terra-cotta head. Totonac sculpture.
Classical Period. Courtesy The Cleveland Mu-
seum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

made by Mesoamerican peoples.

When in the sixteenth century the Spanish
introduced the potter's wheel, along with

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 7. Tenoned head. Man with Dolphin Hel-
met. Totonac sculpture. Courtesy International
Communications Foundation, Monterey Park,
California

molds and glazes, missionary priests taught
the Indians newer methods of pottery-making
along with their Gospel lessons. The Indians
of Puebla were the first to receive this priestly
instruction and rarely beautiful ritual pieces
were made there for the church. Fine secular

pottery has etched designs of birds, flowers,
reptiles, and human figures. Mexican pottery
of today, following the tradition of early
times, enjoys a world market and villagers
take pride in displaying it and their weaving
on travel routes.

Art Begins

Early Mexican ritual sculpture required
symbolic interpretation, for it was intended
solely for religious purposes and naturalistic
designs were restricted to secular use. During
the Classic Period of Mexican sculpture (a.d.
1-900) only archaic forms prevailed. Later
artists produced carefully studied, naturalistic
portrait heads, and remarkably skillful carv-
ings of structural anatomy were made by
Totonac sculptors. Terra-cotta Head (Plate
6 ) is a work of firm musculature and belongs
to the Vera Cruz art tradition of careful and
detailed workmanship. A profile assigned to
the eighth-ninth century is the Tenoned
Head. Man with a Dolphin Helmet (Plate 7).
A realistic sculpture individually character-
ized, it expresses a more advanced phase of
Totonac culture.

An early work of special interest (500 b.c-
A.D. 500) is a statue carved from sandstone,
Human Figure with Staff (Plate 8), made in
Tampico, Mexico. The figure here shows con-
scious distortion to secure significant art
values. A limestone carving known as Hacha
(Plate 9) in the Vera Cruz tradition (a.d.
400-800) is a significant example of the
Trajin Style. The height of this exquisite
carving is thirteen-and-one-fourth inches.

Clay figurines and heads found near Vera
Cruz depict people who lived there during
the seventh century. There is no information
regarding what later happened to them;
whether they were conquered or became
tribute payers to a series of conquerors is
unknown. Typical of this art is Head of a
Smiling Woman (Plate 10). Totonac sculp-
tors were expert in modehng small figurines;
they invariably had smiling faces and so be-
came known as "laughing heads." Their lively
human interest and charm have special ap-
peal.

Because the Mesoamerican peoples were
constantly exposed to severe dangers, they
sought protection through the magic aid of
idols, which served to charm away or ward
ofiF danger and disaster. Carved idols often

represented jaguars shown in ferocious, dis-
torted poses emphasizing dynamic power and

PLATE 8. Figure of a man leaning on a staff. Vera
Cruz, Haustec, 900-1200 a.d. Museum of Primi-
tive Art, New York

drive— a sculptural motif which remained
popular in Mexican art for thousands of years.

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 9. "Hacha." Carved limestone. Vera Cruz.
Tajin style 400-800 a.d. (height 13«") Courtesy
Art of Mexico

Art Begins

Large carved heads, originally made to deco-
rate temples, have been found in Totonac
jungles. They confirm the existence of an
early art civilization there a thousand years
before Cortes came, and indicate that the
Totonacs had lived there consecutively from
500 B.C.

PLATE 10. Head of a Smiling Woman. Vera Cruz.
Pre-Columbian. Courtesy London Illustrated
News, March 7, 1953

Thousands of small idols made for a fer-
tility cult w^ere found in the vicinity of Teo-
tihuacan, where Valley farmers worshiped
during the Archaic Period. Since the mother
of the gods was their most important goddess,
idols were made representing the creative
force ascribed to women. These female forms
of clay, jade, terra-cotta, or stone, have pro-
truding eyes, large hips and thighs, and tiny
wasp-like waists. Similar cult figurines have
also been found in what are now the states
of Guerrero and Oaxaca, where they prob-
ably were dropped in corn fields to conjure
good crops from the gods (Plate 11. Clay
Figurines of the Archaic Period). Obsidian

and rock crystal found in volcanic soil were
carefully chipped by Indian sculptors to
make figurines for cult worship. Having no
steel knives or fine chisels, the ancient artists
depended solely on crude implements made
from volcanic rock with which to accomplish
their carving. Many skillfully cut jade idols
have been found, although jade is the hard-
est of Mexican stones to carve.

Massive Toltec construction was charac-
teristic of the architecture of this period.
Sculptural forms were often used as columns
for holding roofs and the figures so employed
were symbolic designs merely suggestive of
the human form. Low-relief carvings in struc-
tural stone were used to convey the effect
of strength and beauty when incorporated
with architecture, although all decorative fea-
tures were in symbolic style.

When the Aztecs conquered the Toltecs,
they adopted all of the architectural and art
forms of these gifted artist-builders. Both the
Toltecs and the Zapotecs, who were Mexi-
co's greatest builders, achieved difficult con-
struction feats without the help of mechanical
methods for lifting and placing huge stones
in position and without pack animals for
transporting materials. How they accom-
plished their tasks remains a debated mys-
tery. Quarries located in what is now the
State of Guerrero, supplied trachite and
tezontl for building. The latter is a porous
red rock derived from lava, which was used
for hundreds of years and provided remark-
able permanency. A notable example is the
Palace of Cortes at Cuemavaca, which is still
in good structural condition and is used
today as a museum and courthouse.

The people of Mexico had not lived long
as settled farmers when they undertook the
building of vast temple-cities. Stepped pyra-
mids were erected between the eighth and
ninth centuries b.c. which included a com-
plex of courtyards wherein a ball game called
trachti was played. A partly excavated To-
tonac city in northern Vera Cruz province

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 11. Clay figurines. Totonac culture. Archaic
period. Courtesy Mexican Arts Publications

contains a palace, a ball court, and a seven-
tiered pyramid with nearby burial grounds
covering ancient shrines. Crumbling ruins in
the city of Tzintzuntzen, one-time capital of
the Tarascan nation, contain idols, basalt
axes, and weapons of obsidian and flint. These
relics remind us that countless submerged re-
mains await archaeological spadework.

Although tribal chiefs retained power as
rulers during development of the Mesoameri-
can civilization, tribal priests supervised and
managed temple building, which at first con-

sisted only of mounds of rock and lava. As
reUgion became of greater importance, the
power of the priests increased in the tribes
and they secured builders, architects, and
sculptors for all the huge temples that were
later built, calling up labor forces and con-
trolling expenditures for the tremendous tasks
of temple construction. Priests also deter-
mined the calendar form to be followed and
the dates for festivals, and they directed all
ceremonials and rituals.

2
THE ART OF BUILDING

During the prehistoric period, mounds of
rock, adobe, and lava served as shrines for.
worship, the sites later becoming locations
for pyramid-temples, and thus began Mexi-
co's large-scale building culture. The Pyramid
of Cuilcuilco, erected by the Olmecs about
600 B.C., is the earliest extant monumental
construction in the central highlands. It was
completely submerged around a.d. 300 by
volcanic eruption, which the Indians believed
was an act of angry gods. In 1922 the pyra-
mid was excavated by the Department of
Archaeology of the University of Arizona and
was found to be in a relatively good state of
preservation because it was covered by a pro-
tective layer of lava. The pyramid consists of
four truncated cones, each increasing in size,
with an overall height of sixty-five feet. Lo-
cated near the national university campus at
the capital's edge, it is only fifty miles from
the ancient religious center of San Juan Teo-
tihuacan. Remains of the ancient Pyramid of
Cuilcuilco constitute a highly prized Mexican
relic.

Other similar, though much smaller, pyra-
mids were built on rectangular or square
bases, diminishing toward the top either step
by step or by graduated sides to the summit
where a sanctuary was enthroned. Carved
symbols of skulls and feathered serpents ex-

tended out on pegs from the walls of these
early pyramids. In El Tajin, near Vera Cruz,
is the Pyramid of the Niches, a Totonac mon-
ument of the Classical Period believed to
have been part of an ancient city. Made of
volcanic rock and adobe, its sides were cov-
ered with brightly painted stucco.

When wild northern tribesmen, led by
their conquering chief Mexicoatl, subdued
the Vall6y of Anahuac about a.d. 700, they
settled and intermarried with the civilized
people there, whose forebears had cradled
Mesoamerican highland culture. Learning
the art of building from them, they were des-
tined to be Mexico's master builders, and
ancestors of the great Toltec tribe. Their last
legacy included enlargement of the religious
center at Teotihuacan and building of the
city of Tollan (also called Tula), which be-
came the Toltec capital. This ancient city
contained the imposing Plaza with its Temple
of Tlaloc honoring the God of Rain. Four
huge statues of warriors have been excavated
on the site, near a former Temple of War-
riors. These Toltec warrior statues, known as
the Giant Atlantes (Plate 12), were exca-
vated between 1940 and 1945, and are now
on exhibit in the archaeological zone of Tula,
state of Hidalgo, along with other relics of
that area which had been successfully occu-

pied by Toltecs,Chichimecs, and Aztecs. Also
found there were large carved friezes of coy-
otes and eagles which have the bold elaborate
artistry typical of early Indian decoration.

PLATE 12. Toltec Warrior; known as the Giant
Atlantes. Tula, Hidalgo. Colossal stone sculpture.
Courtesy Juarez Museum, Chihuahua

These huge, fearsome warriors of a bygone
epoch stare out over the niins of the once
mighty Tula, capital of the Toltecs. Origi-
nally there were four giant warriors and the
fifteen-foot-high statues, together with pillars,
supported the roof of a temple on top of the
Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl, chief deity of the
Toltecs.

The Toltecs, who became highly success-
ful agriculturists, produced large grain sur-
pluses, but more important, they built a
vastly enlarged religious center at Teotihua-
can, dedicated to nature gods from whom
they sought plentiful crops and continued

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

prosperity. The Toltec religion ascribed a
soul to the elements of nature, believing that
spirits of the gods governed fertility and the
heavenly constellations whose forces fur-
nished them with all the elements of life.
These spirits lurked in clouds, rainbows, sun-
sets, and winds. Later Indians worshiped a
vast pantheon of gods, principal among
which were the Sun God; his consort, the
Moon Goddess; the Rain God, Tlaloc; his con-
sort, the Water Goddess; the War God; and
Quetzalcoatl, god of air, life, sky, and earth,
who controlled the wonder of creation. Propi-
tiation of the gods was by prayer, rituals, sac-
rifices, participation in fiestas, ballad-singing,
art, and folkloric dancing, for the Indian be-
lieves that aesthetic expression helps his iden-
tification with the spirit world. He willingly
trudges miles to special religious rituals and
festivals; the roads to shrines are filled with
Indians, some walking and some riding bur-
ros or leading them with heavy burdens.
Others drive goats and turkeys on the road
while bearing large bundles on their heads.
Women carry babes on their backs while
holding the hand of a toddler. Priests arranged
dates of rituals and fiestas on the same days
as the market dates (tiaquiz) in order to
combine pilgrimages and permit the atten-
dance of the entire family.

The name Toltec is derived from the tribe's
great capital city, Tollan, and the nation en-
joyed three hundred years of supremacy and
continued prosperity in its vast domain. But
before the Toltec nation crumbled under the
onslaught of barbaric foes, it left a vast
legacy of massive construction, the temple
city of Teotihuacan. Altars and idols have not
yet been fully restored at the pyramid tem-
ple there, but visitors can climb the Pyramid
of the Sun— which has been completely exca-
vated—and view a far-reaching countryside
and mountain terrain comprising Toltec do-
mains, to which the tribe became heirs after
conquering the Teotihuacans. The Toltecs
wisely built upon what they found there

The Art of Building

and enhanced the "Place of the Gods" by
erecting a huge square pyramid, its excava-
tion being near the town of San Juan Teo-
tihuacan. The historic reHgious center, or
"Habitatation of the Gods," was later aban-
doned and suffered neglect and ruin before
the Aztec conquest of the Valley. Teotihua-
can's slow decline began after the great
drought of A.D. 890, when the center was
little used. By around a.d. 1100 it was a de-
serted ghost city called "Place of the Dead."

Although the old Toltec "builder-peo-
ple" were subordinated when Aztec control
brought a strong warrior class into prom-
inence, some codex records tell that a few
Aztec emperors continued to make pilgrim-
ages to Teotihuacan for rituals up until the
Conquest. Moctezuma II was a follower of
the Toltec faith and the Aztecs are credited
with efforts to preserve the ancient religious
heritage. Teotihuacan's three largest units
comprised the Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyra-
mid of the Moon, the Temple of Quetzalcoatl,
and a lesser group included the Temple of
Agriculture with its plaza and array of tall
columns. The Pyramid of the Sun has five
terraces; a monumental stairway leads to the
summit sanctuary. This vast construction was
erected to express the Indian's yearning to
honor the Sun God with a majestic shrine.
Though the Pyramid of the Moon and the
Temple of Agriculture were much smaller,
they also were settings for symbolic pageant-
ry and elaborate ceremonials.

Teotihuacan's niins are today a huge mass
of bleak gray stones, rising somber and tall,
but the visitor can visualize processions of
priests in ornate cult paraphernalia, and col-
orful assemblages, mounting the pyramid
steps to the temple top all sparkling in the
sun. The temple complex also contained sev-
eral three-storied palaces used by priests
representing various fertility cults. Though
now in niins, some recovered parts of walls
contain painted relics of what were once an-
cient murals. Priests of the Classic Period

were students of astronomy and their pre-
served records enumerate the calendrical rit-
uals honoring gods who governed the seasons,
sun, and soil. All religious-agrarian obser-
vances were strictly kept by priests, who, as
representatives of the gods, received absolute
obedience. The priests were also closely
linked with artists and architects and it was
their duty to promote preservation of art
traditions.

Now a treasured archaeological zone, Teo-
tihuacan was originally intended for a sacred
city to which pilgrimages could be made
from distant parts of Mesoamerica. It was
first constructed by an unknown race during
the Archaic Period, the date being mere
conjecture since Teotihuacan's origin is buried
in mystery. Though it is known to have been
used constantly as a shrine between 200 b.c.
and A.D. 900, the entire center was laid out
on three square miles containing five pyra-
mid temples. The temples were a half-mile
apart and each had its own platform. The
largest construction, the Temple of the Sun,
rose to a height of 216 feet. All construction
was of volcanic stone blocks placed in pyra-
midal form. Restoration of other parts of the
complex, erected in honor of various gods
and heavenly planets, is progressing and has
in some instances been completed. The pres-
ent accomplishment, however, represents
the greatest single Mexican archaeological
achievement of our time.

During the Toltec regime, the Teotihuacan
center included the majestic spectacle of the
entire Valley, having a population of ap-
proximately 100,000. Located on a site thirty
miles northeast of the present capital, its
vast size dwarfs, by comparison, all else in
Mexico, and is today both majestic and im-
pressive, gracing an area where mountain
vistas show two great volcanoes to the
south, Ixtaccihuatl and Popocatepetl, whose
snowy peaks reach the clouds (Plate 13.
Pyramid of the Sun ) .

This massive structure is greater in size

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

than any other pyramid, differing in shape
from the Cheops Pyramid of Egypt which
rises tall and smooth to a sharp point and
was built for a tomb, whereas Mexican pyra-

^.^mmJ

PLATE 13. Teotihuacdn: Pyramid of the Sun (2
views). Courtesy Conrad White, Granville, Ohio

mids were intended for temples of worship.
The architectural zone of Teotihuacan con-
tains many valued relics, including sculpture,
stone sarcophagi, stone implements, and clay
death-masks, all proving that Toltec crafts-
men excelled in varied art fields. Among
excavated relics of Toltec ceramic art are
rare cylindrical vases with three feet and
fitted lids, the handles being designed
in the form of birds. Practical resourceful-
ness of the Toltecs is noted in their invention
of Tamscal steam baths, created by running
water over heated stones; these baths served

as models for the Aztecs, who improved them
as they did the Toltec Codex records. Pub-
lic markets for buying and selling were intro-
duced by the Toltecs, who began the custom
of Mexican tiaquiz which persists throughout
Mesoamerica (Plate 14. A Typical Market
Scene). The Toltecs' greatest legacy is their
remarkable architecture, notable through the
ages for its massive strength. Toltec construc-
tion continued as a major influence for thou-
sands of years after the nation had com-
pletely fallen apart.

PLATE 14. Typical market day scene. Tiaquiz.
Arts of Mexico. Courtesy Mexican Arts Publica-
tions

About a mile from the Pyramid of the Sun
stood a vast rectangular enclosure containing
the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, dedicated to the
God of Air and Life and in Toltec days used
chiefly for agrarian rituals. This section of

The Art of Building

PLATE 15. Plumed Scrf)e7U. Caivcu ^a i'yramid.
Teotihuacan. Stone carving. Courtesy Anita Bren-
ner and Bank of Mexico Tourist Service, Mexico
City

the large complex also contained smaller
pyramids, which tradition tells were dedi-
cated to the stars— the Indians' symbol of
eternity. The Temple of Quetzalcoatl was
profusely decorated with gargoyle-like, bar-
baric, stone heads symbolic of the Rain God,
Tlaloc, with numerous sculptures honoring
the plumed or feathered serpent— Quetzal-
coatl's symbol (Plate 15. Plumed Serpent).
These cryptic carvings on each tier of the
temple are now in a fair state of preserva-
tion. Grotesque stylized heads, repeated in
high relief on tier after tier of masonry, show
serpent heads wreathed in quetzal plumes
to represent the god's symbol; these are be-
lieved to have been carved by the Toltecs.

(Plate 16. Serpent Heads). Other carvings,
in linear style, are of clouds, raindrops, sea-
shells, skulls, tigers, astral signs, and dot-bar
numerals, believed to be among the oldest
architectural low-relief carvings in central
Mexico.

Toltec decline was brought about by in-
ternal turmoil when religious-civic strife
raged among numerous tribes. After the Tol-
tecs assumed the peaceful religion of Quet-
zalcoatl, which had been practiced by some
of their conquered people, many of the na-
tion's tribes would not subscribe to it and
they continued to worship the God of War,
the chief deity of their barbaric past, who
demanded continual warfare of his followers.
Quetzalcoatl always appeared to his wor-
shipers as a bearded old man with white
skin, wearing a flowing white robe, and he
is so rendered by Orozco in his famous mural
(Plate 17. Quetzalcoatl, God of Peace. Mural
detail representing the Toltec legend). The
Toltecs further believed that their ruler, who
was both king and priest (a.d. 925-947), was
a reincarnation of this god, who required his
people to live in peace and forbade human
sacrifices, asking his worshipers to present
him with fruits and flowers only. Quetzal-
co'atl's symbol, the feathered or plumed ser-
pent, was derived from quetzalli, a bird of
beautiful plumage, and coatl, a serpent.

When drastic civil war developed, the king
fled his palace at ToUan (a.d. 927), which
he burned after secretly burying the national
treasure. He took refuge among the Olmecs,
but proijiptly sailed away in a small craft
upon open seas and was probably lost, though
he had promised to return with the invin-
cible aid of Quetzalcoatl to avenge the de-
struction of his kingdom by the disloyal
Toltec tribes. In spite of severe civil-religious
conflict within the Toltec nation, it survived,
though in a weakened condition, for another
two hundred years, when, in a.d. 1168 it
was destroyed by a northern tribe of barbaric
Chichimecs. After total dissolution of the

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 16. Temple of Quetzalcoatl. Stone carvings
of the Plumed ( or Feathered ) Serpent at Teoti-
huacan. Courtesy Mexican Government Tourism
Department

Toltec nation, the entire Valley was in utter
chaos and the tribes fought each other un-
der sponsorship of different gods. After Tol-
lan was razed, many Toltecs fled, although
some remained in the Valley, some settled at
Oaxaca and Puebla, and others migrated to
Yucatan. Though the Chichimec people
never fully established their own empire,
they controlled much of the Valley for hun-
dreds of years, their kings being loyal to
tribal authority. The small, present-day vil-
lage of Tenayuca, eight miles northwest of

Mexico City, was once an important Chichi-
mec center; it contains some excavated re-
mains of great archaeological interest.

During a later period of severe unrest (c.
A.D. 1300) a strong, art-gifted people known
as Mixtec-Puebla, descendants of an old cere-
monial civilization in the Valley, occupied
Teotihuacan, establishing themselves there
as artists and teachers of art skills while liv-
ing peacefully. These Mixtec-Puebla people
continued there until the Aztecs conquered
the whole area, although during the interval

The Art of Building

prior to the Conquest they succeeded in fos-
tering a Golden Age of Peace, enjoyed by
many tribes including Olmecs, Zapotecs, To-
tonacs, Mixtecs, and Puebla peoples. It was
through their united efforts that the ancient
center at Monte Alban realized renewed im-
portance and was again occupied. At this
time religion and peace were symbolically
interpreted in art, and though Aztec ascen-
dancy brought military emphasis, art skills
and knowledge were strongly stressed. These
redevelopments of ancient Mesoamerican cen-
ters filled a need of the people.

The fine art of fresco painting in the Valley
of Anahuac had been strongly linked with
religion during the Toltec phase at Teotihua-
can, as is shown in murals discovered there

and on walls of temples crowning pyramids
at Cholula, and in tombs at Monte Alban.
Much pre-Hispanic mural art found in Zapo-
tec and Toltec cities consisted of geometric
interlaced designs featuring religious symbol-
ism, though paintings found at Teotihuacan
emphasized agrarian calendar rituals. Poly-
chrome renderings of butterflies and greatly
enlarged insect heads were painted on wall
panels of Cholula's pyramid. These are simi-
lar to recently discovered paintings in the
Palace of Butterflies now on exhibit at the
museum maintained on the site of the Pyra-
mid at Teotihuacan. It is believed that these
naturalistic works were painted in the third
or fourth centuries of the Christian era. Ren-
derings of gods, goddesses, and priests elab-

PLATE 17. Quetzalcoatl, God of Peace. From Tol-
tec legend. (Fresco detail) by Jose Clemente
Orozco at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New
Hampshire. Reproduced by permission of the
Trustees of Dartmouth College

orately arrayed in cult costumes have been
discovered in large tombs at Monte Alban.
Other interesting pre-Hispanic murals show
jaguars and coyotes found on palace walls
in apartments occupied by Toltec nobles.
Paintings of the period after a.d. 1000 and
found on altars at Tizatlan, near Tlaxcala,
show figures of gods and goddesses similar to
Mixtec polychrome works found near Oaxaca
and Puebla.

The famous pre-Hispanic city of Cholula
is located in a lovely Valley dominated by
beautiful Mount Orizaba, and lies eight miles
west of Puebla. Because Cholula possessed
many ancient burial mounds marking shrines,
it early became a religious center and pil-
grimage site. In A.D. 688 Cholula was the
Mixtec capital and it remained so until the
Conquest. Only a few ancient remains now
exist in Cholula because a new city was built
there and Christian churches were built on
shrine sites, causing Cholula to be called
"the Rome of Mexico." In pre-Hispanic times
Cholula had been the important religious
and urban center of the entire Valley of
Puebla, and its large teocalli, built to honor
Quetzalcoatl, soared to majestic height over
the plateau. Though much smaller, this teo-
calli resembled in grandeur Teotihuacan's
great pyramid, and was one of the finest
early-period stmctures in Mexico. The main
pyramid at Cholula was excavated in 1931,
when five different types of construction were
discovered there. Each period is differen-
tiated by a pyramidal adobe stnicture of dif-
ferent size, incorporated in a pyramid of the
preceding epoch. Today's visitors who view
the interior are accompanied by a govern-
ment guide, who carries a lantern to permit
seeing the ancient stages of construction

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

while on a tour of inspection winding
through a mile of tunnels cut into the pyra-
mid's adobe bricks.

Today the site is crowned by a handsome
Christian church built by Spanish Colonials
as replacement for the Indian teocalli they
destroyed. The church has an impressive
green tile dome and interior walls of native
marble and onyx combined with ornamenta-
tion of gold leaf in Spanish-Colonial style.
The ancient and unique city of Cholula is
remembered as the historic site where Cor-
tes's army encamped beside the old teocalli,
and where he received warning of a native
plot against the Spanish. When the mes-
sage was brought him by an Indian inter-
pretor, Cortes ordered the killing of hundreds
of natives assembled for prayer in the teo-
calli. After the massacre, Cholula was burned.
Bernal Diaz del Castillo, the Spanish soldier-
historian who marched with Cortes's army,
wrote an eyewitness report of these events,
including the burning of Cholula.

Later, when the Spanish Conquistadores
had forced their way into Aztec territory and
were approaching the capital, the Indians
recalled with anguish their neglect in Toltec
days of the god Quetzalcoatl. They were con-
vinced that the god had sent the white-
skinned men to destroy them, and, because
they were terror-stricken in the belief that
the Spanish were reincarnations of Quetzal-
coatl, their resistance was paralyzed. During
the struggle between the Aztecs and Cortes's
army in 1519, the Emperor Moctezuma sent
a Mask of Quetzalcoatl to Cortes. This Aztec
mask, a work done in Guerrero, was made
of stone combined with a mosaic of turquoise
and coral, with eyes of shell and obsidian.

3
MONTE ALBAN

Monte AlMn, an archaeological site built in
the Classical Period, consisted of an amazing
ceremonial center located high on a bleak
mountain six miles west of the modem city
of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. The center
covered an area of twenty-five square miles,
and rose 1500 feet over the plain. Ancient
Indians selected this spectacular site for the
home of their gods because they considered
it a worthy location for communion with
the nature forces they worshiped. Monte Al-
ban was a temple city before Teotihuacan
was built, and is believed to have had a popu-
lation of over one hundred thousand. The
origin of Monte Alban is vague but some
archaeologists of the University of Mexico
believe that it was at one time controlled
by the Oknecs though largely built by the
Zapotecs. Active from about 1000 b.c.-a.d.
1522, it was the only ceremonial center con-
tinuously used until the Conquest. Originally
built by an unknown people, it was com-
pletely destroyed before the Toltecs con-
trolled the Valley. Relics of Monte Alban's
hieroglyphics, calendar, and astronomical
studies indicate that its original inhabitants
and builders were of an advanced culture
and superior to other Mexican people. After
Zapotec leadership at the Mount ended, a
tribe known as the Mixteca, which lived in

the Oaxaca area, took over control of the
ancient center. They were a religious and
art-conscious people and their period was
one of peace. Pilgrimages were made on foot
to shrines and often meant travehng for miles
(Plate 18. Mexican Woman Enroute to a
Shrine). When the Aztecs took over the en-
tire area, the Mount had been used consecu-
tively as a rehgious center for over a thou-
sand years. The Mixtecs were not hindered
by the Aztecs, who allowed them to continue
in their art-loving way of hfe because of
appreciation of their art accomphshments.

Monte Alban's vast ceremonial center con-
tained a crowning rectangidar plaza 3,300
feet long and 850 feet wide, with an altar
of sacrifice which was reached by four stair-
ways (Plate 19. Monte Alban's Excavations) .
Stone was used to construct solid rock masses
through which passageways were cut, honey-
combing the entire Mount with timnels of
elaborate masonry. The ancient Zapotec
builders were expert stone masons and res-
toration gives proof of their skillful and
original engineering projects ( Plate 20. Monte
Albdn. Passageway).

The great center contained a ball-court
intended for the game called tlachtli, and
there was a large grandstand for spectators.
This was the first athletic-field construction

PLATE 18. Mexican wonmn enroute to shrine
worship. (Tepepulco, Caja Del Agua) Courtesy
Art of Mexico

PLATE 19. Excavatiom. Monte Albdn. (2 views).
Courtesy Conrad White

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 20. Passageway, room interior. Monte Al-
ban. ( 2 views ) . Courtesy Conrad White

in the Americas. Also included were palatial
apartments for the king, nobles, and priests,
whose tomb locations extended on high abut-
ments, while lesser tombs were built on the
Mount's lower spurs (Plate 21. Tomb. Monte
Albdn). Though only a few structures of the
vast Monte Alban complex have been exca-
vated and restoration on the larger units of
pyramids and temples has progressed slowly
according to plan, there is ample proof of
the magnificence of its ancient construction
and the great skill with which it was done.

During the center's period of gradual de-
cline (a.d. 900-1420), a series of severe
droughts caused many of the Mount's people
to move to Mitla, an ancient city twenty-six
miles from Oaxaca, and the great site was

then used mainly as a burial place although
some Mixtec inhabitants remained at the
Mount after the Conquest.

The rare art skills of Mixtec people are
attested by excavated relics, which include
stone carvings and bas-reliefs discovered in
tombs. Some of these show astronomical de-
signs of fine workmanship. Among the most
famous relics are some life-size stone relief
carvings, probably part of a temple frieze,
showing nude men in rhythmic motion re-
sembling dancing; all 140 figures, however,
suggest caricatures and they are believed to
portray tribal chiefs and warriors taken pris-
oner in war. These "dancer stones," as they
are called, are considered a mystery of Monte
Alban. Some tombs of Zapotec noblemen and

Monte Alban

priests contained murals, carvings of the Corn
God, urns, gold masks, rare ceramics, and
incense burners (Plate 22. Funeral Vase)
(Plate 23. Two painted vessels of about a.d.
1300).

A landscape mural covering one wall por-
trays the Paradise of Tlaloc, the Rain God;

it shows dancing figures among flowering
trees. Notable finds in tombs were "black
ware" ceramics polished to a high glaze and
regarded as the finest vases in all Meso-
america. Mixtec artist-craftsmen produced
elaborately designed jewelry. The pictured
necklace (Plate 24. Necklace. Mitla) is an

PLATE 21. Tomb. Monte Alban. Courtesy Art of
Mexico

PLATE 22. Funerary urn. Zapotec Culture from
Oaxaca, Monte Alban Tomb 103. Pictorial orna-
ment. Courtesy Mexican Government Tourism
Department

exquisite piece of gold filigree beads which
are flat and carry three tiny bells. The two
disks are ear ornaments, each in the form
of a hummingbird's head holding a pendant
made with three bells. Many examples of
Mixtec jewelry, fine jade carving, and metal-
lurgy show that these artisans were flawless
technicians. The Mixtecs were also expert
in making ceremonial gold masks, for which
they invented a new technique of pressing
gold sheets into molds. Many of these beau-
tiful gold pieces were melted by the Spanish,
who stole them for the precious metal. The
high quality of Mixtec artistry is evident in
a fantastic horde of treasures which were
discovered when Tomb 7 was opened in
1931. It contained a rich collection of jewels.

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

large pearls, and gold breast-plates; alto-
gether the cache weighed over nine pounds
and consisted of quantities of rare treasures
made with great skill. Although 169 other
tombs were opened, none held articles com-
parable in value to those in Tomb 7.

In 1937-38, some brightly colored frescoes
were found in Monte Alban tombs, and in-
cluded there were the skeletons of nine
priests. Although examples of rare Mixtec ar-
ticles found at Monte Alban are widely
scattered throughout museums of the world,
the most comprehensive exhibits are in the
Museum of Natural History in Mexico City,
State Museum of Oaxaca, and the Museum
of Mitla.

Codices intended for use as books were
made of deerskin, stag hides, or maguey
leaves, and folded like a screen. Pictographic
annals were made at Monte Alban, primarily
to preserve information about historic events.
These annals have special art interest be-
cause of their fine drawing, coloring, and
engaging charm, being decorated with col-
ored miniatures and combined with hiero-
glyphics which recorded events year by year.
They often included genealogies of noble
patrons, though many dealt with calendar
rituals, taxes, trade, and property deeds.
Some Mixtec codices found at Monte Alban
contain map drawings, astronomical charts,
and research projects in mathematics. These
records reach farther into antiquity than any
made by other Mesoamerican people. Though
the Spaniards burned many codices, eight
rare Mixtec books were fortunately spared
and they are now among the world's great
historic treasures. A section of the Codex
Borgia, in the Vatican Library, is the finest
Mexican manuscript; painted at Cholula on
deekskin, it measures thirty-four feet long by
ten and five-eighths inches wide and folds
like a screen. It deals with agrarian calendar
rituals and astronomy. Oxford University
Library has the famous Aztec Codex Bar-
bonicus; it enumerates calendar rituals and

PLATE 23. Painted vessels. Cholula area. Cour-
tesy Art of Mexico

PLATE 24. Necklace. Gold filigree. Mitla area.
A.D. 1200-1500 from Oaxaca. Courtesy London
Illustrated News, September 4, 1948

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 25. Palace of Repose. Wall carvings. Mitla
about 14th century. Courtesy Mexican Govern-
ment Tourism Department

historical events and is enhanced by minia-
tures in color. The paintings in codex records
form part of ancient Mexican art; their lovely
miniatures rendered by priest-artists at Monte
Alban display excellent drawing and color.

The Mixtec Art Legacy

It is believed that ancestors of the Mixtec
tribes lived in the Olmec rubber country and
later migrated to the central plateau region
w^here they established a ceremonial culture
at Cholula in the Oaxaca area, finally becom-
ing known as the Mixteca. By around 1350
they moved to Monte Alban because the
Zapotecs had vacated the center. Although
the Mixtecs were later subdued to some ex-

tent by the Aztecs, they continued to exert
a dominant cultural influence on all Meso-
american life, largely because of their art
skills, which were highly diversified to in-
clude painting, sculpture, ceramics, gold-
smithing, and mosaic work.

A famous architectural relic is the remains
of a temple complex at Mitla, twenty-five
miles south of the Mount. Originally it was
part of a group of five buildings erected be-
side the usually dry Mitla River. Mitla is
believed to have once been a Zapotec center,
previously used by the Toltecs and before
them by the Olmecs. Today the ancient ruins
are knovvoi as "Mitla Ruins," "Place of Eternal
Rest," and "City of the Dead." Tribal ances-
tors of the Zapotecs had lived peaceably as

Monte AlbJn

Sun Worshipers, and it is believed that they
may have built the temple group. The cen-
ter's plaza and flat-roofed palace have re-
cently been restored, and are now regarded
as treasures of Mexican archaeology. Wall
carvings of intricate stone designs cut in geo-
metric shapes called rilieves are fitted with-
out mortar (Plate 25. Palace of Repose. Wall
Carvings). This architectual mosaic work is
the finest in Mexico and resembles a textile
pattern although the unit forms are some-
what similar to a Greek fret. The remains of
this ancient palace-temple's walls of about
the fourteenth century are covered inside and
out with stone mosaic work (Plate 26. Stone
columns. Hall of Monoliths. Palace of Re-
pose ) .

Monolithic stone columns, twenty feet high,
served as dividers for halls of the ancient
Palace of Repose, and were intended to sus-
tain the palace roof, which is believed to
have been the largest roofed room at that
time in all Mesoamerica. These tall columns
are characteristic of Mexican architectural
solidity of structure. The excavation and
restoration of the six pillars are impressive
achievements, especially important because
the mosaic decorations on them have been
carefully restored to their original appear-
ance in ancient times.

Although ancient mosaics have usually
been removed from their original location
for display in museums, Mitla's remain in
their original architectural setting. The his-

PLATE 26. Palace of Repose. Columns. Mitla.
Courtesy Mexican Government Tourism Depart-
ment

toric palace, with its superb proportion and
beauty, today stands roofless, but presided
over by six strong pillars, which, as remnants
of the Temple of Repose, are silhouetted
against the Mexican sky hke ghosts of a past
civilization.

4
THE AZTECS

when the Aztecs conquered the Toltec
stronghold in the Valley of Anahuac they
left a powerful impress on history and the
art of Mesoamerica. Believing it their duty
to support Toltec traditions, they used Toltec
architecture as models for construction and
readily rebuilt the old empire by conquest
of tribes until all central Mexico became their
vast domain. Aztec force and vigor overcame
difficulties, and their rise as supreme rulers
of the vast Sun Kingdom came about in a
comparatively short time.

Barely four hundred years after the Aztec's
humble tribal beginnings in near barbarism,
the Tenocha-Aztecs, a migrant tribe from
the Chichimec area, built their impressive
capital city of Tenochtitlan in the lovely Val-
ley of Anahuac. In honor of their tribal god
of war, Mexicali, they named their country
Mexico, adding the suffix "co" which signi-
fies "place." Today, over a million and a half
"Nahuatar'-speaking people are direct de-
scendants of the founders of Tenochtitlan's
vast temple-pyramids and palaces.

The Tenocha-Aztec tribe made its first
settlement where an eagle was perched on a
"tenoch" while devouring a serpent held in
its beak. This symbol was adopted by the tribe
and has persisted through the years; when
in 1821 national independence was won by
Mexico, it was made the national insignia

and now is incorporated in the seal of state
(Plate 27. Eagle and Serpent. Fresco detail
from History of Mexico by Diego Rivera).

PLATE 27. The eagle and serpent. Fresco detail.
By Diego Rivera. From History of Mexico, Na-
tional Palace, Mexico City. Courtesy Mexican
Government Tourism Department and Bank of
Mexico Tourism Service

"Tenoch" was then added to the tribal name,
which became "Tenocha-Aztec"; the capital

The Aztecs

city, also so named, was destined to become
the home of the powerful Aztec tribe, but
following the Conquest the capital's name
was changed to Mexico City.

Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a writer, soldier,
and comrade of Cortes, describes how the
Spanish Conquistadores looked down from
a high mountain pass, and, seeing Tenoch-
titlan far below, marveled at its bright,
stucco-coated palaces, temples, and swim-
ming pools surrounded by fruit trees. The im-
pressive vista, revealing the Aztec wealth, in-
cluded inventions such as removable bridges,
aqueducts, and floating gardens. Many houses
of adobe, sundried brick, were brightly
painted and roofs were tiled. The usual Mexi-
can home ( Plate 28. Mexican Home with In-
terior Court and Patio) was coated on the
exterior with a soft blend of rose-pink stucco.
When Cortes became fully aware of all this

PLATE 28. Mexican home. Interior court, patio.
Courtesy Mexican Government Tourism Depart-
ment

Aztec splendor, he vowed to capture Tenoch-
titlan in the name of Charles V, Emperor
of Spain, and then to demoHsh it and the
entire Sun Kingdom, for he believed it his
mission to Christianize the New World;
hence his entourage always included several
missionary priests.

The rapid rise of the humble Tenocha-
Aztec tribe resulted in its conquering all
people of the Valley. Their first settlement
(a.d. 1400) was beside a lake on a high site
in the beautiful forest of Chapultepec, which
in Aztec means grasshopper hill. This lovely
section is now a park and houses the famed
Museum of Archaeology, History and Art.
Following the Conquest, a Spanish city called
Mexico City was built on the razed Aztec
capital, centering around a plaza— once the
heart of the old city— known as the Zocalo,
a point at which ten streets converged. In
Aztec days it was the sacred area of Tenoch-
titlan, for it contained the great teocalli
honoring the gods. Mexico City's magnificent
cathedral, built on the site where the pagan
pyramid-temple had stood, now dominates
the Zocalo. Ironically, it was built with the
stones of the demolished Aztec temple. A
fine present-day market stands on the Zocalo's
southeast corner, in an area where Aztec
games used to be played and where Spanish
bull-fights were later held.

Cortes marveled at the tiaquiz where fine
animal pelts, fabulous jewels, and gold and
silver were sold and traded. Today the Zo-
calo is an impressive area covering 500 by
620 feet, surrounded by handsome buildings
including the great Municipal Palace, the
walls of which are decorated with Orozco's
frescoes depicting Mexican history. Like an-
cient Tenochtitlan, Mexico City is famed as
a city filled with beautiful flowers; the Zo-
calo's flower booths have colorful displays
at all times of the year and hours of the
day (Plate 29. The flower market. Fresco de-
tail by Diego Rivera). Xochimilico, a section
reminiscent of Aztec days, is known as the

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 29. The Flower Market. Fresco Detail. By
Diego Rivera. Court of Labor, Ministry of Edu-
cation, Mexico City. Courtesy Mexican Govern-
ment Tourism Department

The Aztecs

PLATE 30. Codex. Porfirio Diaz. Detail National
Museum of History, Mexico City. Mexican
Government Tourism Department

"place of flowers." Flat-bottomed boats like
those of the Aztecs today ply canal waters
through a network of islands and floating
gardens while native arts and handicrafts are
offered for sale by Indians just as in Aztec
days.

The Aztec council conferred absolute power
over the Sun Kingdom on its emporer, who
assumed semi-divinity. During the reigns of
eight emperors, covering 120 years, the na-
tion prospered and vast tribute money poured
into the treasury. Matters of military policy
were decided by the emperor and his chiefs,
but the priests, who interpreted the will of
the gods, called up sacrificial victims from
tribal villages. Although warfare had brought
the Sun Kingdom its vast tribal dominions.

the state was dominated by the mystic power
of gods represented by priests who served
as Aztec overlords.

Priest-artists made pictographic records
and painted miniatures on manuscripts and
codices, which became an important Aztec
art. The first writing by the primitives was
picture writing or hieroglyphics, which re-
produced objects, animals, or persons in a
pictographic stylized or symbolic form. The
bright colors on some codices were obtained
from flower petals, vegetables, and pulver-
ized minerals (Plate 30. Codex Porfirio Diaz.
On maguey paper, fifteenth century). The
famous Codex Florentine. The Ofrenda (Plate
31.) shows in this illustration an offering
given the dead, usually on special saints'

days. The Florentine codex was a translation
by priests from the Nahuatl tongue into Span-
ish. Cortes sent several codices to Spain,

PLATE 31. Codex Florentina. "The Ofrenda." Na-
tional Museum of History, Mexico City. Courtesy
Mexican Government Tourism Department

vs^here they were first regarded as curiosities
of New World art, later to become treasured
relics of museums and libraries. Antonio de
Mendoza, the first viceroy to Mexico, ordered
the making of a rare codex (known as The
Mendoza) which was purchased in 1831 by
the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.
Many pictographic records have listings in
ink of tribal taxes; sketches show bales of
cotton, embroidered garments, feather mo-
saics, gold dust, jade beads, and bird feathers,
which were all items used in Aztec trading.
Also translated by priests are "Songs of the
Gods," which declared them to be "possessors
of the earth and all it contains." Cortes was
guided by maps and codices given him by
Emperor Moctezuma for his trip to Honduros,
and after the Conquest, accurate drawings
of waterways and canals throughout Tenoch-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

titlan were discovered in the emperor's
palace. The Spanish found Indian glyphs in-
comprehensible and burned many in the
Texoco public market, believing them a hin-
drance to the spreading of Christianity among
the Indians. Later, attempts were made to
locate some codices which had escaped burn-
ing and the first bishop of Mexico made ef-
forts to retrieve the sixty-three which had
been hidden.

Among fifteenth-century relics of Aztec
sculpture is a well-preserved block-like, stiffly
robed figure (Plate 32. The Corn God). The
feet serve merely as stands to support the
sturdy figure; the face has large, almond-
shaped eyes; a heavy ceremonial headdress
surmounts all. Worship of the god was vital.

PLATE 32. The Corn God. Stone Sculpture. Aztec.
National Museum of History, Mexico City. Cour-
tesy Mexican Government Tourism Department

The Aztecs

PLATE 33. Coatlicue, Mother of Aztec Gods, God-
dess of Earth, Life, Death. 8' statue from Te-
nochtitlan, 1519. National Museum Anthropol-
ogy, Mexico City. Courtesy Mexican Government
Tourism Department

for this deity provided food for tortillas. Aztec
sculptors and artists were not especially in-
terested in imitating nature; rather, they
transformed what they saw and knew to
create an individual expression (Plate 33.
Coatlicue ) . Coatlicue was revered by the Az-
tecs as "Mother of the Gods," also as Goddess
of Earth, Life, and Death. The free-standing
statue of her, from Tenochtitlan, is eight feet
high. Her skirt is made of carved snakes.

Aztec worship of their God of War re-
quired that human sacrifices constantly be
made. During Moctezuma II's reign (1503-
20) tension mounted when astrologer-priests
reported the skies filled with ominous signs
demanding double the calls for human sacri-
fices to propitiate the god. Later, when white-
skinned, bearded men landed at Vera Cruz
with eleven ships, sixteen horses, dogs, and
cannon— all of which were unknown to the
Aztecs— the nation was engulfed in fear. It
was then that priests confirmed the appre-
hension, saying that the god Quetzalc&atl had
sent these emissaries to destroy the Sun King-
dom. History records how the Spanish in-
vasion quickly proceeded. On Cortes's arrival
at Tenochtitlan he was graciously received
by the emperor, but conquest came within
two years; it brought death to Moctezuma
and his successor, Cuautemoc, and the com-
plete subjugation of all Mexico (1521). This
last Aztec emperor had proved his ability
as a great military leader of his people and,
when finally captured, he was tortured in
the hope that he would tell where Aztec
treasure was hidden. This he refused to di-
vulge and he was murdered. Cuautemoc is
greatly revered for bravery and service to his
people, and an important statue of him has
the place of honor on the Pasco de la Re-
forma. Designed by two Indian sculptors,
Miguel Norena and Gabriel Guerra, it is
rated among the finest statues in the capital.

Several reasons are advanced for Cortes's
amazingly easy conquest of Mexico. These
include Aztec injustice to conquered tribes;

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

failure peaceably to absorb villages taken in
sudden attack; inequality in caUing sacrificial
victims; lack of loyalty throughout the Sun
Kingdom, even among nominally Aztec tribes.
Another cause of disunity came from the Az-
tec rigid caste system which divided the
population. The lowest group (peons), com-
prising the bulk of the population, worked
without pay on noblemen's estates, which re-
sulted in bitter resentment. This group's dis-
unity infected Mexican life for 300 years,
until a bloody revolution brought a proclama-
tion of equality. From this social ferment, a
new art developed to champion freedom for
all. The Mexican Renaissance had begun.

In the holocaust following the Conquest,
all Aztec architecture was destroyed. In con-
quering the Sun Kingdom, the Spanish aimed
to obliterate Indian culture completely; Az-
tec monuments perished with finality, How-
ever, in Tenayuca, a small present-day village
eight miles northwest of Mexico City, an an-
cient pyramid-temple, similar to the large
one at Tenochtitlan, has been excavated and
restored. It features the same sloping sides,
upper platform, and stepped terraces topped
by twin temples and reached by stairways.
Great stone carvings of open-fanged serpents,
resembhng those of Tenochtitlan's great pyra-
mid-temple, serve as the principal decoration.

Aztec sculpture was the nation's supreme
contribution to art. Some statues were carved
"in the round," permitting their being viewed
equally well from all directions. Aztec sculp-
ture appeals to the modern eye because of its
simplified volume, plastic beauty, and ex-
pressive power. Aztec sculptors were su-
premely capable of accomplishing realistic
renditions of high quality, as is proved by
two outstanding examples in the British Mu-
seum. A carving in translucent (juartz of a
rabbit and another of a skull in rock-crystal
are fine examples of realistic carving. Aztec
sculptors worked with complete freedom
from formal art rules or conventions, their
art being expressive of individual creative-

The Aztecs

ness. They enjoyed carving as an engaging
activity, and there are quantities of both
large and small stone renderings which are
the work of humble artisans whose sheer de-
light in the doing of their art dictated its
expression (Plate 34. Carved Boulder).

Pretentious religious sculpture intended
for Aztec temple decoration featured formal

PLATE 34. Carved Boulder. Aztec. Showing a face
in jaws of a feathered serpent. Courtesy Chicago
Natural History Museum

symbolic interpretations, such as s"erpent
heads and writhing water snakes. Statues of
the Goddess of Water, patroness of aque-
ducts, show her with her head entwined in
serpents, her skirt consisting of snakes
massed together. Such Aztec sculpture was
intended to inspire awe and fear by its grim,
austere style. However, some sculptures for
public structures were works of restraint,
such as the caryatides using human forms
incorporated with architectural columns,
which were intended for functional needs.
Terraces on teocalli were enhanced with re-

lief carvings of water-snakes and some of
the friezes had simplified designs. These
were made during Tenochtitlan's last and
greatest building phase, probably by talented
Mixtec-Puebla sculptors then working at the
capital.

The famous Aztec Calendar Stone (Plate
35. Calendar Stone) used in the temple for
sacrificial offerings was carved about 1480
from a piece of porphry. This round stone
is twelve feet high and weighs 24 tons. A
greatly revered relic, it is engraved with
cryptic cylindrical designs and bordered
with carved bands of jade and turquoise
containing elaborate symbols. Centered on
the disk is the face of Tenariuh, the Sun God,
surrounded by astrological symbols of the
cycles of creation. Though the Calendar
Stone was lost for a long time, it was found
in 1790 when paving was being done in the
Zocalo. It is now on exhibit in the Museum
of Anthropology, History and Art in Chapul-
tepec Park.

Another historic Aztec relic, the Stone of
Tizoc (Plate 36. The Stone of Tizoc), is
carved in cylindrical form from volcanic
trachyte. It is eight feet in diameter and its
central disk, carved in low relief, has rows
of Aztec warriors with their captured ene-
mies. The stone's elaborate carvings express
the Aztec belief in sacrificial payment of
blood to the gods and it was used in the
temple as the sacrificial place. King Tizoc
had dedicated his conquests in wars (1481-
86) to the Sun God, and the stone was carved
in commemoration of his achievements. This
great relic was also temporarily lost but in
1792 it was discovered buried beneath the
present location of the National Pawn Shop.
It now is on exhibit in the foyer of the
museum at Chapultepec Park.

An example of Aztec ceramic sculpture is
a statue twelve-and-a-half inches high (Plate
37. Standing Warrior. Ceramic sculpture).
This work becomes alive because of its skill-
ful handling of anatomical form and detail;

THE AZTEC CALENDAR

PLATE 35. Calendar stone. The Aztec Calendar
stone of the Sun, 15th century. From Tenochti-
tlan. In National Museum of Anthropology, Mex-
ico City. Courtesy Mexican Government Tourism
Department

The Aztecs

it represents a typical warrior serving in the
militia, probably a clan member and tax-
paying native. As every tribesman was neces-
sarily a warrior, the statue is a representative
Mexican type. The average Indian's height
is 5'2"; he has a thick-set body, broad head,
and coarse black hair, though he has no hair
on his body or face; his skin is of a warm
brown color.

The Aztecs regarded trading and selling
of importance second only to warfare. Es-
sentially art-minded, the Indians carefully
planned their tiaquiz displays with careful
consideration for color harmonies, for they
never separated utility from beauty. A dis-
tinctive and colorful handicraft of Aztec

feather mosaic was popular, though few, if
any, Mexicans are today continuing this art
and it is considered a lost craft. The Aztec
artist arranged feathers according to size and
color and, after stripping them, left only the
fragile feather tip, for the stems were woven
into the cotton backing and fastened with
glue to the cloth. Because of overlapping,
many feathers were needed to cover a square
inch, necessitating the plucking of hundreds
of rare birds to make elaborate mosaics. The
cloak that Moctezuma gave Cortes, and that
he in turn sent to Emperor Charles V, is
now in the Vienna Museum. Feather mosaics
were worn on Aztec warriors' headgear, were
worn by priests for ceremonial cloaks, and

PLATE 36. Stone of Tizoc. From Tenochtitl4n.
Now in National Museum of Anthropology,
Mexico City. Courtesy Mexican Government
Tourism Department

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

were used as wall-hangings. The mosaicists
were supplied with feathers from birds in
royal aviaries located near their workshops.
Beautiful Aztec feather mosaics are exhibited

PLATE 37. Standing warrior. Ceramic Statue,
A.D. 400-800. Mexico, Jaina Style. Courtesy The
Art Institute of Chicago, Primitive Art purchase
fund and Edward E. Ayer Fund.

at the Museum of History, Mexico City, and
at the Louvre and British Museum. After the
Conquest pure gold threaded embroideries
were sewn by Aztec craftsworkers for cere-
monial vestments and bull-fighters' costumes.
No other Aztec art equaled their fine gold-
smithing, designing, and intricate setting of

rare jewels, which were rendered with great
skill. Exquisite articles were often made in
the form of animals, birds, or flowers. Work-
ing with precious stones, the craftsmen also
fashioned small ornaments in the shape of
ducks, tigers, lions, and monkeys. Perfection
was achieved in a jewel formed like a fish
with alternating gold and silver scales and a
necklace containing emeralds and rubies in
the shape of tiny gold bells. Because emer-
alds were the Aztec's most highly prized pre-
cious stone, Moctezuma presented Cortes
with one of great size cut in pyramidal form.
A rare collection of jewels was sent by Cor-
tes to Emperor Charles V in 1519. They were
praised by craftsmen of Seville and Madrid

PLATE 38. Gold breastplate. Mixtec Culture from
Tomb 7, Monte Alban, Oaxaca. Now in Museum
of Anthropology, Oaxaca. Courtesy Gisele
Freund, Paris

The Aztecs

who "despaired of equaling their perfection,"
and by Albrecht Diirer who wrote in his
Nuremberg Diary: "I have never seen, in all
my life, things that so delight my heart."
Aztec goldsmiths surpassed the artistry of
Benvenuto Cellini, their rare craftsmanship
being a hundred years in advance of work
done by European artisans.

Aztec lapidarists carved extensively in jade
and amethyst, using gold and silver for cere-
monial temple needs and for funeral masks.
Jade was of special value and an item for
tribute payments, and though an extremely
hard stone to carve, Aztec lapidarists accom-
plished the art with skill. Craftsmen im-
proved the techniques for gold embossing,
plating, sheathing, and hammering, details
of which they learned from skilled Mixtec-
Puebla artisans who were working at Te-
nochtitlan (Plate 38. Gold Breastplate.
Mixtec. 15th century).

The Conquest far exceeded a dramatic
seizure of Aztec wealth and land; it was

actually a rape of Mexico, for all was deso-
lated. It was the Spanish aim to win Mexico
for God and king, their determination being
rooted in a zealous religious cause— that of
bringing an end to human sacrifice. The Az-
tec people were ridden with grave doubts,
even to questioning whether the sun would
rise the next day. A complete change, a new
concept, an entirely new idea of social values
was in process of evolving and was destined
to mature after 300 years. The humble Mexi-
can, laden with sorrow, through these years
became the subject of great art when native
artists sought to help bring beneficial changes
into Indian life. Artists used their talents to
build a new national consciousness, though
it was their aim to preserve the primitive art
of the land and people they loved. Modem
Mexican artists present messages from an-
cient history and legend that form a legacy
to benefit the conquered and the conquerors
through the power of native art.

5
THE COLONIAL PERIOD, 1521-1821

The 300-year Colonial Period is divided for
convenience into periods of distinct art
styles:

Primitive (1521-1571) Church building

Renaissance (1521-1600) Reflecting art in-
troduced by imported artists; the influ-
ence of masterpieces sent by the Crown to
churches; foreign art used as models for
copyists

Baroque (1600-1760) Offering native artists
creative growth and opportunity to ex-
press originality. Three developments
within the style are: Baroque (proper);
Plateresque; Chiurigueresque

Neo-Classic (1760-1850) Reaction to simplifi-
cation, bringing restraint and return to
Greek and Roman influence

Conversion of Indian to European Culture;
Church Construction

Although the Sun Kingdom was no more,
its survivors became the ancestors of today's
Indians, representing a unique people who
possess much art ability. The Conquest had
broken the Indian's heart; the Conquista-
dores had taken his land and gold and re-
duced him to slavery. Most Indians were
landless serfs called peons, who labored

without pay on Spanish farms. Though the
Crown's grants of land in Mexico were in-
tended for the Spanish-bom, a few Indian
chieftains and warriors among Aztec, Tlax-
calan, and Texaco tribes were honored with
land grants, titles, and coats-of-arms. This
encouraged intermarriage between certain
Indian families and those of Spanish gran-
dees, which began a creole or crillos class.
Another group, of Spanish and Indian blood-
blend called mestizo, received less favor,
though in later time it became powerful be-
cause its leaders were highly capable and
succeeded in all phases of work, including
the arts. The mestizos remained somewhat
repressed, however, until after the Revolu-
tion of 1910, when they assumed leadership
throughout Mexico.

Class division brought to Mexico a Europe-
an-Medieval concept of government, for when
a strong power developed in the Church dur-
ing the 300-year Colonial period the social
situation in New Spain became increasingly
difficult. A European feudal class concept
brought Mexico a system of land ownership
called hacienda, which, although originally
intended to offer the Indians paternal guard-
ianship, degenerated into a complete subju-
gation of them. Severe abuses took place in
Mexico and these were destined to continue

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

until bloody uprisings and revolution freed
the peons. A hacienda was similar to a large
farm and somewhat like a village, having its
church, store, and places for laborers all
owned by a single Spanish family.

Although the Crown's interest in humble
Indians was kindly, attempts to help them
were blocked by powerful landowners. The
Crown, along with missionary priests, advo-
cated payment to peons for labor and
wanted a law enacted to prohibit slavery,
but these attempts were opposed. Strong
animosity and dissension increased between
Spanish-bom gentry and the creole class,
who were dissatisfied with the restricted
rights they received for they claimed more
favor in consideration of their descent from
the Conquistadores. When a creole wanted a
public oflBce he was ignored or refused, and
this caused severe antagonism between the
two classes even though their efforts were
united to keep the peons in complete servi-
tude. Continued exploitation of peons on
haciendas and in mines included severe
whippings and other terrors which touched
off uprisings (Plate 39. Enslavement of the
Indians. Fresco detail, History of Mexico by
Rivera). Episodes showing hardships of
peons have been painted by Orozco, Siquei-
ros, Goitia, and other Mexican artists of our
time.

Although Spain had been well governed
under strong monarchs and conditions in
Mexico were favorable then, a change came
after the destruction of the Armada in 1588
and the colony was adversely affected. The
value of Mexico's gold and silver decreased
and political turmoil worsened. Creole envy
of wealthy Spanish-bom hacienda owners
caused them to be called gachupines, a deri-
sive nickname meaning centaurs. During in-
creasingly severe times, the Indians turned
for consultation to priests, who brought them
their joy in a new-found religion.

After the Conquest, the Spanish began
vigorously to proselitize all natives, who were

being taught the language and Gospel les-
sons, although many continued secretly to
worship their idols, even hiding them behind
Christian altars. Their new rehgion offered
hope of salvation, and even though Spanish
control was far from desirable, one great ad-
vantage was that human sacrifice had ceased.
A religious conquest began directly after the
destruction of Tenochtitlan, for spreading
Christianity was considered justification for
the capture of Mexico to require conversion
of the Indians. The natives accepted the new
religion, willingly becoming devout believers.
After their rude awakening to a strange
Spanish control of their lives, with nothing of
their former Aztec ways of life remaining,
they turned wholeheartedly to the Church
for solace and devotion. Christianity caused
them to forsake old pagan ideas and they
welcomed belief in one God, Father of all
men; their faith helping them to endure
hardships. Ministrations of the Fathers gave
helpful release, and delight in folkloric art
known as "art of the fields" helped mend the
broken spirit of the Indians.

The Crown gave generous support to re-
ligious work in Mexico and missionary
Fathers aided the peons. Typical of this de-
votion was the service of a Flemish monk,
Peter of Ghent, who labored fifty years
founding schools and teaching art. His school
for Aztec children in the Franciscan center at
Mexico City also housed the first native sem-
inary. A Franciscan historian, Bernardine de
Sahagun (1499-1590), converted thousands;
his Nahuatal-Spanish dictionary, a labor of
twelve years, is still used. He translated Holy
Writ and the catechism, and recorded many
Indian sagas; his writing about the "Brown
Madonna— Our Lady of Guadalupe" helped
bring devotion to this beloved native saint.
Leading Mexican artists have painted works
showing friars helping the Indians, such as
Orozco's famous work Franciscan Father and
the Indian (see chapter 10).

Under the guidance of different Church

PLATE 39. Enslavement of the Indians. Fresco-
detail by Diego Rivera. Palace of Cortes, Cuer-
navaca, Mexico. Courtesy Mexican Government
Department of Tourism

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

Orders, the Indians were taught to use Span-
ish tools, plant fruit trees, develop art skills,
make pottery and do leather tooling. It is
estimated that over a thousand Indian con-
verts were baptized daily during the late
sixteenth century. The Spanish imported
plants, trees, and animals; introduced iron,
steel, wool, the upright loom, pottery-wheel,
glass-blowing, glazing, and fine ceramic
techniques. The Dominicans built a vast
"fortress-monastery" in Mexico City which
contains monk's cells decorated with murals
and wood-carved statues that show the crea-
tive power of priest-artists who taught the
natives art skills. They delighted in garden-
ing, and planted vines, trees, and flowers to
surround the plazas near monastery arcades
where they hung cages for singing birds.

The Jesuits remained in Mexico City to
assist in the Colonial government; Carmel-
ites and Augustinians directed construction
of religious buildings, many being made with
hand-fitted stones, and some church centers
were in process of building for two hundred
and fifty years. The nation was fast being
Christianized. When church bells tolled at
certain hours the Indians would leave their
tasks to kneel and pray; the women, when in-
side church, wore the traditional Spanish
mantilla, a head-covering which was hand-
woven.

The Church of San Francisco, built in
1524 on the site of Moctezuma's palace, was
constructed with stones salvaged from it.
This ancient church contained the first school
where natives were taught Spanish and Holy
Writ; today the church, convent, and chapel
stand as a revered historic landmark in the
midst of Mexico City's business section, and
visitors to the site realize that it breathes an
aura of devoted service. The Church of San
Francisco of Cholula (Plate 40. King's
Chapel. Church of San Francisco, Cholula)
is likewise one of the oldest churches in the
Americas. The ornate bell tower with
twisted columns and the colorful tiled dome

on this church present a blend of Spanish-
Moorish styles, also combining rare lace-like
carvings on high towers and capitals. This
beautiful chapel served for centuries as an

PLATE 40. King's Chapel. Church of San Fran-
cisco. Cholula. Courtesy Anita Brenner and Na-
tional Railways of Mexico

oasis of peace and protection through the
troubled times when governments rose and
fell. In this old religious center four Tlaxcalan
chiefs were baptized into the Faith. Founded
by Franciscan friars in 1552 and located on a
high plateau 116 miles east of Mexico City,
its brightly colored domes give the efiFect of a
Persian garden. Sevillian architects imported
by Cortes worked at Puebla and Cholula, in-
structing Indians in the art of building, intro-
ducing such architectural features as cupolas

and minarets, which reflect the Sevillian-
Mcxjrish styles then popular in Spain. At this
period Puebia and Cholula became famous
for their many beautiful churches. Use of
handsome colored tiles was lavish, these be-
ing made by Puebia natives whom the Span-
ish had taught the intricacies of ceramic art
and tilemaking.

During the Colonial period architecture
was the major art expression. Indian crafts-
men under direction of the Spaniards super-

PLATE 41. Church of San Cristdbal. Puebia, 17th
century. Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

imposed Indian motifs and details on Euro-
pean styles, creating richly complicated
designs. The Church of San Cristobal in

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

Puebia (Plate 41) is a fine work of Colonial
seventeenth century, having a notable fa9ade,
tall towers, and a beautiful dome. One of the
most famous Colonial churches in Mexico
City is the Church of Santo Domingo (Plate
42) built about 1526. Its massive thick walls
of red tezontl were erected three blocks
north of the Zocalo, facing the Plaza de Santo
Domingo. This ancient church is on the
site, in the center of the Aztec city of Tenoch-
titlan, where warriors marched in rhythm
while trumpeting Moctezuma. The Church
of Del Carmen (Plate 43) in Mexico City
has a dome of blue, white, and yellow tiles
and a rarely beautiful fagade. It stands to-
day in one of the poorest quarters of the
city to serve a large parish there. A rare
Colonial construction is the Cathedral of
Durango (Plate 44) which is enhanced by
the architectural beauty of its fountain and
ironwork next to the stone masonry of the
beautiful curved portal.

Throughout the long Colonial period many
monasteries were built in Spanish-Roman-
esque style, combining low, broad solidity
with heavy doors and small, slit-like win-
dows fitted with glass made in Puebia; in-
teriors were decorated with colorful glazed
tiles; roofs were of red clay tiles curved like
half -cylinders. Many of these thick- walled,
fortress-style monasteries also combined some
elements of Gothic and Moorish styles.
Churches had a single nave; ribbed vaulting
supported an arched roof; fagades were en-
hanced with carved statues around the portal
and a rose window above, made of colored
glass from Puebia. The Colonial monasteries
were surrounded by a walled courtyard hav-
ing a spacious patio and arcades adjoining
the plaza, which was furnished with huge
stone water-basins, shade trees, and flower
beds.

These vast religious constructions and their
fine decoration offered the art-conscious In-
dians many interesting approaches to crea-
tive art expression and much use of their

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

PLATE 42. Plaza and Church of Santo Domingo.
Mexico City. About 1690. Courtesy Mexican
Government Department of Tourism

talent was evidenced in carved statues, poly-
chromed reliefs, paintings in oil, and many
frescoes. Native artists of the Colonial period
believed destiny led them to work on the
beautifying of New Spain's churches and
they delighted in expressing their feelings
for the supernatural. Friars encouraged In-
dian artists to carve statues and paint mon-
astery walls, thereby expressing their deep
sensibility of the sufferings of Jesus and the
saints.

The House of Tiles (Plate 45) in Mexico
City was built by a nobieman for his own
residence about 1700, when mansions erected
throughout Mexico showed strong Spanish-
Moorish influence. The fagade has blue and
white tiles arranged geometrically around
balconies enhanced with lavish wrought-iron
work; the interior now houses murals by
Orozco. The House of Tiles is primarily

noted for its abundance of rare ceramic
tiles made in Puebla by expert Indian crafts-
men, and, well located in an exquisite and
interesting setting in the center of the city,
it is now used as a fine restaurant and shop.

The building of the magnificent cathedral
in the Zocalo ( Plate 46. Cathedral of Mexico
City was begun in 1553 and it has been
rebuilt several times during the past 252
years, the most extensive remodeling having
been undertaken in the seventeenth century.
Originally constructed from stones taken
from the demolished Aztec teocalli, it in-
corporates several styles in a formal con-
glomeration, both on the fa9ade and in
the interior. Today the cathedral represents
an elegant and impressive example of neo-
Classic architecture at its best. Beauty and
restraint are seen in the design of two bal-
anced towers surmounted on pillars. Don

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 43. Church of Del Carmen. Mexico City.
Courtesy Mexican Government Department of
Tourism

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

PLATE 44. Cathedral of Durango. Fountain, por-
tal, iron grille. Courtesy Mexican Government
Department of Tourism

Manuel Tolsa, the architect, came to Mexico
from Spain for the commission; his accom-
plishment has received world acclaim. Larg-
est in the Americas, the cathedral's vast in-
terior stirs the beholder's imagination with

Srjm^fcS

PLATE 45. House of Tiles. Mexico City. D.F.
18th century. Courtesy Mexican Government
Department of Tourism

compelling awe and wonder. The adjoining
chapel, by contrast, is an architectural gem
of eighteenth-century Baroque, exemplifying
a light and airy architectural design which
has received the highest praise.

Art; Architecture; Painting; Sculpture;
Native Folk Art "of The Fields";
Fine Art "of City Artists"

For the first fifty years following the Con-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

quest, the Church made a religious conquest
of the Indians by substituting "altars for
idols." Church schools taught the natives an
imitative art, which resulted in the suppres-
sion, to an extent, of their true creative im-
pulses along with their idols. The Indian's
art was belittled by professional artists, who
disregarded it into oblivion. But Indian folk
art "of the fields" continued to exist in scat-
tered locations far removed from art cen-
ters where arbiters of established taste pre-
vailed. Native artists living in rural parts
continued to interpret original concepts, re-
ceiving their inspiration from fantasy and
nature and expressing it in creative ways.
Their religion offered art opportunities which
were kept alive by local popular demand for
wood-carved crucifixes and figures of saints
made from maize paste, and for papier-mache
Judases, some ten feet high, intended for
burning in monastery patios on the Saturday
night of Holy Week. Ceremonials and fiestas
created needs for handiwork by local artists.
Indigenous art persisted in these ways and
it existed in readiness for a revival of Mexi-
can art in the modern movement of our
time.

Folk artists were busy painting popular
works showing miraculous events, such as
cures which were credited to intercession by
devout persons. These works, representing a
miracle of healing and recovery and known
as retables, were made on tin, copper, wood,
or canvas and were presented as a thank of-
fering by a donor to the church. Many Mexi-
can churches have miracle paintings that are
centuries old. The rural retable artist gener-
ally plied his craft in his spare time for he
was otherwise engaged in making pottery,
or was a weaver or a farmer. The retables are
really little stories of religious character as
told in pictures and they always represent
a happening in which severe misfortune was
threatened but averted through the gracious
and opportune intervention of some saint in-
voked by the person in distress. Some retable

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

PLATE 46. Cathedral. Mexico City. D.F. Courtesy
Mexican Government Department of Tourism

canvases represent ill persons in bed while
loved ones fervently pray to invoke all-pow-
erful help for the stricken one, who is prob-
ably in danger of death.

"City artists" expressed their ideas of re-
ligious themes by making paintings of "fine
art" in pretentious altarpieces with elab-
orately carved, gilded, or painted sections
combined with sculpture placed in adjoin-
ing niches. Oftentimes the altarpiece was
flanked with numerous smaller panels around
a large centerpiece.

Many artists were invited to Mexico from
Spain, and on arrival they trained talented
Indian art students at San Carlos Art Acad-
emy to assist them. Miguel Cabrera (1695-
1768), frequently called the leading Mexican

artist of the century, was a Zapotec Indian
from Oaxaca. He was the favorite painter of
the Jesuits and Court artist for the archbishop;
almost every important church in Mexico
possesses a Cabrera canvas. He was a careful
and worthy portrait painter whose work was
characterized by fine draftsmanship, and he
invariably attained his goal of realistic like-
ness to the model. He painted the cupola of
the Cathedral at Mexico City.

The Museum of Colonial Painting in Mexi-
co City is the seventeenth-century Church
of San Diego monastery, which has been re-
stored in keeping with its original architec-
ture, and it contains works of almost three
centuries of Colonial rule. There are works
by Francisco Antonio Vallejo, Baltazar de

Echave Ibia, and Jose and Nicholas Rodriguez
Juarez painted in the manner of the Spanish
artist Murillo in a somewhat derivative man-
ner, though there are some excellent portraits
by Manuel Tols^, who was also a famous
sculptor.

In addition to the strong influence of ar-
tists and architects who came to Mexico to
work and teach, many churches were re-
ceiving rare gifts of art from the Crown.
These included priceless tapestries designed
by Rubens and many marble altarpieces.
Titian's painting The Entombment was sent
to the Church of San Francisco in a small
village near Patzcuaro. An Assumption and
an Altarpiece of Our Lady by Murillo was
received by Guanajuato Cathedral. Mexican
artists began to copy these masterpieces
slavishly, particularly Murillo's works, for
many were in Mexico and this resulted in a
weakly derivative type of productiveness by
Mexico's "city artists." Native art was de-
valued at this time, although when the Span-
ish arrived in Mexico they found art that
astounded them. The pre-Columbian peoples
had erected buildings of great beauty and
fine craftsmanship and their ritual masks,
murals, jewels, pottery, and sculpture were
equally excellent.

Colonial viceroys were liberal art patrons,
commissioning paintings which they gave to
churches and also donating generously for
decoration of their vacation refuge at Tepot-
zotlan, Morelos, twenty-five miles from the
capital. This luxurious villa was used ex-
tensively during the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries, and was restored in 1964
to its original beauty. It is now part of a mu-
seum containing the finest collection of early
Mexican paintings in the Americas. The col-
lection includes many madonnas painted by
native artists who worked in the Flemish-
Renaissance style. These artists were talented
Mestizo painters who successfully imitated
foreign art and their work became known
as that of "city painters," who mainly sup-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

plied religious subjects commissioned by the
higher clergy and other patrons. Because
these artists were recognized leaders of "cor-
rect style," they displaced the artists of the
fields.

The National Museum of the Colonial
period at Tepotzotlan is mainly on the site
of a former Jesuit monastery and seminary,
and it and related stnictures are among the
most beautiful religious complexes of Mexico
after restoration in 1964 when they were in-
corporated as the present museum. One of
the principal buildings is the temple of Saint
Francis Xavier, former seminary of San Mar-
tin, with its adjacent chapels and church,
founded toward the end of the sixteenth
century and executed in the late Baroque
style. The fa9ade of the Monastery at Tepot-
zotlan (Plate 47) contains extremely ornate
but beautiful reliefs and sculptures of saints,
and the interior of the monastery is equally
heavy with adornment and lavish use of gold
leaf, the whole being well preserved and
sparkling. The body of the church is cruci-
form in design and in it are conserved seven
magnificent reredos in Baroque style. One of
the most beautiful is dedicated to the Virgin
of Guadalupe, as painted by Miguel Cabrera
in 1767. The beauty and tranquility of the
orchard and garden surrounding it cause
the Tepotzotlan complex truly to reflect the
Colonial period of Mexico. Its lovely grounds
and courtyards are shaded with protecting
trees and many fine works of sculpture in the
cloisters and paintings inside the church make
Tepotzotlan beautiful in every respect.

An exer-increasing number of Spanish,
French, and Italian architects and artists soon
flocked to the colony, and Mexican art soon
was dominated by them. The Church took
on the role of "Mother of Mexican Architec-
ture" when, in 1526, Cortes offered liberal
pay to Spanish architects if they would come
to Mexico. He also gave funds for construc-
tion of the Cathedral of Cuemavaca and for
his palace, which was begun in 1540. The

Dolls of woven palmetto fiber, dyed.
Typical indigenous craft. Courtesy School Arts
Magazine

Cathedral. Guadalajara. State of
Jalisco. Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

PLATE 47. Fagade: Church of Tepotzotldn. More-
los, 18th century. Courtesy Mexican Government
Department of Tourism

palace has been remodeled many times, yet
the original red lava stone stnicture is in good
condition today. A notable site of historic in-

PLATE 48. Cathedral. Cuernavaca. Bell Tower and
Balcony. Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

terest, the ancient structure has been en-
hanced by Rivera's magnificent murals in the
loggia depicting the history of Mexico. A
Spanish artist, Rodriguez de Cefuentes, made
a series of portraits of early viceroys, which
were formerly hung in the palace, though
these paintings have now been removed to
the National Palace in Mexico City. It is
to be regretted that the Cefuentes portrait
of Cortes was lost.

The bell tower of the Cathedral of Cuer-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

navaca (Plate 48) combines typical Spanish
arches on its balcony and an ornate dome-
crowned tower which is notable for its
slender grace. The Church of San Francisco
in Cuernavaca (Plate 49) has a fine old
dome and a unique architectural shell repre-
sentative of Spanish architecture as inter-
preted in Mexico at its best.

The beautiful Colonial Church of Santa

PLATE 49. Church of San Francisco. Cuernavaca.
Dome and Shell. Courtesy Mexican Government
Department of Tourism

Rosa in the State of Queretaro (Plate 50)
is a famed architectural treasure of Mexico.
Of special interest are the ornate balconies
and bell tower in Queretaro (Plate 51), a

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

PLATE 50. Church of Santa Rosa. Queretaro.
Courtesy Mexican Government Department of
Tourism

PLATE 51. Balconies and bell tower. Queretaro.
Courtesy Mexican Government Department of
Tourism

distinctive example of graceful Colonial carv-
ing presenting Spanish Baroque architecture

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

as seen in edifices of that aristocratic period.

Among structures of Colonial architecture
in Mexico City are The National Pawn Shop
and The Hospital of Jesus of Nazareth, the
oldest hospital in the Americas. Founded by
Cortes, it is on the site where he received
gifts from Moctezuma. Another great Colonial
landmark is the National Palace, at the east
end of the Zocalo; its construction, directed
by Cortes, originally covered a square block.
Rebuilding in 1692 completed the old struc-
ture, though some portions still remain at the
rear of the present Palace. Today's gray
stone structure of three stories covers three
city blocks and houses government ofiRces
and the National Museum where Rivera's
frescoes cover the walls of the great staircase
and central patio with scenes of national
history.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in
Mexico City (Plate 52) was erected on the
site of an apparition of the popular saint
in 1531. The world's largest basiUca, it is on

mSmmmm

PLATE 52. Basilica, Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Mexico City, D.F. Courtesy Mexican Govern-
ment Department of Tourism

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

PLATE 53. Temple de los Remedios. Interior.
Cholula. Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

the Aztec site of the Temple of Tenayzin,
honoring the mother of the gods, Coathcue.
Destruction of the temple by the Spanish
saddened the natives but their grief was later
assuaged by their love for the Virgin Mary,
whom many Indians associated with Sefiora
de Guadalupe. A favorite portrait of their
most beloved saint was painted by Marcos
Cipac in the early sixteenth century. It shows
her standing on a crescent moon and is a
treasure gracing the high altar tabernacle.
Cipac was a student in Mexico's first school
of art, the San Carlos Academy.

The Basilica of Guadalupe is considered
the most important sanctuary of the Amer-
icas. It was built in honor of the Virgin of
Guadalupe who, by popular choice, is the
patroness of Mexico and Latin America. Ac-

cording to legend. Our Lady of Guadalupe
appeared before Juan Diego, a humble native
in 1521. A miracle occurred in an arid spot
that was suddenly transformed with a spring
and rose garden, on the site of the present
basilica. The Virgin is venerated by millions,
who each December 12 congregate at the
shrine to offer thanks to and to beseech her
aid for personal needs. The Basilica now
houses a famed and unique Museum of Re-
ligious Art.

Baroque architecture enjoyed a long popu-
larity in Spain and likewise, after the first
quarter of the seventeenth century, in Mex-
ico, where it was appreciated by both the
Spanish and Indians and was the style for
160 years. During this long period the Ba-
roque evolved through three phases— Baroque

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 54. Ceiling. Church of Santo Domingo.
Oaxaca, 17th-century polychrome rehef. Courtesy
Mexican Government Department of Tourism

Proper, the Plateresque, and the Churrigue-
resque. Typical examples of Baroque Proper
are two seventeenth-century churches in
Mexico City, the Church of Jesus Maria and
the Church of San Lorenzo; another, in Cho-
lula, is the famous Temple de los Remedios
( Plate 53. Temple de los Remedios. Cholula ) .
This notable church has a rarely beautiful
interior of skilled workmanship which com-
bines rare artistry with creative variety. Ba-
roque architecture as here expressed tran-
scends the usual version of this style, for it
has an enlarged concept, one that inspires

awe, though Baroque Proper usually was in-
tended to impress by elegance alone.

Later Baroque adaptations called Plater-
esque (meaning "silver-like") became in-
creasingly ornate and this second phase of
the style used elaborate curves, flowing lines,
and scrolls made freely on plaster ceilings
( Plate 54. Interior, Church of Santo Domingo.
Ceiling Detail. Oaxaca). The third Baroque
phase, known as Churrigueresque, is far more
elaborate. Named for a Spanish architect,
Jose Churriguera, it is characterized by carv-
ings of garlands in wood, plaster, and stone.

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

Gold leaf was applied to plaster and wood
carvings to create an effect of glittering
light and shade. Notable examples include
the Church of San Francisco at Tepotzotlan,
twelve miles from Cuernavaca; two churches
in Queretaro, those of Santa Rosa and Santa
Clara; also the famous parochial church at
Taxco.

The impressively ornate church of Santa
Prisca and San Sebastian (Plate 55) was be-
gun in 1757, its large cost covered by a
thank-offering of Jose la Borda, a French
miner whose fortune was made in a silver
mine on the site where the church was built.
Its two tall, ornate towers, blue-tiled Moorish
cupola, numerous belfries, and heavily carved
wooden portals represent a hybrid of styles,
though predominantly Churrigueresque-Ba-
roque. The interior with its twelve altars, and
the ceiling with its polychromed and gilded
angels make Santa Prisca representative of
the final ornate Baroque style.

The great church, built to withstand earth-
quakes, proved strong enough to hold Revo-
lutionary cannon on its tile roof, and the
church's tall twin towers rose proudly over
a war-torn countryside. Throughout the orna-
mentation of Santa Prisca, native artists ren-
dered carvings inspired by nature and its
animals, and these motifs are carved around
doors and windows and on chancels and
choir stalls. Among notable examples of secu-
lar use of the third phase of Baroque is
Casa del Alftenique, now a provincial mu-
seum at Puebla.

Mexico offers incredible variety in its lovely
villages and towns. Taxco has kaleidoscopic
interest and is filled with art. It is built upon
a hillside in a section of Mexico which has
long been a great source of silver ore, and is
dominated by the large blue-green domed,
impressive Church of Santa Prisca, built in
sumptuous Baroque architecture. The beau-
tiful Parochial Church of Taxco ( Plate 56 ) is
representative of Colonial design in its lovely

PLATE 55. Parochial Church of Santa Prisca and
San Sebastian. Taxco, Guerrero. 18th century.
Courtesy Mexican Government Department of
Tourism

portal. Another outstandingly lovely building
in Taxco is the Teatro (movie house) (Plate
57), which also contains the large School of
Fine Arts.

Neo-Classic architecture came to Mexico
in the last quarter of the eighteenth century,
in a strong reaction toward simplification
following the superabundance of late-Ba-
roque ornamentation. Its leading architect,
Manuel Tolsa (1757-1816), who was equally
distinguished as a sculptor, redesigned the
Cathedral of Mexico City in Neo-Classic
style, the success of which gave it instant
popularity, and this new style became the
accepted architectural form for municipal
and national structures throughout the world.

Tolsa also designed the handsome eques-
trian statue of Emperor Charles V, on the

Paseo de la Reforma, one of Mexico City's
finest bronze monuments. Another notable
Spanish sculptor, Alonzo Cano, carved nu-
merous church fa9ades and statues of saints
for Mexican churches.

The 300 years following the Conquest were
a socially unproductive era, but the Colonial
Period may lay claim to great accomplish-
ment in the construction of inspiring churches
and in the founding, in Mexico City in 1539,

The Origin and Leiacy of Mexican Art

of the first university in the western hemis-
phere. The establishment of the university
came about through the pioneering eflForts of
Fray Bartelome de Casas, who took his
plan for the project to Spain, where he re-
ceived a foundation grant from Charles V.
In the twentieth century advanced art con-
cepts have been successfully promoted by
architects and artists to make the university
buildings examples of world renown.

PLATE 56. Parochial Church. Taxco, Guerrero.
Side view. 18th century. Courtesy Mexican Gov-
ernment Department of Tourism

The Colonial Period, 1521-1821

PLATE 57. Teatro. Taxco, Guerrero, (movie
house.) Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

6
INDEPENDENCE IN ART AND STATE

Mexican art was destined for a long time to
be involved with national and political
struggles and with providing tribute to re-
former-heroes who fought for betterment of
the people amid severe class enmity. The
colony in Mexico was surprised to learn in
1808 that a Napoleonic invasion of Spain
had forced abdication of their Emperor and
imprisonment of his son, Ferdinand. Al-
though Joseph Bonaparte had possession of
the Spanish throne, the colony refused to
recognize him, and this caused class dissen-
sion to flare. The gauchupines, the Spanish-
born hacienda owners, opposed Colonial ef-
forts toward independence because they
feared it would bring more power to the Cre-
oles and the mestizos, who represented liberal
political ideals. Enmity increased between
the higher clergy and the Uberal groups.

The start of the independence movement
came on September 16, 1810, when a humble
village priest, Miguel Hidalgo, initiated a
people's revolt by proclaiming the "Grito de
Dolores" (cry of Dolores). After ringing the
church bell to bring his parishioners, he pro-
claimed from the pulpit, "Long live Ferdi-
nand, and death to the gauchupines," which
class the Creoles and mestizos wanted re-
moved from power. The Church of Dolores
(Plate 58) is now a famous memorial of

Mexican freedom. On hearing the priest's
message, angry mobs proclaimed Hidalgo
leader of the uprising, which soon became

PLATE 58. Church of Dolores. Hidalgo. Courtesy
Mexican Government Department of Tourism

a stoimy revolt aiming to abolish the haci-
endas. Hidalgo's forces, 80,000 strong, over-
ran Mexico with furious rage, burning and
kiUing. His army fought under the banner

Independence in Art and State

of Our Lady of Guadalupe; the gauchupines
and the Viceroy's forces, joined by the higher
clergy, fought under sponsorship of the Vir-
gin de los Remedios. At first the rebels suc-
ceeded, but they were later defeated and
Hidalgo was executed a year after the up-
rising began. But his revolt began the long
struggle of downtrodden natives to secure
social justice which resulted in the Mexican
Revolution. Hidalgo is revered as "The Fa-
ther of Independence"; his tomb in the Ca-
thedral at Mexico City is at the base of the
great Independence Monument. Hidalgo and
the Liberation of Mexico (Plate 59) by Jose
Clemente Orozco is a dramatic portrayal of
the emotional impact of this revolt and it
gives a moving portrait of the priest-leader
who raised his hand against tyranny. Strong,
sweeping diagonals give emphasis to the
stirring scene, the interpretation being un-
surpassed for its mastery of emotive power.

Another large and excellently rendered
portrait of Hidalgo is by Antonio Fabres,
showing the priest holding the banner of
Our Lady of Guadalupe. Both portraits hang
in the National Gallery.

Mexico's famous Independence Bell, now
suspended over the central entrance to the
National Palace, was nmg by the patriot-
priest Hidalgo in the little town of Dolores
on the night of September 15, 1810, when
he called to arms the rebel patriots who, after
eleven years of difficult fighting, finally
achieved independence from Spain. Each
year, on the same date and hour, Mexico's
President rings this bell from a balcony of
the Palace. The Mexicans are ever aware of
the agreeable call of bells which everywhere
so fill the air with their gently persuasive notes
that visitors from other lands conclude that
all the church bells in Christendom have
been gathered there in Mexico to be rung
simultaneously. But Mexicans are conscious
of the special significance of their Indepen-
dence Bell.

When the great movement for Indepen-

dence was born in 1810, old roads and high-
ways formed what has been called "The
Liberty Route." It is charged with historic
reminders of brave heroes who heralded free-

PLATE 59. Hidalgo and the Liberation of Mexico.
Oil by Jose Clemente Orozco. Senate Chamber,
Government Palace, Guadalajara, Jalisco. Cour-
tesy Mexican Government Department of Tour-

dom, and it serves as a relic of yesterday in
the heart of Old Mexico. Among such his-
toric reminders is the House of Don Miguel
Hidalgo, which has been preserved as a mu-
seum in the town where he rang the bell
in the Church of Dolores.

Another uprising in the same year ( 1810 )
was led by Jose Morelos. It brought nearer
the colony's break with Spain and helped
social goals, while Morelos's leadership pre-
pared for the Revolution of 1910. Though
his ideals were not achieved for 100 years

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 60. Morelia Cathedral and the Charro
Parade. Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

and he was defeated and executed, Morelos's
efforts lighted the spark of continued hope
for betterment. Among other plans, Morelos
proposed benefits for Mexican artists, which
later were realized and helped to create the
twentieth-century Renaissance of Mexican

art. His home was in the town of Valladolid,
which honored his memory by changing its
name to Morelia in 1928 (Plate 60. Morelia
Cathedral and Charro Parade). The cathe-
dral there is one of the most dignified and
architecturally harmonious of all Mexican

Independence in Art and State

churches. Built of trachyte, a tawny-pink na-
tive stone, its handsome twin towers loom
high against the Mexican sky.

The dire needs of the Mexican people be-
came the theme of artists who had asserted
their freedom from dictation of foreign stan-
dards of taste, and now they proclaimed an
expressive national art. The Rear Guard
(Plate 61), a print by Orozco, is a forceful
work that shows Mexican women partici-
pating in the war effort, marching with the
army, their babies strapped on backs. Orozco
subordinated pictorial details to achieve the

dramatic expression of these humble, strug-
gling women. Dark, sinister tones here con-
vey a strong feeling against injustice, as the
formless mob pushes forward, following sol-
diers armed with bayonets who lead the way.
In the background, a row of weapons pro-
vides strong contrast to the single figure of a
woman emerging into light.

Following Morelos's uprising of 1810,
Colonel Augustine de Iturbide took short-
lived control. During his stormy dictatorship
he proclaimed himself Emperor Augustine I;
his deposition brought the formation of new

PLATE 61. The Rear Guard. Print by Jose Cle-
mente Orozco. Courtesy Mundelein College, Chi-
cago; owned by: I.B.M. Corporation Collection
New York

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 62. Juarez and the Reform. Fresco detail
by Jose Clemente Orozco. Courtesy National
Museum of History, Mexico City

leadership which was even more disastrous
for Mexico. General Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna became dictator, instituting a poorly
managed rule under which Texas was lost
(1836) and over half of Mexican territory
taken by the United States in the Mexican
War ( 1845-48 ) . When Santa Anna was over-
thrown (1855), the nation was in financial
and social chaos, with oppression and poverty
afflicting the people, who were incensed by
the display of wealth by landowners and
higher clergy. The time had come for the de-
mands of the masses to be met.

Benito Juarez (1806-72), a great leader,
carried the nation out of despair by insti-
tuting "The Reform" (1858-61), which
brought many needed changes to Mexico.

Juarez, a mestizo from Oaxaca, boldly at-
tacked problems of land apportionment,
church domination, and the privileges of
higher clergy and military factions in his
Reform or "constitution" (1857), largely
modeled on that of the United States. Church
property was confiscated. Monastic Orders
and church schools were disbanded, and
freedom of worship was introduced. New
laws regulated apportionment of land, prop-
erty rights, marriage, and divorce. The heroic
work Juarez and the Reform. Fresco detail
(Plate 62) by Jose Clemente Orozco shows the
great reformer's face, much enlarged in the
center of the fresco, placed against a back-
ground of fire, from which his head emerges
victoriously in a cloud; his face expresses firm-

Independence in Art and State

PLATE 63. Zapatistas. Oil by Jose Clemente
Orozco. 1931. Museum of Modern Art, N. Y.
Courtesy The Museum of Modem Art, N. Y.

ness and serenity, and above floats the tri-col-
ored Mexican flag with the national insignia of
the Aztec eagle, wings outspread.

Although Juarez overcame powerful re-
actionary enemies, international intrigue
stopped his work for a time. Napoleon III
made a pretext of a loan owed France to
intervene in Mexican affairs, and he pro-
claimed an Austrian nobleman, Maximilian,
Emperor of Mexico. Although the idea of an
empire in Mexico was opposed by Juarez, the
leading mestizos, Creoles, and the masses of

people— all of whom desired a Republic, it
was supported by landowners and the higher
clergy. Maximilian's unfortunate three-year
reign ended when France withdrew its pro-
tective troops from Mexico because of need
for them in Europe. Juarez soon defeated
Maximilian's army; the emperor was exe-
cuted and Juarez elected President. He
brought Mexico a new nationalism; his laws
secured order and stability, but unfortunately,
death came to him after only five years as
President. He is revered as the great liber-

ator and lawmaker of Mexico, and a hero of
world renown.

During Mexico's critical times Mexican art
expressed ideals of nationalism and portrayed
the true condition of the people. Jose Guada-
lupe Posada (1851-1913), an artist of origi-
nality and great creative talent, made carica-
tures pointing up evil social conditions, which
caused him to develop as a political prophet
and pioneer realist of Mexican art. Posada's
lithographs and wood and metal cuts ex-
pressed a picture of life with character,
truth, and strength. He used his skill to point
out the severe lacks in the regime of Gen-
eral Porfirio Diaz, who became President af-
ter Juarez's death and held office for thirty-
four years. Posada's bitterly acid portrayals
of Diaz's shortcomings and the nation's needs,
presented in newspaper cartoons, had im-
mense effect on social and political life. His
talent is reminiscent of that of Daumier, the
French realist, and of Goya, the Spanish
satirist; Posada's bold draftsmanship and
great originality had a profound influence
on Mexico's artists and art.

The Diaz era, called "Porfirian," had no
concern for humble Mexicans but favored
wealthy foreign investors whom the Presi-
dent urged to acquire large holdings in
Mexico and promote mining and railroad
expansion, offering liberal inducements to
capitalists. This policy allowed Mexico's vast
mining and agricultural wealth to be con-
trolled by rich foreigners, who became strong
supporters of Diaz's political retention as
President of Mexico. During this period, Po-
sada's art made vicious attacks on the Diaz
regime, which helped precipitate his leaving
to live in Paris. Francisco Madero then ex-
posed the corrupt Diaz elections and led a
Revolution to give the Mexican people their
agrarian rights. The war brought an end to
the Diaz rule and Madero was murdered
by political enemies. His successor, Emiliano
Zapata, a peasant, led a people's army— many
soldiers being barefoot— with the slogan

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

"Land and Liberty." Zapata's rapid revolu-
tionary gains were a menace to powerful
Mexican financial interests and his enemies

PLATE 64. Zapata Leading the Agrarian Revolt.
Fresco detail by Diego Rivera. Palace of Cortes,
Cuemavaca, Mor. Courtesy Art of Mexico

contrived to have him murdered. Zapata, the
"people's leader," was the subject of many
murals and portraits depicting him in his
work as a revolutionary activist (Plate 63.
Zapatistas. Oil by Orozco) (Plate 64. Zapata
Leading the Agrarian Revolt. Fresco detail
by Rivera).

Independence in Art and State 81

Notwithstanding the loss of great leaders, for decoration of public buildings by native

the revolutionary conflict continued until the artists proved of value to both the public

government responded to the people's grie- and artists. Improved transportation facilities

vances by favorable changes. Freedom of the aided villagers living in remote areas to se-

individual became for the first time a reahty cure urban markets for their art and handi-

in Mexico. Under President Obregon's special crafts. Renderings of Mexican scenes, pre-

enactment (1921), the administration estab- sented by native artists with realism, showed

lished a department of public education, the people at work and play; native artists'

which included fine arts instruction with interpretations of the nation's pre-Conquest

scholarships for talented art students. Projects heritage and art legacy were encouraged.

ART AWAKENS

In the opening years of the nineteenth cen-
tury, art continued on the basis of its Colonial
background, although attempts were later
made to improve the San Carlos Academy.
Its director, Pelegrin Clave, a Spanish artist,
introduced the use of living models in class-
rooms and required that portraits be true
likenesses of the sitters. During Maximilian's
regime the Academy introduced French
styles, foohshly transferring them into a Mex-
ican setting. In Diaz's presidency, native
artists were prevented from independent ex-
pression; Antonio Fabres, then director of
the Academy, advocated imitative art in the
manner of the two popular Spanish painters
— Sorolla and Zualoga.

But a clue to the grandeur of the art im-
pulse in Mexico's people comes to light around
every comer in Mexico City and down each
cobbled street, wherein lies another chap-
ter in the nation's turbulent struggle for
peace, beauty, freedom, and honor among
nations of the world. The Palace of Fine Arts
(Plate 65) is a magnificent white marble
structure of rarely beautiful architecture con-
taining the national theater and a museum
displaying some of Mexico's best art. It was
begun in Diaz's time, and the costly structure
was designed with limited seating capacity
and was intended for use only by the privi-

leged classes, though when it was remodeled
in 1934 the handsome edifice of imported
Italian marble was rebuilt with large seating
areas and added balconies to meet the needs
of all the people. Its Teatro de Belle Artes
presents popular programs like the Ballet
Folklorico for large audiences, as does also
the National Opera which is housed there.

During the early nineteenth century folk
artists were painting with sincere ingenuous-
ness in a delightfully fresh, direct style. These
unknown native artists, though lacking train-
ing in sophisticated art techniques, recorded
what they saw, making attempts to handle
tonal harmonies in their paintings. Portrait
of a Child (Plate 66) by an anonymous co-
lonial portrait painter exemplifies the art of
these sincere painters who provided a defi-
nite link between the sixteenth-century friars'
art of the monasteries and the modem Mex-
ican art movement.

When Alfredo Ramos Martinez (1881-
1946) returned after several years of study
abroad, he taught the use of scintillating,
clear color in his popular outdoor painting
classes. The government later sponsored
twenty-seven similar classes, offering free
lessons to many who later became famous
Mexican artists, among them Rufino Tamayo.
Impressionist technique began in Mexico

Art Awakens

PLATE 65. Palace of Fine Arts. Mexico City,
1904-1934. Adamo Boari, architect. Courtesy
Mexican Government Department of Tourism

through the eflForts of Martinez and Dr. Alt
(1877-1964), both having studied it in Paris.
"Dr. Alt," was an assumed name, a pseudo-
nym of Gerardo Murillo, with which name
he was christened when bom in Guadalajara.
He changed it to Alt, which means Water,
in the Nahuatl tongue, because he disliked
the art of the many Mexican copyists who
imitated the Spanish Murillo's work, for at
that time derivative Mexican artists made
many copies of Murillo's pink and blue paint-
ings. Dr. Alt is known for the aid he gave
to Mexican folk art and for his strikingly
original landscapes, of which he painted a
series showing volcanos at different hours of
the day, each indicating the effects of light

on lava or clouds as the color changed. Dr.
Alt lived near the volcano Popocatepetl in
order to study the varied lighting at different
hours, and his studies of atmospheric effects
are accurately transcribed.

A devoted group of artists who gathered
around Dr. Alt were inspired by his original
methods and the leadership he attained
when he urged the government to allow
native artists to exhibit their paintings and
sculpture at the show planned to celebrate
the centennial of Hidalgo's "Grito de Do-
lores." The Diaz government had originally
planned to show only the art of leading
Spanish painters— Sorolla and Zualoga— but
after Dr. Alt protested, a large show of native

Art Awakens

art was allowed, for which the government
granted 3,000 pesos to cover the cost of as-
sembling it. The native show included vari-
ous entries, enough to fill several galleries,
and it had an enthusiastic reception and
received the highest praise.

Although impressionistic painting was
never popular in Mexico, it brought a de-
sire for new art ideas and initiated attitudes
which relieved the declining academic art
then being taught at the Academy. Some
talented students of Martinez who opposed
the teaching of the Academy rented a small
house in Santa Anita near Mexico City, where
they painted outdoors— in this respect re-
sembling the Barbizon artists of Paris— and
called themselves "Mexican Barbizons." Na-
tive artists were urged to feature Mexican
subjects and present-day Indian life with
realism, aiming to make native art a national
asset and to present all phases of art— murals,
posters, caricatures, engravings, woodcuts,
portraits, and landscapes.

Mexican art began to develop as an expres-
sion by individual artists of their personal
feelings, based on experiences of what they
saw and knew. Representative of this ideal
is the work of Francisco Goitia (1884-1960),
oldest of the Revolutionary artist group, who
painted with deep sympathy for the tragic
struggle of Mexico's people; his art is a procla-
mation of toil-weary Indians stniggling in
humble life situations. His Tata Jesucristo
(Plate 67. Father Jesus Christ), painted in oil
in 1926, is a masterpiece which won world
acclaim for the grandeur of its Expression-
ism. A representative exhibit of works by
Goitia and Posada hangs in the Palace of
Fine Arts, Mexico City.

Goitia, along with Jose Posada, became a
vital precursor of modern Mexican art. After
studying on a government scholarship in
Spain and Italy, Goitia returned to Mexico
in 1912 and saw service in the Revolution,
later working for the government at Teoti-
huacan (1918-25). While there he painted

typical scenes of Mexican life, many record-
ing the griefs and sorrows of humble people.
Goitia's art was a mystic interpretation suf-
fused with sympathy, portraying the lowly
Indian's spirit. A deep student of the native
art heritage and of folk art, he was a lifelong
art teacher, his message the promotion of
social consciousness favoring the Mexican
masses. His profound expression of his aware-
ness of his mission has given Goitia a high
place in world art.

Mexicans from all sections of the nation
left their work on farms, in mines, and in
stores to join the army and help in the war
for freedom. All classes were together, and
though the mestizos became leaders in the
armed forces, the humble peons displayed
great courage while making their fine con-
tribution for victory. In gratitude for their
fine service, the post-Revolutionary govern-
ment gave them special aid in its reconstruc-
tion program. Government help was given
to art under direction of the cultural bureau
chairman, Jose Vasconcellos, Minister of Edu-
cation, who instituted a plan for the decora-
tion of public buildings, maintenance of art
exhibits, study and research in archaeology,
excavation of historic ruins, and restoration
and display of pre-Columbian relics. Recon-
struction policy urged individuals to help the
nation by patriotic use of art talent, skills,
and abilities. President Obregon, a mestizo
Indian, carried forward the principles of so-
cial justice inaugurated by Juarez, as did his
successor. President Cardenas. In 1934 a six-
year government plan provided equitable
land adjustment by assigning parcels to peons
for theiir ownership and cultivation, the
subsidy being made possible by the reversion
of one hundred million acres of land to the
nation when haciendas and church holdings
were absorbed. These long-delayed grants
gave the Mexican masses new heart.

Large numbers of native artists arrived in
1921 to paint Mexico City's public buildings
for the government. Diego Rivera, Xavier

jLATE 66. Portrait of a child. By an anonymous
Polonial artist. Courtesy Art of Mexico

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 67. Father Jesus Christ (Tata Jesucristo).
Oil by Francisco Goita. 1927. Palace of Fine
Arts, Mexico City, D.F. Courtesy Art of Mexico

Guerrero, and Roberto Montenegro were
among the first to begin work. Orozco and
Siqueiros soon joined them and became lead-
ers of the large art project. Later workers
were Rufino Tamayo, Carlos Merida, Julio
Castellanos, Miguel Covarrubias, Jesus Gue-
rrero Galvan, Alfredo Zolce, and Leopoldo
Mendes, who constituted a younger group
who promoted Mexico's modern art move-
ment on the completion of the great mural
art project. Immediately following the Min-

istry of Education assignment of commissions
to decorate walls of public buildings, all
Mexican artists eagerly grasped the oppor-
tunity to serve their country. Rivera began
his murals by portraying Mexican themes
which helped start the nationalist art themes;
thus the Reconstniction period offered ar-
tists much opportunity for portrayal of timely
local scenes of human interest, which brought
Mexican art on a forward creative path to
the inauguration of a new aesthetic.

Art Awakens

A syndicate organized by Mexican artists
in 1922 presented its aims to help meet post-
Revolutionary and Reconstruction needs. The
syndicate's aim was to unite art workers for
the creation of works expressive of the In-

PLATE 68. Zapata leading the Agrarian Revolt.
Fresco detail by Diego Rivera. Palace of Cortes,
Cuemavaca, Mor. Courtesy Art of Mexico

dian spirit by presenting native life and its
traditional heritage, and then to extend art
influences by placing large-scale art in places
where the public could view it. A mural of
special interest, painted by Rivera, presents
Zapata, the popular peasant leader ( Plate 68.
Zapata Leading the Agrarian Revolt. Fresco
detail). Rivera's skillful spatial design and

decorative arrangement of the large-scale
figures are here combined with harmonious
line directions of rope, weapons, poles, and
banners. This work exemplifies post-Revolu-
tionary art in a richly decorative, narrative
style. It depicts the eventful flow of Mexican
history and combines it with the new aes-
thetic achievement by the Republic.

Through such influences, national Mexican
art crystallized into a thoroughly popular
style characterized by strong lines, and values
and colors reminiscent of the art of pre-Con-
quest artists. Modern artists were seeking
and finding sources of inspiration in ancient
Indian art, returning also to use of primitive
materials. Art had turned abruptly away
from formalism to express with freedom the
true scenes of local Indian daily life. Styles
varied, with some artists working with Ex-

plate 69. Parochial Church. San Miguel de Al-
lende. Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

pressionism while others developed dynamic
realism; still others aimed merely for decora-
tive effect. But the whole program was in-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 70. Chapultepec Castle. National Museum
of History and Anthropology. Mexico City, D.F.
Courtesy Mexican Government Department of
Tourism

Art Awakens

PLATE 71. Street Art Fair. Mexico City, D.F.
Courtesy Mexican Government Department of
Tourism

tended to make a truer statement of Mexican
life for the world to see and understand.

The Parochial Church of San Miguel de
Allende (Plate 69) is one of the most un-
usual architectural monuments in all Mexico.
Its graceful towers pierce the air with a beau-
tiful blend of neo-Gothic style in a supreme
elegance of construction. This lovely Mexi-
can town was designated a national monu-
ment by government decree in order to
preserve its Colonial atmosphere, which com-
bines in a beautiful manner Baroque em-
phasis with the older Gothic.

The Chapultepec Castle, now the National
Museum of History (Plate 70) was built
atop a hill in Mexico City in a park of the
same name. "Chapultepec" in the Aztec
tongue means "Hill of the Grasshoppers,"
and this was the main site of governing rule
in pre-Hispanic years. The Castle was erected
during the Colonial period but was aban-
doned in 1841 when it became a military
college, although the lovely structure is
linked with the short-lived empire of Maxi-
milian and Carlotta, who used it as their
official home. After the French intervention

collapsed, the Castle served as a summer
residence for President Porfirio Diaz. In 1940
the Republic of Mexico declared it the Na-
tional Museum of History and the handsome
building now contains murals by Siqueiros,
Orozco, Rivera, and other famous painters.

That art has awakened is evidenced in
the Sunday morning art fairs in Mexico City
(Plate 71), which are held to benefit strug-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

gling artists who hope for recognition by,
and sales to, the public. Mexican artists have
long displayed their work at street fairs and
have indeed thereby created much interest
among the city dwellers. Just about every-
one in Mexico tries his hand at painting
and many artists' colonies are scattered
throughout the Republic.

8
MEXICAN MURALS

The government's extensive program of pre-
Columbian research and archaeology in-
creased interest in Mexican indigenous art,
leading both artists and public to find in-
spiration in the nation's ancient art legacy.
In 1922, under the influence of Teotihuacan's
murals, Mexican artists learned from them
how primitive painters made their frescoes.
Xavier Guerrero, Jean Chariot, and Jose Cle-
mente Orozco all conducted successful ex-
periments which resulted in the improvement
of modern fresco painting. Artists were in-
spired to use colors typical of pre-Hispanic
art found in the newly excavated murals at
Teotihuacan. Their study proved that various
minerals were basic materials used in murals
found in Monte Alban tombs and on walls at
Teotihuacan. Most ancient paintings repre-
senting nature's forces were in landscape
settings showing the "paradise of the gods"
and Tlaloc, God of Rain, being implored
to aid the Indian's crops. Other ancient mu-
rals with religious motifs were of priests, with
many geometric designs of interlocked lines.
Pre-Conquest Indians painted directly on the
walls of palaces and temples. During the
Colonial period friars and natives decorated
churches and fortress-like monasteries with
pictures that were a delight to the Indians.
Religious subjects were rendered in large-

scale paintings on walls, like the mural by
an unknown artist at Tepepulco (Plate 72).
These works helped the Christianizing work
of priests among the natives.

The now famous Bonampak frescoes, dis-
covered in 1946, were painted during
the Classic period, around a.d. 600-700
and they represent the finest pre-Columbian
murals in the Americas. Found in a tropical
jungle at Chiapas, between Guatemala and
Mexico, they were submerged in the "hot
lands" for centuries. Among ancient ruins of
buildings discovered there is one containing
three rooms, the walls of which were painted
with difi^erent scenes. One shows richly
dressed chiefs; another is of servants dressing
priests in ceremonial robes; and a third room
displays musicians and dancers. Head of a
Chief (Plate 73) is a fresco detail, part of a
large painting in the Temple of Bonampak.
Another is a battle scene (Plate 74), which
indicates that the warriors of Bonampak
used the spear as their weapon. Here the
men, arrayed in magnificent costumes and
jewelry, are apparently carrying out a raid.
Battle Scene occupies three walls, which has
led experts to believe that warfare was a
principal activity of these ancient people.
Sections present an exchange of prisoners,
and a dance where finely attired people are

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

-^%

PLATE 72. Religious mural. By an unknown artist.
Tepepulco. Colonial period. Courtesy Art of
Mexico

Mexican Murals

being entertained by musicians playing tribal
instalments. The three groups of paintings,
in separate rooms, are executed with different
types of bnishwork, composition, and color.
The Battle Scene is composed of strong
linear rhythms created with broken lines to
show violent action. All the Bonampak mu-
rals are painted with material which is partly
tempera. Various bright colors were freely
used.

Giles Grenville Healy, an American ex-
plorer-photographer, has recently taken infra-
red photographs of the Bonampak murals,
which have brought renewed interest in this
ancient but newly discovered art. His pictures
include murals found in three excavated rooms
where noticeable differences in the art style
indicate that several artists worked collective-
ly on the frescoes. Of special interest are the
space rendering and action. The mystery
about these murals is increased by their hav-
ing been made in a remote and isolated
place bounded by sea, jungle, and desert,
indicating a culture entirely dissociated from
any other people.

The Mexican government's modem mu-
ral project was planned to meet a national
need. It began in 1921 and 1922 by com-
missioning artists to decorate walls of the
National Preparatory School ( Preparatoria ) ,
including its patio and auditorium (Amphi-
teatre Bohvar). The Mexican Mural Renais-
sance is usually dated between 1920 and
1925. Rivera painted there through 1923 and
also worked in the Ministry of Education
Building ( Secretaria ) , though many other
Mexican muralists also painted there. Rivera's
Worker's United (Plate 75) is on the wall
of the third-floor corridor. A notable later
mural by Rivera which enforces this artist's
belief in the unified effort of labor is his
Pan-American Unity at San Francisco Junior
College (Plate 76).

A bold and highly decorative Colonial
work is the interior decoration of the Church
of Santa Maria at Tonantzentla (Plate 77).

This striking work in strong color and force-
ful relief is by an unknown artist of the
eighteenth century. It shows details of heads,

PLATE 73. Head of a Chief. Pre-Columbian wall
painting. Temple of Bonampak, Chiapas. Cour-
tesy UNESCO World Art Series, begun 1954

masks, and floral motifs, and the ornamen-
tation is so elaborate that it covers all parts
of the interior and combines painting with
gilding of stucco and scrolls.

Jose Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro
Siqueiros painted extensively in the National
Preparatory School (Secretaria). Orozco's
theme of the Revolution stresses social im-
provement, a subject near his heart. Siquei-
ros's panels include his famous Burial of a
Worker. The great mural project in Mexico
slowly proceeded to completion, when it be-
came a valuable form of mass communica-
tion, interpreting with force scenes of native

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 74. Battle Scene. Pre-Columbian mural.
Fresco detail from Temple of Bonampak, Chia-
pas. Courtesy UNESCO Publishing Center

life which were rendered dramatically yet
showed realistically the truth concerning op-
pression of the peons and the later winning
of their independence. While fostering im-
proved social goals the mural program en-
couraged nationalism and appreciation of
Mexico's indigenous art heritage. The huge
program transcended anything ever at-
tempted by a national art project and art-
ists' brushes became the means whereby all
Mexican hearts were captured. Native
painters were dedicated to their gigantic
task of depicting the long and tortuous saga
of Mexico's land and soul, and each artist
accepted the challenge individually. Some
featured the laborer and his work; others por-
trayed thrilling historic events whereby cour-

age and sacrifice brought national freedom.
Orozco's later mural at Pomona College,
Claremont, Cahfornia portrays his powerful
imaginative concept and emotional intensity.
This large work covers the space above a
fireplace in the student refectory. His Pro-
metheus (Plate 78) reinterprets a symbolic
subject taken from mythology. It shows the
Titan who stole fire from heaven giving it
to mortal man. Orozco's treatment of the Ti-
tan figure has depth in its painting and
composition, conveyed by sweeping diagonal
movement. The Titan's hand is extended as
he gives the symbolic fire to mankind and
the artist shows masses of figures rushing
forward to grasp the gift, which symbolizes
the vast debt Mexico owes its heroes who

Mexican Murals

gave their lives on the altar of freedom for
mankind. Orozco is believed to have been
influenced in the development of his con-
cept by the world's great painters, Michel-
angelo, Tintoretto, and El Greco. This mag-
nificent mural by Orozco, a work of 1930,
resembles in its symbolism his later great
works in Mexico City and Guadalajara.

Many of Diego Rivera's Ministry of Edu-
cation frescoes, with their fine genre themes,
extend into its two three-storied patios. The
smaller patio has murals of his Court of La-
bor; the larger, his Court of Festivals series.
The Secretariat walls bear the work of Rivera
and his assistants, two panels being the work
of Amado de la Cueva and Jean Chariot,
with other frescoes by Roberto Montenegro
and Carlos Merida. Rivera's panels have
skillful color gradations and spatial design
and reveal a simplicity of treatment reminis-
cent of the great Giotto frescoes.

Gay scenes are featured in Rivera's Court
of Festivals, presenting with verve a fan-
dango dance with Indian orchestra; a may-
pole dance; the ttortite or "little bull," a
popular entertainment at fiestas; a gay prom-
enade along the Viga Canal on a festival
day with flower-laden canoes; a Labor Day
celebration, with marchers carrying banners.
Other murals show a Saturday night before
Easter; an All-Souls Day midnight feast; a
cemetery with grave flowers and lighted
candles on tombstones with braziers burn-
ing charcoal and incense; peasants resting
after their labor of the harvest; early mining
days, showing peons carrying heavy loads
as they descend mine shafts; a Colonial sugar
mill on a hacienda; drying and dyeing of
fibers which will be woven into cloth. In the
Court of Labor a typical market is seen, and
women washing clothes.

Social emphasis prevails in murals cele-
brating the distribution of land, Zapata's
peasant revolt, and portrait studies of popu-
lar native leaders. Thanksgiving Day shows
peasants giving thanks for crops; a fire-dance

PLATE 75. Workers United. Fresco detail by
Diego Rivera. Secretaria, Mexico City, D.F.
Courtesy Art of Mexico

held annually in mining camps shows miners
wearing masks and belts with rattles to ac-
company dancing aroimd a bonfire; free edu-
cation offered by the post-Revolutionary gov-
ernment is depicted. Plate 79. The New
School, detail of a fresco by Rivera in the
Ministry of Education in Mexico City, pre-
sents a young woman teaching children and
adults while in the landscape background

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 76. Pan-American Unity. Fresco detail by
Diego Rivera. San Francisco Junior College,
California. Courtesy Art of Mexico

Pan-American Unity. Fresco detail by
Diego Rivera. San Francisco Junior College,
California. Courtesy Art of Mexico

PLATE 77. Interior decoration in Church of Santa
Maria, Tonantzentla, Puebla, 18th century.
Courtesy Art of Mexico

fathers and husbands are tilling and plant-
ing the fields. The symbolic mural of a
humble peon welcoming social changes in
an interpretation of freedom shows him cut-
ting the rope which had tied him; a post-

Reconstruction factory symbolizes oppor-
timities to work and earn; pottery-making is
shown as done in an ancient kiln. The last
mural, the 32nd, depicts the hard treatment
of peons on haciendas when they were forced

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 78. Prometheus. Fresco by Jose Clemente
Orozco. Wall of Pomona College Refectory,
Claremont, California, 1930. Courtesy Pomona
College

to lift heavy bags of wheat and com, taking
them for weighing under surveillance of a
guard with gun ready to use if he discovers
any theft among workers.

Murals in the Ministry of Education por-
tray the Mexican scene with deep under-
standing of human rights, emphasizing the
beauty of folk lore and also presenting
changes wrought by post-Reconstruction re-
forms. The Golden Age of Mexican mural
art portrays improved social conditions while
interpreting native life with truth and ten-
derness. A unique mural achievement relat-

ing art and architecture is the work of a
great contemporary Mexican, Juan O'Gor-
man, who designed the native stone mosaic
fagade and sides of the University City Li-
brary in Mexico City ( Plate 80 ) . The gigantic
work contains symbols used by Mexico's
earliest men, which are designed in colorful
stone patterns. This achievement ranks as
one of the world's most exciting mural de-
velopments. O'Gorman, who is both an archi-
tect and painter, also painted and directed
the work on many murals inside the structure.
(Plate 81. Mural in the University Library).

Mexican Murals

PLATE 79. The New School. Fresco by Diego
Rivera in the Ministry of Education, Mexico
City, D.F. Courtesy Art of Mexico

Rivera cooperated with O'Gorman on these 1551 and it is now located in Pedregal, a

mosaic designs. suburb of Mexico City, where it occupies

The University of Mexico was founded in a huge area said to be the largest university

100

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 80. Native stone mural, mosaic fa9ade
and sides designed by Juan O'Gorman. Univer-
sity City Library, Mexico City. Courtesy Mexi-
can Government Department of Tourism

Mexican Murals

101

PLATE 81. Mural exterior Science building, Uni-
versity of Mexico. Mural art under direction
of Juan O'Gorman. Courtesy Mexican Govern-
ment Department of Tourism

campus in the v^^orld. Many of its buildings
are made of lava rock, and they make a
fitting monument to the beauty and practi-
caUty of contemporary architecture. All these
structures are enhanced inside by murals by
notable Mexican painters of today. Juan
O'Gorman has said that his colored mosaics
display historically the Mexican "Growth of
Ideas."

Mexican artists of the Syndicate of Painters
conceived the noble program for native art
by w^hich a revival of wall painting on a

grand scale would be used to help restore
the social relationship between art and all
the Mexican people. This aim was to be ac-
comphshed through the influence of the con-
tent expressed, by social criticism of existing
conditions, and by the quality and perfection
of the wall paintings. That this great aim
was well accomplished by the leaders of the
movement is proved by the momentous ef-
fect of the Mexican mural art movement
throughout the Western Hemisphere.

9
DIEGO RIVERA, 1886-1957

Diego Rivera's art was consecrated to help-
ing Mexico's peasants and workers, also of-
fering them enjoyment. His portrayal of
social problems underlying native life fills
vast murals and presents a panorama of
Mexican history— heartwarming interpreta-
tions of the native's joy of life and of the
tragic injustices he suffered. Rivera's later
work envisages a new opportunity through
the modem machinery that, he believed,
would provide Mexican labor with the chance
to become free from over-burdening and
frustrating conditions. By thorough study in
Detroit of automobile manufacture, Rivera
obtained the necessary knowledge for render-
ing the mural commissioned by the Ford
Company (1923-33) (Plate 82. PaH Produc-
tion and Assembly of a Motor. Fresco detail
by Rivera). This work presents highly in-
formed reahsm combined with knowledge of
the technology of automobile manufacture,
which Rivera uses here as symbolic of the
machine age. He here oversteps the usual
mural subject-matter in introducing his new
art concept. Rivera's interest and involvment
in the study of art in life situations took
him to many different places and his vast
production includes frescoes, easel painting,
portraiture, landscape, stage-sets, ballet set-
tings, and genre art.

Diego Rivera was bom December 8, 1886,
at Guanajuato, a silver-mining village, but
due to his father's unemployment the family
moved while he was a child to Mexico City,
where at the age of ten he entered San
Carlos Art Academy to receive an early,
though thorough, art training. His teachers
inspired him with love of pre-Columbian
sculpture, and taught him landscape paint-
ing and draftsmanship, including the use of
expressive line in his compositions, charac-
teristic of Rivera's later art. He left the
academy at sixteen to begin independent art
work and at that time came under the strong
influence of Jose Guadalupe Posada, whose
original engravings deeply impressed him.
Because he was fascinated by the imaginative
and sarcastic cartoons, he often lingered in
Posada's workshop. Rivera honored Posada's
memory in 1926 by painting his portrait for
the National Palace Series of Great Mexicans.

Dr. Alt helped Rivera secure a govemment
scholarship in 1907, which offered extended
study and travel abroad, and when twenty-
one he left for Spain with a letter of intro-
duction to Dr. Alt's former teacher. While
studying he frequented art galleries to view
great works by El Greco, Goya, and Velas-
quez; later travels took him to England,
Belgium, Germany, Holland, and France,

102

Diego Rivera, 1886-1957

103

PLATE 82. Production and Assembly of a Motor.
Fresco detail. Diego Rivera. Courtesy The Ford
Company, Detroit

where he studied the great art in galleries.
Returning to Paris, Rivera came under the
influence of Cezanne's art, which gave di-
rection to his work. Parisian artists were at
that time impressed by the Cubist vogue and
had great enthusiasm for native African
sculpture. The latter caused Rivera to use
elements of primitive Mexican art in his
work. At age twenty-four, he left Paris for
a brief visit to Mexico, where he exhibited
at the Centennial Celebration Art Show
which Dr. Alt assembled for native artists.
On his return to Paris he became impressed
by post-Impressionism and neo-Impression-
ism, especially admiring Paul Gauguin's art

and that of Henri Rousseau. Rivera had by
then given more complete attention to Ce-
zanne's art, realizing that it showed the way
for his future work. Among his friends in
Paris were Alie Faure, the art historian,
whose portrait he painted, and two talented
Russian artists, Bakst, the stage-designer, and
Archipenko, the sculptor.

Because of the political upheaval in Mex-
ico, Rivera's government allowance was
stopped and he earned his living while
studying. He met his Mexican friend Siquei-
ros, who had arrived for study in Paris, and
they agreed that native art should renounce
foreign domination and express the values of

104

its own heritage. He left Paris for a visit to
Italy to study galleries and art in churches,
where he was most impressed by Giotto's
frescoes and Byzantine mosaics. By this time
Rivera was fully aware of his direction
toward the values expressed in the art of
Cezanne and he determined to find his own
way and create a personal style. The oppor-
tunity came when he joyfully accepted the
offer by the Mexican Government to decorate
public buildings, painting frescoes expressive
of native history and people. His life work
began in 1922, when he adopted for his
theme "interpretation of the Mexican scene"
(Plate 83. Self Portrait. Lithograph by Ri-
vera).

Post-Revolutionary times brought a popu-
lar-theater movement with its lively portrayal
of native life, and these theatricals influenced
murals of Rivera's Fiesta Series, which
used folkloric features. While on a visit in
Yucatan, he made water-color sketches which
later served as material for easel works.
Fiesta Tehuana (Plate 84) combines dancing
and music in scenes similar to those in his
later murals of the Court of Festivals. The
patio and ground-floor walls in the Ministry
of Education building are adorned with Ri-
vera's Festival of the Corn ( 1923-28 ) in the
Harvest Festival series. Because com was a
vital contribution to pre-Conquest life, Ri-
vera delighted in painting renditions of it
and his frescoes were at that time interpret-
ing folk settings without concern for social
problems. May Day in the Court of Fiestas
shows his delight in native dances, where
the scenes swing with linear rhythms and
flowing color. Yucatan Mother and Child
shows a tropical landscape, with glimpses
of forest and plantation. On the south wall
of the Court of Labor are portrayed the in-
dustries of southern Mexico: weaving, dye-
ing, sugar-refining, and cane-growing. These
panels are in luminous color of rich tones
reminiscent of Gauguin's post-Impressionist
art. The north wall shows the mining and

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

ranching industries of northern Mexico along
with some Revolutionary scenes, while the
east wall depicts activities of central Mex-
ico: silver-mining, agriculture, and pottery-
making.

Among Rivera's famous murals treating of
social problems is Weighing of the Grain,

PLATE 83. Self-Portrait. Lithograph. Diego Ri-
vera. Courtesy Mundelein College, Chicago.
I.B.M. Collection, N.Y.

a powerful decorative work in his post-Im-
pressionist manner, which uses symbolism
where the peon's round hat suggests a halo
above his head. Symbolism is again stressed
in another work in the Court of Labor where
a peon worker emerges from a mine and
stands with outstretched arms in a posture
reminiscent of the crucifixion. Among im-
pressive works of outstanding decorative de-
sign are The Dyers and Sugar Refiners. While
Rivera was painting these great decorations,
his workday averaged fifteen hours and he
kept up this heavy schedule in the years

Diego Rivera, 1886-1957

105

PLATE 84. Fiesta Tehuana. Oil. Courtesy Munde-
lein College, Chicago. I.B.M. Collection, N.Y.

106

between 1923 and 1927. A work of the Court
of Labors first patio wall, The New School
(see Plate 80), shows a change in Rivera's
rendering of his figures. Here the forms have
sloping shoulders and rounded heads and

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

pingo murals were painted on the walls of
an eighteenth-century chapel of a hacienda
northeast of Mexico City, which had been
taken by the post-Revolutionary government
for development of a national agricultural

PLATE 85. Virgin Soil. Fresco detail 1929 Chapel,
Chapingo, Mexico. Courtesy Art of Mexico

torsos in a style of figure-drawing very dif-
ferent from his tall figures in eariier murals.
This simplification of forms is believed to
have been the result of research in the art
of Duccio, a fourteenth-century master of
Italy's fresco art, whose work Rivera admired.
His later murals show still another stylistic
change, with greater emphasis given to il-
lustrative intention, as is seen in his Agri-
cultural School frescoes at Chapingo.

Although the Ministry of Education walls
were incomplete in 1926 when Rivera began
work on his Chapingo murals, he accom-
plished both projects with the help of able
assistants, Pablo O'Higgins and Maxime
Pacheco, the latter being an artist-naturalist
who painted flowers, birds, and animals in
a style resembhng that of French painter
Henri Rousseau. Rivera's world-famed Cha-

school. The site had special appeal for Rivera
because an Aztec temple once stood there
and sculptural remains of ancient pagan idols
had been found there.

The low-vaulted Colonial chapel, three
miles from Chapingo, became the setting for
Rivera's glorious decorative frescoes. His
subject The Land, or The Good Earth, was
timely and appropriate in the agrarian re-
form period. Included are panels of the Corn
Field, indicating "fertilization," with com-
panion works "germination" and "fruition"
of The Fecund Earth (Plate 85. The Virgin
Soil. Fresco detail by Rivera). The series com-
bines symbolic and philosophical ideals which
attain high power and beauty while ex-
pressing a better day for land apportionment.
The replenishment of mankind on the earth
is shown in a cycle of fertilization, the con-

OJego Rivera, 1886-1957

cept being from pre-Conquest Mexico. A
series of beautiful nudes is shown with per-
fection of decorative line planning, and the
theme of a nature cycle, replenishing the
earth, is shown with lofty idealism (Plate
86. The Fecund Earth. Fresco detail by Ri-
vera ) .

PLATE 86. The Fecund Earth. Fresco detail,
Chapel, Chapingo, Mexico. Courtesy Art of
Mexico

On completion of his Chapingo murals in
1927, Rivera was invited to Russia as a guest
of the government while he served as dele-
gate of the Peasant's League. While there
he was commissioned to paint a group por-
trait of officers, but was unable to complete
the work because of a health concern that
required him to return to Mexico. Neverthe-
less, in the last year of his life, he went back
to Russia and completed the portrait. Al-
though the second-floor murals in the Mex-
ico City Ministry of Education building were

107

unfinished, he completed them on his return
to Mexico. A panel featuring a May Day
celebration contains portraits of both his wife,
Frida, and Siqueiros.

Owing to Rivera's friendship with Trotsky,
who was hving in Mexico as an exile and
was murdered there by enemies, Rivera's
art was belittled by Stalin and the Russian
critics, who disparaged his work thereafter.
In 1929 Rivera accepted a commission from
the American Ambassador to Mexico, the late
Honorable Dwight W. Morrow, to paint mu-
rals in the ancient Palace of Cortes, Cuer-
navaca, his theme to be the History of Mex-
ico. This great art achievement was presented
by Mr. Morrow to the city of Cuernavaca.
It presents historic scenes, beginning with
Aztec days, then covering the Conquest and
agrarian uprisings under popular leaders. The
large murals fill walls on an open balcony
of the Palace and contain impressive full-
length portraits of Mexican heroes, including
Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec emperor; Mo-
relos; and Zapata. One panel shows how the
Palace was built for Cortes by slave labor;
another shows Cortes receiving tribute pay-
ments from Indians; while contrasting with
these is a panel of a priest helping the na-
tives. These highly praised murals, rendered
with great decorative power and depth of
feeling, portray stoic submission by Indians
while suffering.

Rivera's large frescoes in the National Pal-
ace have as their center of interest the eagle-
and-serpent Emblem of State. This, the
largest mural, is on the staircase-landing wall
and includes many figures representing per-
sons in all walks of life who are making per-
sonal contributions to help attain and retain
the glory of Mexican freedom for all people
of the nation. The vast work was begun in
1929 and completed in 1935. The work is a
great decorative achievement with much nar-
rative emphasis. It depicts the whole pano-
rama of Mexican history, showing the pre-
Colonial life of Indians and the changes

108

after the Revolution had given them freedom.

A notable work performed for the Ministry
of Health is Life and Physical Fitness, in
which the panel depicting Strength is sym-
bohzed by a reclining female nude; Knowl-
edge is interpreted in stained-glass windows,
the design for which were by Rivera, the
glass being made at Puebla. Rivera also
painted numerous murals in California for
various civic groups, besides fulfilling com-
missions for individuals and teaching a sum-
mer-term university course.

In 1933 Rivera began work on a large
mural commission for the R.C.A. Building
lobby, Rockefeller Center, New York. Rivera's
designs brought adverse criticism because a
portrait of Lenin was placed in a group of
American workers; the mural was condemned
after a court trial, but Mr. Rockefeller paid
Rivera fully for the work. The next year
Rivera reconstructed a duplicate of it in the
Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City. In the Mex-
ican version of the work, Rivera substituted
Mexican features for the controversial ones
in the R.C.A. version. A large mural for the
Hotel del Prado dining-room was Rivera's
next commission; it offers criticism of graft-
ing office-holders who exploited national re-
sources. At this time he turned to painting
easel works featuring Mexican life— land-
scapes and portraits for museums and private
collectors.

An early modern-style residence in Mex-
ico City was designed for Rivera by Juan
O'Gorman (1929-30) intended primarily for
a studio home for the artist and his wife,
Frida, who was a successful teacher of art,
painter, and lecturer. After her death in
1954 it was converted into a museum for her
art and a larger studio-home was planned,
with Juan O'Gorman again the architect; it
contained a large museum for display of
Rivera's collection of pre-Colonial sculptures
and historical items, which he presented to
Mexico. This modernistic, functional struc-
ture was named by the artist "Anahuacalli,"

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

in honor and memory of the Aztecs who had
lived in the Valley of Anahuac.

Rivera's last large project was a huge
mosaic-relief decoration of exterior walls for
the Olympic Stadium, Mexico City; his de-
sign, Peace Between Nations, was an inter-
pretation of the ideals of Quetzalcoatl, the
Toltec God of Peace. Though unfinished
when Rivera died, it was completed accord-
ing to his design by Juan O'Gorman; made
entirely of native Mexican materials, includ-
ing semi-precious stones, the work consti-
tutes a grand achievement of modern art.
Rivera's mosaic murals on the exterior walls
of the University Library and the Transpor-
tation Center in Mexico City, are likewise
made exclusively of native stones.

PLATE 87. Flower Vendor. San Francisco Mu-
seum of Art, San Francisco, Calif. Albert M.
Bender Collections. Courtesy San Francisco
Museum of Art

The Fhwer Vendor (Plate 87), an oil by
Diego Rivera in the San Francisco Museum
of Art, expresses Indian primitivism in its
simple, monumental forms combined with
the rich earthy color typical of this master
painter.

Rivera's art reflects his primary interest

Diego Rivera, 1886-1957

109

PLATE 88. Cathedral. Guadalajara. State of
Jalisco. Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

in the contemporary world of progress in
machinery for labor-saving aids to relieve the
burdens of overworked humanity. But he
was supremely conscious of the world's social
meanings. His early murals in the amphi-
theatre of the Preparatory School and in the
Ministry of Education were devoted to the
social, economic, and political problems be-
setting Mexico. The Revolution became the
source of his great frescoes of Chapingo,
which he charged with symbolism. His loy-
alty to mankind is manifested especially in
the murals showing Mexican peons. Rivera

has given the art world an unhesitating and
confident leadership to bring betterment to
the land he loved.

Diego Rivera died at the age of 70, No-
vember 15, 1957, having achieved a high
place in world art history and won acclaim
as one of the greatest muralists of all time
and a benefactor of Mexico and its people.
He is buried in the Rotunda of Illustrious
Sons of Mexico. Honoring his lifelong de-
voted service to his homeland, a permanent
exhibit of his art is displayed in the National
Memorial, Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City.

10
JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO, 1883-1949

Jose Clemente Orozco, a great Mexican art-
ist of world renown, was a master of profound
emotional and imaginative force. Born on
November 23, 1883, at Zapotlan, a village
in Jalisco, he was descended from pioneer
settlers of Spanish-Indian heredity. Mem-
bers of his family had held public positions
of importance at Guadalajara and his mother
was a talented musician. The family moved
from Zapotlan to Guadalajara while Jose was
a young boy. This fine capital city of Jalisco
is located in a valley surrounded by moun-
tains, its principal structure being the im-
pressive Cathedral of Guadalajara in the
State of Jalisco (Plate 88), which has hand-
some Baroque towers and beautiful interior
decorations of that style. Another old build-
ing is the Government Palace, made of red
lava stone which proved strong enough to
withstand cannon fire in the Revolution. Dur-
ing the post-Reconstruction period its walls
were decorated with Orozco's frescoes pre-
senting panoramic scenes of Mexican history,
which murals are rated among the artist's
finest work. In 1888 the family moved to
Mexico City, although Orozco returned long
years later to estabhsh his studio-home in
Guadalajara. Following his death it was dedi-
cated as a museum in his memory.

The artist's early training began with at-

tendance at night classes of San Carlos
Academy; later he received a scholarship for
study at the National Agricultural School
where he earned a degree in engineering
though continuing his education at the Uni-
versity of Mexico, studying Classics, mathe-
matics, and architecture. Orozco's training
in careful methods of work and research were
of special benefit to his later career in art.
As mentioned above, the first influence of art
upon him came from his haunting the studio-
workshop of Jose Guadalupe Posada, whose
satiric caricatures, macabre drawings of fan-
tastic skeletons, interpretations of folklore,
and denunciation of the Diaz regime with
derisive yet humorous sketches all greatly
impressed Orozco. He became filled with a
desire to help the miserable condition of
Mexico's poor with his art. In 1905 he en-
tered the Academy to prepare for an art
career, adding self-planned study in anatomy
to his art curriculum. After his father's death
Orozco attended night classes at the Acad-
emy, and earned his living by drawing car-
toons for newspapers and magazines, an
experience which gave valuable practical
training for his future art career. It helped
free him from academic formalism in art and
encouraged his immediate branching out in
development of a vital individual style.

110

Josf Clemente Orozco, 1883-1949

Due to a severe accident caused by an
explosion, three fingers were torn from his
left hand; ensuing infection made drastic
surgery necessary, leaving only a blunt
stump without fingers where his left hand
had been. Also one eye was damaged, re-
quiring Orozco always to wear strong lenses
thereafter. A singular result was that his art
often emphasized hands in later paintings,
and he studied the way great masters used
hands in their work. A notable example is
Orozco's famous Prometheus fresco ( see Plate
79) with details of Quetzalcoatl and Father
Hidalgo portraits in which the treatment of
hands resembles that of El Greco.

Dr. Alt's emphasis on folk art influenced
Orozco to paint the Mexican scene with
sympathetic and expressive emphasis. While
making caricatures and illustrations for news-
papers he was led to produce works showing
concern for severe social problems besetting
the Mexican poor and he felt it his duty to
inform the masses of severe injustices, urg-
ing their correction through his art. The
plight of innocent victims of postwar prob-
lems caused Orozco to champion them and
he began by depicting these people in a
series of water colors. The Outcasts consists
of one hundred studies portraying their
tragic condition of life in Mexico City. The
exhibition received highest praise for the
vigor and plastic power of his art. His style
underwent a decided change about 1915
when he began to emphasize strict simplifi-
cation of forms and undertook to develop an
entirely personal version of Expressionism.
His new approach was characterized by more
rhythmic organization and willful distortion,
which he employed to enhance the emo-
tional content of his compositions. Though
bearing resemblance to modern Expression-
istic styles, his original version ofiFered a far
more powerful interpretation. Orozco's art
then became characterized by forceful direc-
tion and great strength of movement, very
diflFerent from the static, decorative orchestra-

111

tion that had been perfected in Rivera's mu-
rals.

After a visit to New York in 1921, Orozco
returned to Mexico, where he assisted in
forming the Syndicate of Artists and Sculp-
tors, taking an enthusiastic lead in this
project, a chief aim of which was to revive
the pre-Hispanic heritages and cultures. He
was then led into thorough research in Aztec,
Toltec, and Mixtec art sources found in an-
cient Mexican relics, ceramics, and folk art.
At this time he made an extensive study of
color chemistry found in relics of art in
Teotihuacan's murals and fragmentary re-
mains of pre-Columbian paintings at Monte
Alban. He analyzed these specimens and was
enabled to develop a new paint formula
which permitted greater brilliance of the
paint after it dried. Orozco's experiments be-
tween 1922 and 1928 brought satisfying
progress to the vast mural art program.

Orozco's murals at the National Prepara-
tory School include a large array of native
scenes, the Conquest, and Colonial days—
an example from this group being the fresco
detail, (1922-27) The Franciscan Father and
the Indian (Plate 89). Certain of these mu-
rals are scenes of war showing wretched
wives and mothers of soldiers, aged folk,
and destitute beggars. These murals were
rendered in deep, rich tones, portraying with
symbolic realism the times of national de-
spair and bloodshed. An easel painting of
the period shows the death of Zapata (Plate
90. Zapata. Oil). Because both Orozco and
Siqueiros had seen active service in the
Revolution, they vividly portrayed its hor-
rors and the dire aftereflFects of it on family
life. Orozco interprets this deeply felt soldier-
mother relationship in a fresco detail. The
Mother's Farewell (Plate 91). The mother's
bent figure and deeply set eyes with their
intense expression are reminiscent of Giotto's
great emotional art.

On a return visit to New York, Orozco was
joined by Siqueiros, and together they in-

112

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

spected modem manufacturing installations
to learn new and efficient methods for use of
labor-saving machines, which they hoped
could be introduced into Mexico for improve-

PLATE 89. Franciscan Father and the Indian.
Fresco detail. National Preparatory School,
Mexico City, D.F. 1922-1927. Courtesy Art of
Mexico.

ment of labor conditions. On a later trip to
New York, Orozco exhibited his art widely
and received encouragement from many sales
to museums and universities. Private collec-
tors also began to seek his art, and he was com-
missioned to paint murals for the New York
School of Social Research. On these walls he
painted (1930) several panels featuring the
brotherhood of all races of men. Although
Orozco was associated with very advanced
thinkers who had strong ideals with which
he entirely agreed, he explained that it was
his desire to champion only oppressed Mex-
icans through the influence of his art. He re-

fused to join political associations or attend
their gatherings, saying "I live quietly with
my family and present my true feelings and
behefs in my paintings." But his art never-
theless was filled with deep and vigorous
messages for the world.

Orozco's Revolutionary murals realistically
present battle scenes in which gunfire with
its accompanying smoke is dramatically ren-
dered. The horror of active warfare is shown
by uprising swirls indicating havoc and dev-
astation. Orozco had never favored Impres-
sionism as a method of painting, his color
tones were deep, earthy colors mixed with
gray but enlivened with brighter, warm
tones which brought contrast. His murals

PLATE 90. Zapata. Oil. Courtesy The Art Insti-
tute of Chicago

Jose Clemente Orozco, 1883-1949

113

PLATE 91. The Mother's Farewell. Fresco detail.
National Preparatory School, Mexico City, D.F.,
1922-1927. Courtesy Art of Mexico

in two colleges— at Pomona in Claremont,
California and at Dartmouth in Hanover,
New Hampshire— portray Orozco's powerful
imaginative concepts and emotional intensity.
Orozco began work on the murals at Dart-
mouth College in 1932, the gigantic task be-
ing completed in two years. His theme there
portrays Mexico's ancient peoples— the Mon-
golian migration and the trail of Mexican

tribes, which contains men ten feet high ar-
ranged to give the impression of humanity
pressing forward to reach higher goals. Other
panels show Settlement and Human Sacrifice.
The most moving feature of the murals is
Orozco's showing that men were offered a
chance to follow higher goals but they re-
fused Quetzalcoatl's admonition to live in
peace. The Legend of Quetzalcoatl presents

114

the theme of mankind's being offered the
worthy way of peace. The Departure of
Quetzalcoatl (see Plate 17) shows this god,
clad in white robe, sailing ofiF in a dramatic
dark sea and sky into a scene "of the un-
known." Orozco's interpretation of this most
important of all Indian legends brings appre-
ciation of pre-Hispanic primitives in this ap-
peal for peace. The Return of Quetzalcoatl
foreshadows the Coming of Cortes, Revolu-
tion, and The Machine Age. Another fresco
of the series ( Plate 92. Christ Destroying His
Cross. Fresco detail) presents a militant
Christ who holds an axe; His cross is at His
feet, which is intended to present aroused
spirituality rising above war weapons, which
symbolize violence and hatred. The compo-
sition, based on strong diagonal lines, pre-
sents Christ in front-center, standing with
power as the judge of men. His eyes are
focused to meet eyes of spectators in a com-
pelling gaze.

Orozco's first trip to Europe was in 1932,
when he had become world famous. He
spared the time from work to study art mas-
terpieces in order to find his way further to
help all people through his great gift. On
returning to Mexico he painted a commis-
sion for the government in the Palace of
Fine Arts, the subject being Strife; A Con-
demnation of War. In Martyrdom of St.
Stephen (Plate 93) a group of six men par-
ticipate in the tragic stoning of a saint.
Orozco's interpretation is a denunciation of
prejudice practiced by a group. It ofiFers a
plea to all men to cease the overbearing,
destructive forces of hatred, prejudice, and
bigotry, and presents Orozco's strong feeling
for human rights. He continued painting
with seemingly unlimited power and imagin-
ative invention, next decorating (1936-39)
the assembly hall, dome, and walls of the
University of Guadalajara, fulfilling a com-
mission from his native state. At this time
Orozco's power and capacity attained their
height; the subject Creative Man shows how

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 92. Christ Destroying His On n L russ.
Fresco detail. Dartmouth College, Baker Li-
brary, Hanover, N.H. By permission of the Trus-
tees of Dartmouth College

each man can become, through his life ser-
vice, a mystical source of help for all man-
kind, which is the responsibility of each. The
mural presents mankind in all walks of life,
showing how each man fights against sin;
Orozco presents the belief here that the gift
of life is a sacrament given by God's love
of humanity to all men. He was next com-
missioned to paint the walls of the Gov-
ernment Palace ( 1937 ) , and there he worked
in the historic building which, from his child-
hood in Guadalajara, he remembered with
awe and wonder. Panels there show historic
and Revolutionary subjects and one, in the
Senate Chamber, contains his famous por-
trait of Father Hidalgo (see Plate 59).

Orozco had painted many mural panels in
1926 in the National Preparatory School hav-,

Jose Clemente Orozco, 1883-1949

115

PLATE 93. Martyrdom of St. Stephen. Oil. I.B.M.
Collection of Art, N.Y. Courtesy Mundelein
College, Chicago

ing historic significance and great and com-
pelling art value, such as his large, full-size
portraits of Cortes and Malinche, his native
interpreter. The characterization of both is
both notable and interesting in Orozco's
forceful style. A chapel in the ancient Found-
ling Home contains a memorial panel to a
priest offering aid to oppressed Indians. Man
of the Sea (Plate 94), a fresco detail of The
Four Elements painted by Orozco between
1936 and 1939 in the Guadalajara Orphan-
age, interprets how primitive Indians who

were worshipers of nature forces, after be-
coming Christians were aware of spiritual
mystic presences which offered them hope
of a better life. Among the great masterpieces
Orozco painted in Guadalajara are those
which are judged monumental works of
twentieth-century art. The Cupola of the
Auditorium there shows his ease in render-
ing foreshortened figures with much the
same power as that possessed by Michael-
angelo and Tintoretto. The numerous easel
paintings and portraits of Orozco's later years,

116

now in important world collections, show his
keen powers of interpretation. The magnifi-
cent portrait of the Archbishop of Mexico is
one of his last works in Mexico City.

Orozco was always ready to accept new
ideas, approaches, and techniques, and he
constantly tried to promote improvement in
methods of work though he appreciated the
art of ancient Aztec and pre-Colimibian
workers and was able to correlate their aims
and accomplishments with present-day inno-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

vations. An example is the modern panels he
made for the open-air theater and concert
hall of Mexico City's Conservatory of Music,
The National Allegory ( Plate 95 ) . This work,
consisting of four panels entitled Defeat and
Death of Ignorance, was designed for the
National Normal School in Mexico City. Here
Orozco used a combination of ethyl silicate
paint on a base of concrete surface.

In 1941 Orozco painted the Supreme Court
Building walls, inside the ancient structure

PLATE 94. Man of the Sea. Fresco detail from
The Four Elements. Orphanage, Guadalajara.
Courtesy Art of Mexico

Jose Clemente Orozco, 1883-1949

117

located on the southeast comer of the Zocalo.
These frescoes are considered to be among

PLATE 95. National Allegory. Exterior mural,
National Normal School, Mexico City, D.F.,
1947-1948. Courtesy Mexican Government De-
partment of Tourism

his finest achievements. The first-floor fres-
coes show the present-day values of Labor
in the world. The famous murals in the Hos-
pital of Jesus, Mexico City ( 1942 ) , interpret
the Apocalypse and include one supreme
panel, The Judgment Day. During his last
year Orozco painted a masterful work for
the Chamber of Deputies in Guadalajara, a
masterpiece regarded as the best example of
Mexican Expressionism. By that time his
emphasis had become more subjective in its
expression. Humanity was the theme of Oroz-
co's great work in Guadalajara, and it was
there and in Mexico City that his art rose
to its greatest creative heights.

Orozco died of a heart attack on September
7, 1949, in his sixty-sixth year in Guadalajara
and his memory is greatly revered by all
Mexicans. Appropriately, his remains were
laid in the foyer of the Palace of Fine Arts,
Mexico City, which he had decorated for the
government. The supreme majesty and mag-
nitude of Orozco's art lifts it to a universal
level, for which he is counted among the
great in the world's history of art.

DAVID ALFARO SIQUEIROS, 1898-

David Alfaro Siqueiros, one of the three
"greats" of the Golden Age of Mexican art,
was born at Chihuahua on December 29,
1898. Along with Orozco, Rivera, and others,
he led the pioneer Syndicate Art Movement,
and is a prominent contributor to modem
art methods and techniques. Although a
famed artist, he leads a busy life sponsoring
improvement of various social patterns in
his homeland and in the world. Siqueiros's
murals depict stirring scenes of Revolution-
ary conflict and feature post-Reconstruction
needs for the development of Mexico. As a
leading contemporary artist he is exploring
new and untried media to discover better
methods; his talents and skills are exerting
important influences today. Siqueiros stands
alone as Mexico's "last angry artist," though
he is now living graciously in his Cuemavaca
studio-home, where he fills commissions for
portraits and easel paintings and willingly
does all he can to help Mexican art and
people.

The artist's mother, of Portuguese descent,
died when he was two, and paternal relatives
reared him in Irapuato, Guanajuato. At age
eleven he entered a Jesuit school in Mexico
City, later (1911) attending the National
Preparatory School by day and San Carlos
Academy classes at night. He studied paint-

ing at Martinez's open-air school, Santa Anita,
and Dr. Alt's art courses at Orizaba. Siquei-
ros's grandfather, a retired colonel, encour-
aged him to follow a military career and at
age fifteen he joined the Revolutionary forces,
soon becoming a lieutenant and seeing active
duty at the front; later (1914), as captain,
he served under Zapata. His friendship with
a fellow-oflicer, Manuel Suarez, has grown
through the years, his friend, as was men-
tioned above, now being a leading indus-
trialist who has generously sponsored manv
of the artist's projects. Following the Revolu-
tion, Siqueiros received a diplomatic appoint-
ment as military attache of the Mexican Le-
gation in Paris, and meeting Rivera there,
both young artists became interested in post-
Impressionism and Cubist art. They felt the
need to improve art in their homeland, which
needed direction and guidance. Soon after
(1921), Siqueiros left Paris for Barcelona and
while there published an art manifesto urg-
ing Mexican artists to follow indigenous
sources, thereby strengthening native art
with originahty and creativity. This early
manifesto prepared Siqueiros to write the
Syndicate Manifesto in Mexico City in 1921
and to become the Syndicate's organizing
director. The principal aims of the Syndicate
were to make Mexican art independent of

118

PLATE 96. Pegasus of the Conquest. Lithograph.
I.B.M. Collection, N.Y. Courtesy of Mundelein
College, Chicago

120

foreign domination, to help native artists de-
velop a socially conscious national art, to
promote Mexican art traditions, and to insist
that art be shovs^n publicly in places where
the masses could enjoy it.

In 1923 Siqueiros founded El Machete
(The Scythe), oflBcial newspaper of the
Mexican Communist Party, while also serv-
ing as secretary of the Syndicate. El Machete
was suppressed on government orders be-
cause of seditious inclusions and Siqueiros
was prevented from working on murals in
the National Preparatory School because of
public opposition to a few of his panels al-
though he was allowed to complete them in
1927. During his difficulties Orozco asked
him to assist on a large commission at the
University of Guadalajara, where a series of
superior panels was made.

Siqueiros developed a sculpturesque style
of painting by which he achieved heightened
realization of structural form, exemplified in
his famous mural. Burial of a Dead Worker.
Inspired by the murder of his friend, the
Governor of Yucatan, the work is character-
ized by extreme simplification, the forms ren-
dered with sculptural depth based on a ver-
sion of cubist masses. Because Siqueiros was
interested in archaeological research of an-
cient stone masks, he made the faces of the
four men standing beside the cofiin resemble
such masks. The simplification in this paint-
ing gives it added solemnity and quiet force.

Pegasus of the Conquest (Plate 96), a litho-
graph, was made by Siqueiros during a
period when he was painting numerous easel
works in a flexible Expressionist style that
led him toward production of nonobjective
works. His theme is the Pegasus legend of
the winged horse which sprang from Me-
dusa at her death, the symbolism being re-
lated here to the Conquest of Mexico by
Cortes. A highly imaginative work, it shows
a series of rhythmic swirls used to create
an efi^ect of dynamic power and force, quali-
ties which became a dominant characteristic

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

of many of his later works. Because his ac-
tivities in labor organizations increased after
he became director of the large miner's union,
Siqueiros had less and less time to devote

PLATE 97. The Sob. Pyroxoline. Courtesy Mu-
seum of Modem Art. N.Y.

to art. While attending a 1930 labor con-
ference in Buenos Aires, he was expelled from
the Argentine because of ultra-radical public
statements, and later that year he was jailed
in Taxco, Mexico, for a demonstration on

David Alfaro Siqueiros, 1898-

May Day. But while serving his jail sentence
he made a series of excellent woodcuts, which
were published, and numerous easel works
expressing the sad condition of Mexicans,
which were sold. A typical work of this
period is an oil painting called The Soh
(Plate 97).

In 1932 he painted a large mural for the
Chouinard School of Art, Los Angeles, and
while in that city he gave a series of lectures
on methods and processes of modern art.
Successful experiments led Siqueiros to the
use of newer kinds of materials as substi-
tutes for conventional paints, and he shifted
from oils to pyroxilin, which served the good
purpose of quicker drying. Murals that he
painted for the California Worker's Union
were produced entirely with quick-drying
paints combined with glazes applied by
spray gun and airbrush. Siqueiros was now
allowed reentrance into the Argentine, to
teach art and lecture on modern mural
painting. His outdoor painting classes were
successful and he received numerous por-
trait commissions, all of which are fine char-
acterizations (Plate 98. Portrait of a Girl.
Duco on wood). This work is in his highly
individualized style and successfully captures
in a glowing interpretation a momentary
pose of an active young girl.

On returning to Mexico Siqueiros soon en-
countered difficulties with the police because
of his political activities and served a year
in the penitentiary in Mexico City, during
which time he painted over seventy easel
works, which were exhibited. These su-
perior paintings proved him an artist of high
ability. His color was of a distinctive depth,
the tones being applied freely with heavily
laden brush or palette knife; these combined
happily with his sureness of stroke and a style
that suggested great speed and force in ex-
ecution. His New York exhibition in 1936
was also highly successful; he received many
commissions for portraits, among them that
of George Gershwin. This portrait is in the

121

permanent collection of the Museum of Mod-
em Art, New York, as are also three airbnish
paintings which are of special interest.

Siqueiros was invited by Spain's loyalists
to direct a propaganda program for promo-
tion of the war, but he refused the offer and
joined the army in 1938 as a lieutenant-

PLATE 98. Portrait of a Girl. Duco on wood.
Private collection. Courtesy Madame Angelica A.
de Siqueiros

colonel. He later helped Spanish Loyalists
who desired to settle in Mexico, making all
arrangements for them to be received suit-
ably there. In 1940, following the murder of
his friend Trotsky and during unsettled po-
litical conditions in his homeland, Siqueiros
departed for South America, where he
painted a mural commissioned by the Mex-
ican government, one to be given to Chile.
Later he painted several murals in Cuba,
then returned to Mexico to fulfill a commis-
sion for a mural in the Electrical Union head-

David Aifaro Siqueiros, 1898-

quarters in Mexico City. He also painted
many easel works at this time.

One of these easel paintings, Sunrise of
Mexico (Plate 99), executed in oil with
heavily loaded bnish, depicts the national
rejoicing when Mexican oil fields and their
rights were taken away from English and
American interests and returned to the na-
tion. The painting is unique among Siquei-
ros's work, with joy depicted in a wildly
spontaneous emotion of Mexico's long-sufiFer-
ing people as it beckons the nation's en-
trance into a better life. Siqueiros invented
here a freely expressive treatment with em-
pasto paint, in swirls handled with vigorous,
Ijold energy and yet highly controlled direc-

123

tion. This modern Expressionistic work ex-
udes a feeling of joyous freedom, its distor-
tion of natural form and elimination of detail
helping create an empathy which heightens
its emotional force.

Siqueiros has in recent years staflFed his
workshop in New York, which produces
large mural commissions and where experi-
ments are conducted in use of pyroxylin,
plastics, and lacquer. He advocated use of
cheaper materials, which encourages fre-
quent changes in murals where no need for
permanency exists, and his experiments have
brought flexibility and diversity to modem
art production.

When Siqueiros plans a work of art and

PLATE 100. March of Humanity. Fresco detail.
Olympic Stadium, Mexico City, D.F. Courtesy
Ines Amor, Mexico City, and The Chicago
Tribune

PLATE 99. Sunrise of Mexico. Oil, 1945. I.B.M.
Collection, N.Y. Courtesy Mundelein College,
Chicago

PLATE 101. The New Democracy. Fresco detail.
Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City, D.F. Courtesy
Ines Amor, Mexico City

outlines his ideas he often welcomes a group
of trusted helpers who may then proceed
to complete it without weakening his orig-
inal concept or the quality of painting. In
Siqueiros's extensive travels in Cuba, Ar-
gentina, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, the
United States, and Spain he finds suitable
helpers who have the qualities as artists to
meet his need for highly qualified assistance.
Large murals were painted in 1962 for the
Museum of History at Chapultepec Castle,
Mexico City, to celebrate the end of dicta-
torship in Mexico following the Revolution.
One section is Cuauhtemoc Against the Myth,
exalting the last Aztec Emperor, a great pa-
triot dear to all Mexican hearts. Another
more recent undertaking is a gigantic mural
covering 48,000 square feet designed for the
1968 Olympics, a fresco detail entitled The

March of Humanity (Plate 100). This sec-
tion depicts, in the artist's words, "unhappy
mothers with sick and hungry children." Si-
queiros's art follows and flows from his feel-
ing for mankind. The concept is humanistic,
profound, and useful, because it promotes
a sense of values to direct and aid humanity.
This series of murals consists of fifty-four
giant panels and presents a history of the
Mexican people, the vast work being spon-
sored in part by the artist's long-time friend,
Manuel Suarez, the Mexican industrialist.
Some of the scenes represent historical
events; others are of pre-Columbian men,
the arrival of Cortes, the Revolution, the
Mexican people, and benefits brought Mexico
by modem machinery.

His New Democracy (Plate 101), a fresco
painted for the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico

David Alfaro Siqueiros, 1898-

City, shows in detail a clenched fist sym-
bolic of unity. Here the painting is highly
skillful and exact, and the work expresses an
impulsive and monumental vitality and an
exalted force for the noblest ideals of justice
and heroism.

Present-day Mexican art, born of the Revo-
lution, is ably exemplified in the art of Si-
queiros, whose wide contribution covers fres-
coes, easel paintings, and expressive por-
traits. His art represents a high level of
plastic power and creativity, and though he
is often thought of as an Internationalist,
Siqueiros has made Mexico his predominant
interest, always featuring help for its people.
Siqueiros's progressive methods and sure-
handed, well-studied craftsmanship give life
to modem art. His creativity covers a wide
range, some of his art being purely abstract.
He is not limited by time or space, and of-
fers a wide range of aesthetic accomplishment
that results from his amazing powers of per-
ception and observation. Along with his ex-
perimentation in new materials, he has al-
ways conducted a scholarly investigation of
mediums used by pre-Hispanic artists, in-
cluding such materials as colored stones and
metals.

Siqueiros is rightly proud of his ability to
achieve a fine quality of team-work with
his assistants on large art projects— for the

125

Palace of Fine Arts and the Museum of
History, Mexico City, and on other extended
works of vast scale. In his younger years
he successfully painted frescoes in the chapel
and old university at Guadalajara and a later
large work was the murals in the Subtreasury
Building in Mexico City. His art career be-
gan when he painted frescoes in a small
stairway wall space in the Preparatory
School (1922-24).

In 1950, Siqueiros, together with Rivera,
Orozco, and Rufino Tamayo, represented
Mexican painting in the twenty-fifth Bien-
nial Exhibit at Venice. He was highly hon-
ored by the award of second prize, following
Pierre Matisse who was awarded first. David
Alfaro Siqueiros ranks as one of Mexico's
three great muralists, although his dynamic
approach to art requires him to ofi^er change
and innovation to mural art expression in
our day. His chief emphasis is on achieving
a new dynamic expression and he is ever
searching for ways and means to solve the
problems of to-day's art. For this reason he
is a forerunner.

A champion of the rights of the Mexican
masses, Siqueiros is affectionately called "El
Maestro." The tremendous energy with which
he has fought for social justice in his beloved
homeland has been lifelong.

12
MODERN MEXICAN ART

Giants of the Mexican art Renaissance— Ri-
vera, Orozco, and Siqueiros— brought great
publicity and popularity to Mexico, and they
inspired enthusiastic later artists to create
a modern native art. Many younger artists
were bom after the Reconstruction period,
which had previously been distinguished by
spectacular mural art, but there was no need
later to require artists to use art for social
reform or to satirize unworthy politicians.
Their concern was the seeking of methods
to arrive at plastic art values primarily to
render the Mexican scene— subjects expres-
sive of life's activities. Although today's na-
tive art is not politically motivated, it retains
the tnie values of Orozco's and Siqueiros's
Expressionism along with the narrative har-
monies of Rivera's decorative art. Modem
artists have been redirected in ways leading
to Abstractionism, Surreahsm, and the newer
Expressionism, finally to achieve a poetic,
exotic, modem result. Although present-day
Mexican artists draw inspiration from pre-
Columbian sources, they are featuring indus-
trial development and its impact on life. Si-
queiros's art is presenting new ideals and a
reevaluation of Mexican hfe with its ma-
chine-saving innovations and materials prac-
tical for the art of today.
When Adolph Best-Maugard introduced

modem methods of teaching art in Mexico's
public schools, emphasizing originality and
creative expression, he provided ways to
lead young pupils to paint pictures of scenes
in their own lives. The schools provided
capable, well-prepared art teachers who
earned govemment scholarships for ad-
vanced art study to improve their art ca-
reers, and several of today's leading artists
began their life work as teachers in gov-
emment schools. Alfredo Ramos Martinez
assembled a Mexican Children's Art Show,
which was shown in many cities of the
United States and abroad and received en-
thusiastic appreciation and high praise. Mau-
gard presented a first Folkloric Festival in
Chapultepec Park, featuring native dances
and music. Many of the colorful native cos-
tumes and stage sets were designed and ex-
ecuted by student art classes.

Modern Mexican artists began to feature
more easel paintings and many murals were
made for recently built schools. Folk art is
the popular subject and it was presented
with special emphasis on simplification and
the achieving of plastic excellence. Carlos
Merida, who came to Mexico from his home
in Guatemala following art study abroad,
exhibited a series of watercolor folk sub-
jects featuring dances in native costume;

126

Modern Mexican Art

127

PLATE 102. The Bird. Oil. Carlos Merida. l.B.M.
Collection, N.Y. Courtesy Mundelein College,
Chicago

these folkloric scenes were rendered with
plastic intention and they reahzed a fine
integration of art values. Merida taught in
government schools and the municipal open-
air classes, his later work being frescoes for
the Department of Education's recently built
schools. His success in the latter has made
him a leader in Mexico's modern art move-
ment. After returning from further study
abroad, his art became increasingly simpli-
fied, finally becoming abstract; he now is

the recognized leader of Mexican Abstrac-
tionism. Among his recent easel paintings is
The Bird (Plate 102). Augustin Lazo, Orozco
Romero, and others are using abstract deco-
rative treatments in their recent easel works,
while Merida and Rufino Tamayo are now
tending toward Surrealistic studies in their
paintings. Georg Gonzales Camera has been
praised for his highly original art panels
designed for commercial use by the Bank
of Mexico.

PLATE 103. The Bone. Oil. Miguel Covarrubias.
1940. Owned by the artist, Mexico City. Cour-
tesy Ines Amor, Mexico City. Galeria De Artes
Mexicano, Mexico City

PLATE 104. The Aunts. Oil. Julio Castellanos.
Museum of Modem Art. N.Y. Courtesy Museum
of Modem Art, N.Y.

130

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 105. Children at Play. Oil. Jesus Guerrero
Galvan. I.B.M. Art Collection, N.Y. Courtesy
Mundelein College, Chicago

Leopoldo Mendez, an associate of Siqueiros
who painted on many of the latter s murals,
has become Mexico's leading lithographer.
His works have a vigorous, strong style and
are creative and especially original. He
painted, with Pablo O'Higgins, Rivera's as-
sistant, on large murals for a government
hospital, later rendering several murals in
South America. Another assistant of Rivera,
Maximo Pacheco, a full-blooded Otomi In-
dian and an artist-naturalist, made murals
for schools, including the open-air art school
at Sarmiento, where his painting has been
highly praised. Miguel Covarrubias has be-

come famous for his creative interpretations
of well-known contemporary people, and his
singular portrait studies have often been
featured on the covers of Time Magazine.
His later works include realistic and sympa-
thetic studies of New York's Harlem Blacks,
which have evoked much interest and praise.
The artist has been teaching at the School of
Anthropology of the University of Mexico
since 1947. The Bone (Plate 103) signifies
by its title— a derisive name given patronage
ofiice-holders— a characteristic Mexican type.
Covarrubias 's fine easel paintings and por-
trait studies show modem stylistic simplicity,

Modern Mexican Art

though he relates his work to both conserva-
tive and modern art emphases. His exquisite
book illustrations for Isles of Bali, and his
mural panels for the Museum of Natural His-
tory, New York, and the Museum of Modem
Art, Mexico City, proclaim his highly skilled
decorative artistry of treatment of the theme
"All Races of Men."

A new and harmonious plan has been
worked out by murahsts working on the
same school building for the Department of
Education, by which they agree on ways to
integrate and relate their panels in style
and color for an eflFect of unity. This arrange-

131

ment was developed by Juan O'Gorman, the
great Mexican architect-artist.

Julio Castellanos (d. 1947) was a gifted
young artist whose fine frescoes in the Mel-
chor Ocampo School have been highly
praised as significant creative achievements.
He was also a skilled lithographer, as is
shown in his memorable work Surgery, which
has great human interest. The Aunts (Plate
104), one of his oil paintings, is a notable
portrayal of native women, showing the
typical strong torso and short legs charac-
teristic of most of the Mexican Indian type.
This work shows the influence of primitive

PLATE 106. The Group. Watercolor. Jesus Gue-
rrero Galvan. I.B.M. Art Collection, N.Y. Cour-
tesy Mundelein College, Chicago

PLATE 107. The Little One. Oil. Jesus Guerrero
Galvan. I.B.M. Art Collection, N.Y. Courtesy
Mundelein College, Chicago

PLATE 108. Music. Fresco. Rufino Tamayo. Na-
tional Conservatory of Music, Mexico City, D.F.
1933. Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 109. Water Girls. Watercolor. Rufino Ta-
mayo. I.B.M. Art Collection, N.Y. Courtesy
Mundelein College, Chicago

Modern Mexican Art

135

native art, which Castellanos studied ex-
tensively. Throughout his short life he was
much appreciated and became one of the
best known of the younger Mexican painters.

Jesus Guerrero Galvan, a native of Jalisco,
painted numerous murals for schools and
taught art for the Department of Education
at Guadalajara and in various colleges. He
now lives in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico
City, in a comfortable old home surrounded
by beautiful large trees, shrubbery, and flow-
ers. He has been very successful in his mural
paintings, and his special interest is in
painting children (Plate 105. Children at
Play. Oil). He uses tonal combinations of
gray-blues, violets, and modulated light yel-
lows in his many renderings of family life
for which specialty he has become famous.
Galvan organizes his compositions in ways
that often take liberties with true proportions
of the body or of nature; his willful distor-
tions are always used as organizing design
elements in his compositions. The Group
(Plate 106) presents strong contrasts in an in-
terpretation of a bare Mexican scene, one
of severe pathos which is enforced by the
landscape background that creates a deeply
felt, bleak realism focused on an overall tone
of emotional sadness. The Little One (Plate
107) shows Galvan's use of striking contrast
in the rendering of form in this realistic in-
terpretation in oils, of peasant children.

Rufino Tamayo, a recognized leader of
modem Mexican artists, received his first
instruction at the Academy, which included
a series of courses at the government spon-
sored open-air art schools; he then studied
abroad in the Paris studio of Georges Braque.
Today, although he first won recognition as
a fine colorist, Tamayo is in the forefront of
the Abstractionists and Surrealists. Bom at
Oaxaca, of native Zapotec heredity, at the
age of two when both his parents died,
he was taken to live in Mexico City, where
his aunt reared him. She sold fruits and
flowers at the municipal market and Rufino

learned to arrange her booth's colorful dis-
plays day by day. He tells that this oppor-
tunity gave him the pleasure of selecting
color arrangements and helped him in later
years to plan color syntheses for his art.
Tamayo's still-life studies, portraits, and
easel works are distinguished for their care-
fully organized color harmonies and their
rich plastic values emphasizing structural
form.

PLATE 110. Self Portrait. Oil. Rufino Tamayo.
Private Collection (Solomon Hale, Mexico City).
Courtesy Ines Amor, Galeria De Artes Mexi-
cano, Mexico City

In 1933 he painted a mural (Plate 108.
Music. Fresco detail.) for the National Con-
servatory of Music, Mexico City. It combines
in rhythmic treatment figures personifying
themes of musical cadences. Water-Girls
(Plate 109), a watercolor by Tamayo, has
carefully studied tonal gradations and skill-

PLATE 111. The Fire Eater. Tempera. Jose
Chavez Morado. I.B.M. Collection, N.Y. Cour-
tesy Mundelein College, Chicago

ful textural rendition of hair, cape, and
skirts, where careful color blendings enforce
interesting linear emphasis. The flaring skirts
such as the women of Oaxaca still wear
provides Tamayo with his favorite female
outline of spreading garments, which he de-
lights to paint. Tamayo's color has become
more somber in recent works but he always
achieves beauty of color, especially in his
reds and blues. Tamayo's art ever has a
stylistic emphasis on values in deeply mean-
ingful color. His abstract forms, often in the

background, are inspired by the dilapidated
walls of semi-deserted villages of the Mex-
ican scene. Tamayo's Self-Portrait (Plate 110.
Oil.) is a work of thoughtful simplicity ren-
dered in a flexible style, with emphasis on
the absorbed expression of his eyes. In 1938
Tamayo moved his studio to New York,
though he frequently visits his Mexican
home. Since 1940, Tamayo's art has become
increasingly psychological and introspective,
as may be seen in murals for the art library
at Smith College, Northampton, Massachu-

Modern Mexican Art

setts, and for the Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico
City. Abstractionist panels appear in several
mural projects made for various cities in the
United States. Tamayo's major influence
stems from the art of Picasso and the Sur-
realism of Paul Klee, the Swiss artist. In
recent works, Tamayo's individual style of
Surrealism combines his concept of symbolic
things seen or imagined, painted with an in-
creasingly grayed color harmony which is
so blended that the purity of color balance
is enchantingly lovely.

Jose Chavez Morado, a highly regarded
modern, creative artist is a native of Guate-
mala. He creates delightful folk art scenes

137

with graphic force and verve reminiscent
of Posada's fantastic and original art. Mo-
rado's various accomplishments include fresco
painting, wood carving, designing ballet sets,
magazine illustration, lithography, and mo-
saic-mural design. He taught for a time at
the Academy for the Department of Educa-
tion, then collaborated with Juan O'Gorman
on large mosaic-murals on University City
stnictures. Morado's The Fire Eater (Plate
111. Tempera.) is a typically vigorous work
of satiric force indicative of Mexican life,
portraying an old Indian legend he adapted
to modem use and succeeded in conveying
truth with a segment of myth such as is still

PLATE 112. The Dance of Death. Lithograph.
Jose Chavez Morado. l.B.M. Art Collection, N.Y.
Courtesy Mundelein College, Chicago

PLATE 113. The Man from Vera Cruz. Oil. Ro-
berto Montenegro. I.B.M. Art Collection, N.Y.
Courtesy Mundelein College, Chicago

Modern Mexican Art

strong among natives. Though a realist,
Morado delights in his imaginary characters
which exemplify in exaggerated ways the
fantastic foibles of humanity; for this he is
often regarded as was also his Mexican ante-
cedent, Posada, as a modern follower of Dau-
mier, the nineteenth-century French satirist.
Morado's lithograph Dance of Death (Plate
112) is a satiric example of his macabre sym-
bolism; its style resembles the art of Albrecht
Diirer's famous woodcuts, though Morado's
work shows in pathetic terms how a form of
mesmerism is still typical of many Mexican
people. His work is, like Diirer's, character-
ized by meticulous exactitude of line and
shading, by which he creates his people. His
characters express the undefinable quality
in the Indian personality as it is revealed
in thought and action. The foremost Mexican
lithographer, Morado is supreme in his field
of art, though there are now many highly
regarded Mexican lithographers.

Roberto Montenegro, a successful artist in
both easel and mural painting, expresses his
insistence on structural form in Man from
Vera Cruz (Plate 113. Oil.). This quiet por-
trait combines with an interesting use of
geometric simplifications in a carefully ar-
ranged background. Similarly, his frescoes
have thoughtfully planned elements through-
out their composition. Montenegro is now
working mainly on book illustration. He was
an able assistant of Dr. Alt, helping assemble
several popular arts and crafts shows. His
murals for the Department of Education
Building and the Benito Juarez School em-
phasize his special interest in Mexican folk
art.

Maria Izquierdo was born in the State of
Jahsco and later moved to Mexico City,
where she became a pupil of Rufino Tamayo,
whose guidance led her to become a highly
successful portraitist and landscapist, ex-
hibiting in Mexico, and the United States.
Her Self Portrait (Plate 114) is a realistic,
modem portrait study combining interesting

139

and strong linear rhythms in the fabric de-
sign of her gown. The painting contains dark
and light contrasts which assert primitive
directness.

Frida Kahlo, the artist-wife of Diego Ri-
vera, was a gifted and original painter, and
an excellent art teacher and lecturer. Though

PLATE 114. Self Portrait. Oil. Maria Izquierdo.
Private collection. Courtesy of the artist

a hfelong sufferer from a back injury in-
curred in an automobile accident when she
was sixteen, she overcame her health diffi-
culty and became a noted Mexican artist.
She was honored with a prize for her paint-
ing in the 1946 exhibit held bi-annually for
Mexican artists in the Palace of Fine Arts,
Mexico City. Frida Kahlo, who died in 1954,
was bom in Coyoacan, a suburb of Mexico
City, her mother being of Spanish-Indian
descent and her father a Genn an- Jewish
photographer whose art was highly regarded.

140

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 115. Self Portrait. Oil. Frida Kahlo (Ri-
vera), artist wife of Diego Rivera. I.B.M. Collec-
tion, N.Y. Courtesy Mundelein College, Chicago

Modern Mexican Art

Her Self Portrait (Plate 115) is an interest-
ing composition in oil that includes her pet
monkey in a background of tropical foliage
in a well-planned, skillfully interpreted, and
characteristic portrait study.

Juan O'Gorman, the gifted contemporary
Mexican architect-artist, has won fame as a
creative leader of modem art. He has had
success in original architectural use of native
stones for mural-mosaics applied to large
areas of exterior walls. These distinctive wall
designs have helped make the structures he
designed the most exciting architectural
achievements of modem world art. O'Gor-
man has planned highly functional studio-
homes for several Mexican artists and his
fine plans for schools, libraries, hotels, hos-
pitals, and civic stmctures have received
high praise. O'Gorman's architecture is sig-

141

niiicantly turned to effective use of indig-
enous motifs and he incorporates into his
exterior designs native symbols dear to the
Mexican heart, making good use of strong,
bold color. The Communication Center in
Mexico City, designed by Juan O'Gorman
(Plate 116), is a great stmcture, a Mexican
Government commission that has native stone
murals on the exterior of the building. It
combines many Indian motifs conveying a
message from the pre-Hispanic art of Toltec,
Mixtec, and Aztec tribes united in an array
of beautiful colors to perpetuate their mean-
ing and value for posterity.

Mexico's architecture indicates a multi-
tude of influences, from pre-Hispanic civil-
izations through the Colonial-Spanish and
French domination down to the present
space age of steel and glass. Mexico's archi-

PLATE 116. Communicatiom Building. Stone mo-
saic exterior. Juan O'Gorman, architect-artist de-
signer. Courtesy Mexican Government Depart-
ment of Tourism

142

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 117. National Museum of Anthropology,
Chapultepec, Mexico City. Architect Pedro Ra-
mirez Vazquez. Courtesy Mexican Government
Department of Tourism

tecture is characteristically daring and dra-
matic, an example of this being the marvelous
ideas and construction offered in the spec-
tacle of the National Museum of Anthro-
pology in Mexico City (Plate 117). This
outstanding stnicture was designed by the
architect, Pedro Ramirez Vazquez. It con-
tains twenty-five halls of display in the
strikingly modem building housing the heri-
tage of Mexico's long pre-Hispanic past, be-
ginning with the primitive hunters of 15,000

This great government project was erected
at a cost of over eleven million dollars
( estimated in United States money ) . In front
of the stnicture stands a huge statue of
Tlaloc, Aztec God of Rain, who provided
water for the Indians' corn and beans. The
statue is one of the world's largest, carved
from a single rock and weighing one-him-
dred-and-sixty-seven tons. The museum is
constructed entirely of native materials. Im-
pressive marble-covered halls open onto a
large patio, from the roof of which drips a

Modern Mexican Art

constant fall of water from an umbrella
fountain, which also commemorates Tlaloc.
Use of glass throughout the stnicture permits
extended views and increases the effect of
spaciousness. This great achievement of mod-
em architecture helps promote Mexico's fine
hopes for the future while offering apprecia-

143

tion of its legacy from the prehistoric past.
In successfully reaching maturity, today's
Mexican art proclaims the nation's freedom
while also featuring indigenous values which
preserve its ideals in a present flowering of
beauty and utility.

13
POPULAR ARTS OF MEXICO

The popular arts of Mexico are among the
most forceful of the nation's cultural expres-
sions. Since the dawn of primitive men, sur-
vival, security, and comfort depended on
man's resourcefulness in creating the neces-
sities not offered him by nature. To make
these useful objects required mental effort;
to decorate them arose from instinctive de-
light in beauty and the need for dexterity
in the use of hands. Gradually traditions
about the making of things grew, and were
handed down from generation to generation;
present-day Mexican popular art is the cul-
mination of this heritage in articles which
are both practical and beautiful. Traditions
have been modified to meet desirable im-
provements, which process has produced in
Mexico a rich and varied cultural develop-
ment for all its people.

Mexico is a land of contrasts emanating
from three great legacies— the ancient, the
Colonial, and the modern. It is, moreover,
believed by many to be the most exotic of
all places, for it breathes the air of a varied,
vibrant, and colorful life freely expressed by
its people in popular art.

A government commission for the huge
sculptural mural at Malpaso Dam has com-
memorative interest for every Mexican.
Carved on three sides of a high bluff, it

overlooks a national project in Chiapas, near
the Guatemala border. The subject, Mexican
Progress, symbolizes electricity furnished by
the dam, interpreted by a man holding a
bolt of electricity in one hand; the other
hand, outstretched, releases controlled water
for irrigation of vast areas of barren land.
Benefits from the dam are serving Mexico's
people by providing a much-needed food
supply. This art project, the world's largest
stone mural (covering 65,000 square feet),
was designed and executed under direc-
tion of Federico Ganessi (Plate 118. Mexi-
can Progress. Sculptured mural on granite).
Offering a definite fink between primitive
and contemporary art, it resembles ancient
carvings by Olmec artists, whose huge sculp-
tures were made 3,000 years ago. A modem
art achievement, it serves as a reminder that
the talents and skills of ancient art-conscious
Indians furnished a legacy to modern artisans
working in Mexican popular arts and handi-
crafts. Modern Mexicans maintain a stable
source of livelihood by promoting various
art enterprises and activities in the ancient
Valley of Anahuac.

Early folk artists were inspired by re-
ligious emotion and love of nature to create
vital expressions of daring and dramatic in-
ventiveness. Examples of their art are some-

144

Popular Arts of Mexico

145

PLATE 118. Mexican Progress. Sculptured mural
on granite bluff. Malpaso Dam, Mexico. Fed-
erico Ganessi. Courtesy The Chicago Tribune

times found in mountain village churches
and on walls of humble homes where wood-
carved cruifixes, commemorative "miracle
paintings," and retables were made as thank
oflFerings in appreciation of unusual cures
and of their new-found religion. Many were
products of the Colonial period, when re-
ligious zeal flourished and folk artists enjoyed
release from hard days of labor on haciendas
through their spare-time artistry. Folk paint-
ers delighted in lavish use of bright colors,
and their paintings, which were free of
formal rules of perspective, featured keenly
sensitive interpretations rendered with sym-
pathetic feeling. The work of these humble
artists sparked continued art interest and

served to prepare for the great twentieth-
century Mexican Renaissance. Folk artists
often preferred to use symbolic meanings
when interpreting their creatively organized
impressions. This tradition pervades present-
day Mexican art, which has become increas-
ingly symbolic and psychological, even when
it is inspired by exotic scenes of nature. The
origin of the folk artist's vital art is found
in an indefinable blend of influences steming
from pre-Hispanic, Spanish, Colonial, and
religious sources. But Mexican popular art
emerged mainly because native artists cre-
ated it in response to sheer love and joy in
the doing.
Appreciation of the important role which

146

popular art furnished national life came in
the post-Revolution period, when Mexico was
in the midst of social reform and its leaders

PLATE 119. The Burrito. Wax sculpture. Luis
Hidalgo. Mexico City. Courtesy School Arts
Magazine

sought to utilize indigenous art found in
the work of humble artisans throughout
Mexico. Artists "of the fields" refused to use
their art for personal gain or preferment;
instead, they painted for the delight and
satisfaction it gave. Recognition by govern-
ment agencies of the potential national asset
to be found in popular native arts and handi-
crafts led to sponsoring the program for
Mexican Mural Art in public buildings. An
exhibition of arts and crafts was initiated
by Dr. Alt with the enthusiastic support of
Montenegro, Rivera, Orozco, Tamayo, Si-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

queiros, Covamibias, and other artists. Spon-
sored by the Carnegie Foundation, the ex-
hibit toured larger cities of the United States
and resulted in greatly widened interest in
Mexican art.

Folk art finds magnificent expression in
the ancient art of weaving and various woven
fabrics for difi^erent uses are displayed at
tiaquiz (markets). A famous Friday market
is at Patzcuaro, in a distinctive Colonial town
the style of which has remained typical of
the sixteenth century. It is located in the
beautiful lakeside region where Tarascan
Indians weave quantities of wool blankets.

PLATE 120. Lacquer Artist. Isthmus of Tehuan-
tepec. Courtesy Frederick Davis and Anita
Brennen, Mexico City

bedspreads, rugs, cloaks, and scrapes, using
weaving techniques of entirely Spanish ori-
gin. Puebla's fine weaving is its leading

Popular Arts of Mexico

147

PLATE 121. Ceramic Exhibit. Seragalio Palace.
From all sections of Mexico. Courtesy School
Arts Magazine

craft product; the popular colors for woven
designs remain red-brown and deep blue-
black, although various patterns are defi-
nitely Indian in origin. These are geometric,
stylized forms derived from fish, men, cou-
gars, plants, and flowers. Beautiful blankets
and rugs woven at Puebla adhere to boldly
geometric patterns in abstract style; the
various designs used may be easily classified
by pattern, according to the region or states
throughout Mexico.

The State of Tlaxcala became famous for
wool weaving during the Colonial period.

when raising sheep and goats ranked next
to mining in economic importance and large
herds occupied almost all the land. Na-
tives there still weave practically all their
woolen clothing, and quantities of cotton
cloth are handwoven. At the close of the
nineteenth century large cotton mills were
built in Orizaba; the Indians there worked
the machine-made cotton materials into fine
hand-sewn garments for export. Handmade
silk garments are sewn at Ajijic, where silk-
worms supply the material for a variety of
articles which have an established world

148

market. In some villages the entire popula-
tion is occupied in producing a popular
handicraft, such as rehozos. This scarf for
women is used as a shawl and head cov-
ering, and is made of hand-loomed textiles
of either cotton or silk, a yard wide and
two-and-a-half yards long. The finest rebozos
are made in the town of Santa Ana, which
is a weaving center featuring this specialty.

The famous Saturday tiaquiz at Oaxaca,
the leading center of southern Mexico, is
located amid beautiful verdant hills in the
most popular of the Republic's states. Lo-

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

and Michoacan, this influence being seen in
hand-embroidered articles.

Toluca is a famed center of basket handi-
craft, where palm fibers are woven into hats,
sombreros, rugs, petates (mats), and large
hampers and baskets featuring bold designs
in the strong, bright colors so dear to Mexi-
can hearts. Fine willow reed baskets are
woven by plaiting roots of young trees
which, after being dried, are prepared for
weaving by stripping to a light-cream base.
Toluca's Friday tiacjuez displays the finest
and most varied basketry in Mexico. The

PLATE 122. Clay Animal Banks. Native craft.
Courtesy School Arts Magazine

cated in an ancient Zapotecan and Mixtec
area, Oaxaca boasts of architectural relics of
pre-Hispanic and Colonial days, and of fami-
hes having Castilian forebears. Extensive
displays of art and handicrafts are featured
at this large market, including beautiful
hand-loomed cottons and a large variety of
fine woven articles. Designs are nearly al-
ways of Spanish origin in Oaxaca, Chiapas,

Burrito (Plate 119), a wax sculpture by Luis
Hidalgo deals realistically with a familiar
Indian scene showing a typical Mexican sub-
ject with humor, pathos, kindliness, and
understanding.

Leather work is a practical craft intro-
duced by the Spanish over 400 years ago.
It has become a commercially important
handicraft with large outlets in Mexico City

Popular Arts of Mexico

where leather products of high quality-
purses, briefcases, billfolds, handbags, sad-
dles, and belts— are marketed. Indian workers
excel in this craft, the products of which
are made in large cjuantities.

Mexican artists nib colors on wooden
bowls, trays, and furniture, later finishing
with water-repellent shellac (Plate 120. Lac-
quer Artist. Isthmus of Tehuantepec ) . This
craft is done exclusively at Janitzio, State of
Michoacan, and is popular because of the
bright coloring, typical Mexican designs, and
the practical use of the products. Every
state and many villages make their individual

149

style of ceramics, though much of the finest
pottery is made in Oaxaca, where traditional
skills have been passed down in families
since the art started there. However, some
village potters in many other locations are
capable of creating notable ceramics. Plenti-
ful clay in certain areas throughout Mexico
makes the glazing of beautiful and rare
ceramics successful and potters vie with each
other to create strikingly fine patterns tuid
color harmonies (Plate 121). Puebla is the
location long famed as the great tile-produc-
ing center where hand-wrought colorful Ta-
lavera tiles are made. The city's buildings

PLATE 123-PLATE 124. Native artists creating de-
signs on maguey paper. Courtesy School Arts
Magazine

150

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 124.

feature multicolored tiles, especially in the
arcades, art studios, and terra-cotta tile roofs,
all of which enhances the mellow tonal effect
in Puebla. Blue majolica tiles are especially
popular there, and native onyx, which is
plentiful in the area, is used for carving fine
objects.

In the sixteenth century the Spanish intro-
duced fine glazing processes in Oaxaca,
where they made the first majolica and Ta-
lavera-Puebla ware. Clay animal banks (Plate
122) are a popular craft project which Mexi-

can artists create with humor and lively
charm. This typically native craft is possible
because of the accessible supply of native
material.

Mexican hand-blown glass is a craft intro-
duced into Guadalajara and Mexico City
over 400 years ago by Spanish experts. To-
day the same workshops are owned and
operated by famihes directly descended from
the original glass-making experts who ar-
rived from Spain in the 1540s. Glass of rarely
beautiful quality and color is made by using

Popular Arts of Mexico

151

PLATE 125. All-over design. Typical pattern of
plant, flower, and bird. Courtesy School Arts
Magazine

various mineral dyes for coloring, popular
shades being blue, green, deep amber, and
lavender.

Taxco, the oldest mining town in Mexico,
has become famous for its fine craftsmanship
of very fine silver. A world market has been
established, and many of the most beautiful

pieces are designed with pre-Hispanic Aztec
motifs. These lovely hand-crafted objects
produced by native artists meet the ever-
increasing market. The fine artistry of tech-
nical workers in other metals predominates
in the ancient Mixtec region, where, since
pre-Conquest time, the descendants of able

152

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

PLATE 126. Dolls of woven palmetto fiber, dyed.
Typical indigenous craft. Courtesy School Arts
Magazine

craftsmen are busy in fine metal-worldng
art shops.

Many untrained young Mexican art-and-
craft workers enjoy creating designs to be
applied to maguey paper, and some of these
are used as well on pottery, in all-over pat-
terns which are then brightly colored (Plates
123, 124, 125).

A popular and ingenious craft to be found
in Mexican markets and shops throughout
the Republic is doll making, using native
materials. Creating dolls of dyed palmetto
fibers (Plate 126) is a typically native craft
in which Mexicans of all ages and locations
delight, as did their forebears in ages past.

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INDEX

(Italic numbers refer to Plate Illustrations)

Abstractionism, 135, 137

All-over Design, 125, 151

Alt, Dr. (pseudonym for Gerardo Murillo), 111, 139, 146

Anahuac, Valley of the Waters, 14, 19, 41, 82, 102

Aqueducts (Aztec), 49

Archaic Period, 23, 27

Armada (Spanish defeat), 55

Artists "of the fields," 64

Asian, 13, 16

Augustine, 1, 77

Augustinians, 57

The Aunts ( Castellanos ) , 104, 129

Aztec, 23, 27, 32, 33, 42, 43; caste system, 48; codex

(Barbonicus), 38; control, 40; council, 45; eagle, 79;

lapidarists, 53; Mexican tongue, 14; sculpture, 46, 48,

49, 54; trading, 51
Axtec Calendar Stone, 35, 50

Balcony and Bell Tower, Queretaro, 51, 68

Ballet Folklorico, Teatre de Belle Artes, 82

Baroque, 54, 64, 68, 70, 71, 88

Basilica, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, 52, 68, 69

Battle Scene, Pre-Columbian mural. Temple of Bonampak,

74, 94
The Bird (Merida), 102, 127

Bodleian Library, Oxford University, Mendoza Codex, 46
Bonampak Frescoes, 91
Bonaparte, Joseph, 74
The Bone (Covarrubias), 103, 128
Borda, Jose la, 71
Braque, Georges, 135
British Museum, 48
Buenos Aires, 120

Burial of a Worker (Siqueiros), 93, 120
The Burrito. Wax sculpture. (Hidalgo), 119, 146

Cabrera, Miguel, 63, 64

Cactus fibers (agave, maguey, metl), 17

Camera, Georg Gonzales, 127

Cano, Alonzo, 72

Cardenas, President, 85

Carlotta, 88

Carmelites, 57

Carnegie Foundation, 146

Carved Boulder (Aztec), 34, 49

Caryatides (Aztec), 48

Casa del Alfenique, Provincial Museum, Puebla, 71

Casas, Fray Bartelome de les, 74

Castellanos, Julio, 86, 131, 135

Castellian (forebears), 148

Castillo, Bernal Diaz del, 32-^3

Cathedral of Durango, 44, 61

Cathedral of Guadalajara, 88, 109

Cathedral of Mexico City, 46, 63, 62, 71

Cefuentes, Rodrigo de, 66

Ceiling, Church of Santa Domingo, Oaxaca, 54, 70

Ceramics, 19; polished black ware, 37

Ceramic Exhibit, 121, 147

Cezanne, 103

Chapultepec Castle, National Museum of Anthropology,

History, Mexico City, 49, 70, 88, 124
Chapultepec, forest, 43

Charles V, 43, 51, 52; equestrian statue, 71, 72
Chariot, Jean, 91, 95
Cheops (Pyramid, Egypt), 28
Chiapas, 14, 91
Chichimecs, 17, 41
Chihuahua, 118

Children at Play (Galvan), 105, 130
Cholula, 57, 58; Mixtec Art Center, 40; pottery, 18;

"Rome of Mexico," 32
Chouinard School of Art, Los Angeles, 121
Christ Destroying His Own Cross (Orozco), 92, 114
Christian altars, 55

Christianity: refuge of "Peons", 55; spread of, 46, 55, 57
Church, built on site of Indian "teocalH," destroyed by

Cortes, 32
Church the (Mother of Mexican architecture): Orders,

56, 57; (monastic), 64; disbanded, 78; schools, 64
Church of Del Carmen, Mexico City, 43, 60
Church of Dolores, Hidalgo, 24, 58
Church of Jesus Maria, 70
Church of San Cristobal, Puebla, 41, 58
Church of San Francisco, Cuernavaca, 49, 66
Church of San Lorenzo, 70
Church of Santa Prisca and Sebastian, Taxco, Guerrero,

55, 71

155

156

Church of Santa Rosa, Queretaro, 50, 66, 67

Churriguera, Jose, 70; Churrigueresque, 70, 71

Cipac, Marcos, 69

"City Artists," 62, 63, 64

Clan ("calpulli"), 16

Classical Period: pyramid, 25, 33; sculpture, 21

Clay Animal Banks (native crap), 122, 148

Clay Figurines of Totonac Period, 10, 24

Coatlicue, Mother of Aztec Gods, 33, 47, 64

Codex, Florentine, "The Ofrenda," 31, 46

Codex "Porfxrio Diaz," 30, 45

Codices, 38

Colonial Period (300 years), 54, 58; architecture, 58

Communication Building, Stone Mosaic Exterior, Mexico

City (O'Gomian), 116, 141
Conquest, 33, 36, 43, 48, 53, 54, 55; religious, 53, 54
Conquistadores, 13, 32, 43, 54, 55
Conversion, 55

The Com God, stone sculpture, 32, 46
Com (maize or "tessinte"), 16
Cort6s, 14, 32, 43, 48, 68; massacre at Cholula, 32; pays

Spanish artists to come to Mexico, 57, 64; sees Tenoch-

titlAn, 43
Covarrubias, Miguel, 86, 130, 131, 146
Creole ("crillos" class, often called "Mestizo"), 54, 55
Crown, the: lenient to peons, 55; grants, titles, 54; liberal

gifts to churches, 64
Cuautemoc, 48, 107
Cueva, Amado de la, 95
Cupolas (Spanish architectiure), 57

The Dance of Death (Morado), 112, 137

Dancer Stones (mystery of Monte Albdn), 36

Dartmouth College, 113

Daumier, 80

Designs (symbohc), 23

Diaz, General Porflrio, President, 80, 82, 90

Diego, Juan, 69

DoUs, Made of Woven Palmetto Fiber, Dyed, 126, 152

Dominican Fortress Monastery, Mexico City, 57

Duccio, 106

Durer, Albrecht, 53, 139

The Eagle and Serpent (Rivera), 27, 42

El Greco, 95, 102

Enslavement of the Indians (Rivera), 39, 56

El Hay (an Idol), 16

European concept of government, 54

Expressionism, 87

Fabr^s, Antonio, 75

Fagade: Church at Tepotzotldn, Morelos, 47, 65

Farmers, 17, 23

Father Jesus Christ (Tata Jesucristo) (Goita), 67, 86

"Father of Independence"— Hidalgo, 75

Faure, Alie, 103

The Fecund Earth, Chapingo Chapel (Rivera), 86, 107

Ferdinand, 74

Fiesta Tehuana (Rivera), 84, 105

Figure of a Man Leaning on a Staff, 8, 21

Figurines of clay for cult worship, 23

The Fire Eater (Morado), 111, 136

Flemish Renaissance painting, 64

The Flower Market ( Rivera ), 29, 44

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

The Flower Vendor (Rivera), 87, 108

Folk artists "of the fields," 62, 146

Folkloric Festival, 126

Franciscan Father and the Indian (Orozco), 89, 112

Franciscan Friars: center, Mexico City, 55; encouraged

the peons, 59
French intervention in Mexico, 88
Funerary Urn, 22, 38

"Gachupines" (nickname given wealthy landowners), 55,

74
Galvan, Jesus Guerrero, 86, 135
Gauguin, 104

Gershwin, George (portrait by Siqueiros), 121
Giant, Atlantes, 25
Glass (architectural use), 143
Glass-making, 150
Gold Breastplate, 38, 52
Gold-leaf, 71
Goita, Francisco, 55, 85
Gothic, 55, 88
Goya, 102

"Grito de Dolores," 74
The Group (Galvan), 106, 131
Guadalajara, 83, 110, 115; site of Orozco's masterpieces,

117, 125
Guadalupe, Seiiora de (Our Lady of, known as the

"Brown Madonna"), 55, 69
Guanajuato Cathedral, 64
Guatemala, 91, 126
Guerra, Gabriel, 48
Guerrero, 17, 23, 32; Xavier, 86, 91

"Hacha," Carved Limestone, Vera Cruz, 9, 22

Hacienda, 54, 74

Handicrafts, 17

Head of a Chief, Pre-Columbian Wall Painting, Temple

of Bonampak, 73-93
Head of a Woman, 3, 16
Head of a Smiling Woman, 10, 23
Healy, Giles Greville, 93

Hidalgo and the Liberation of Mexico (Orozco), 59, 75
Hidalgo, Luis, 146
Hidalgo, Miguel, 74, 75, 114
Hieroglyphics, 25
Hospital of Jesus of Nazareth, Mexico City (oldest in the

Americas), 68
House of Don Miguel Hidalgo, 75
House of Tiles, Mexico City, 45, 62

Ibia, Baltazar de Echave, 64

Idols (magic aid), 21

Impressionistic painting, 112

Independence Bell, 75

Interior, Church of Santo Domingo, Oaxaca, Ceiling De-
tail, 54, 70

Interior Decoration, Church of Santa Maria, Tonantzentla,
Puebla, 77, 97, 93

Isles of Bali, 131

Iturbide, Colonel Augustine de, 77

Ixtaccihuatl (volcano), 27

Izquierdo, Maria, 139

Jaguars and coyotes (design elements), 32

Index

Jesuits, 57, 64

Jewels (Aztec), 52

Juarez, Benito, President: instituted "The Reform," 78

Juarez and The Reform (Orozco), 62, 78

Juarez, Jose and Nicholas Rodreguez (brother artists),

64
Judases, made of papier-mache, 62

Kahlo, Frida (wife of Rivera), 139

King's Chapel, Church of San Francisco, Cholula, 40, 57

Klee, Paul, 137

Lacquer Artist, Isthmus of Tehuantepec, 120, 146
"Land and Liberty" (revolutionary slogan), 80
"Laughing Heads," 21

Lava stone (red); used to build Cathedral of Guadala-
jara and Palace of Cort6s, 110
Lazo, Augustin, 127

Lenin (Rivera's R.C.A. mural includes portrait of), 108
The Little One (Galvan), 107, 132
Loomb (saddleback type), 17
Louvre, The 52

Machete, El {The Scythe, edited by Siqueiros), 120

Madero, Francisco, 80

Malpaso Dam, 144

The Man from Vera Cruz (Montenegro), 113, 138, 139

Man of the Sea (Orozco), 94, 116

Map Showing Distribution of Mexican Tribes, 4, 17

March of Humanity (Siqueiros), 100, 123

Martinez, Alfredo Ramos, 82, 83, 85, 126

Matisse, Pierre, 125

Marty dom of Saint Stephen (Orozco), 93, 115, 114

Maugard, Adolpho-Best, 126

Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, 79, 82, 88

Mendes, Leopolda, 86, 130

Mendoza, Antonio de, viceroy: ordered Mendoza Codex

made, 48
M6rida, Carlos, 86, 95, 126, 127

Mesoamerican, 13, 17, 19, 21, 24, 25, 27, 36, 40, 41, 42
Mestizo, 13, 54; painters, 64, 78
Mexican "Barbizons," 85
Mexican Home: Interior Court, Patio, 28, 43
Mexican Progress, Sculptured Mural, Exterior Site at

Malpaso Dam, 118, 145
Mexican physical type, 51
Mexican Renaissance (art), 145
Mexican Woman Enroute to Shrine Worship, 18, 34
Mexic6atl, Chief; subdued Valley of Anahuac, 25
Mexico City, built on razed Aztec capital, 43
Michelangelo, 95, 115
Minarets, Spanish architectural feature, 58
Mitla: 36; River, 40; ruins, "City of the Dead," mosaic

work, 40
Mixteca, 33-40
Mixtec: artisans, 36; art sources. 111; Codex "Borgia" in

Vatican Library; polychrome work, 32
Mixtec-Puebla People: sculptors, 33-40
Moctezuma II, 27, 32, 48, 52, 58, 68; cloak, 51; maps,

46; palace site, 57
Molds, glazes, 20

Mongolian Migration (Orozco), 113
Monte AMn: 19, 32, 33-40, 91; complex, 36

157

Monte Albdn Excavations, 19, 35

Monte Albdn Passageway, 20, 36

Monte Albdn Tomb, 21, 37

Montenegro, Roberto, 86, 95

Moorish styles, 58

Morado, Jose Chavez, 136, 137, 139

Morelia Cathedral and Charro Parade, 60, 76

Morelos, Jose: led uprising 1810, 75, 76, 107

Morrow, Honorable Dwight W., U.S. Ambassador to

Mexico, 107
The Mother's Farewell (Orozco), 91, 113, 111
Municipal Palace, Mexico City, 43
Mural: Interior, University Library, Mexico City ( O'Gor-

man), 81, 101
Murals, mosaic (Rivera and O'Gorman), 101
Murillo (Spanish artist), 64, 83
Museum of Architecture, Art, History, 43, 49
Music (Tamayo), 108, 133

Nahuatl-Spanish dictionary, 46, 55

Nahuatl-speaking people, 42; Codex Florentine, Nahu4tl-

tongue translation, 46
Napoleon: invasion of Spain, 74, 79
National Allegory, Exterior Mural, National Normal

School, Mexico City (Orozco), 95, 114, 117
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City, 117, 142
National Museum of Colonial Period, Tepotzotlan, 64
National Palace, Mexico City, 66, 68
National Pawn Shop, Mexico City, 49, 68
Native Artists Creating Designs on Maguey Paper, 123,

124, 149, 150
Native Stone Mural, Mosaic Facade and Sides, University

City Library, (Juan O'Gorman), 80, 100
Necklace, Gold Filigree, Mitla, 24, 39
Neo-Classic, 54, 59, 71
The New Democracy (Siqueiros), 101, 124
Neo-Gothic, 88

The New School (Rivera), 79, 99, 95
Norena, Miguel (Indian sculptor), 48

Oaxaca, 19, 23, 32, 33, 58, 63

Obregon, President of Mexico, 81, 85

Oceania, 16

O'Gorman, Juan, 98, 100, 108, 131, 141

O'Higgins, Pablo, 130

Ohnec, 16, 17, 19, 25, 29, 33, 40

Olmec Stone Face, 2, 15

Olympic Stadium, Mexico City (frescoes by Rivera,

Siqueiros), 108
Oriental-Occidental amalgam: founded Mexico, 14
Orizaba (Mount), 32
Orozco, Jose Clemente, 29, 55, 86, 90, 91, 93, 94, 95,

110-17; Revolutionary murals, 112, 146

Painted Vessels, 23, 39

Palace of Cortes, Cuernavaca, 23, 107

Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City, 65, 83, 82

Palace of Repose, Columns, Mitla, 26, 41

Palace of Repose, Wall Carvings, Mitla, 25, 40

Pan-American Unity (Rivera), 78, 96, 93

Parochial Church, San Miguel de Allende, 69, 87

Parochial Church of Santa Prisca and San Sebastian,

Taxco, Guerrero, 55, 71
Parochial Church, Taxco, Guerrero (side view), 56, 72

158

Paradise of Tlaloc (landscape mural), 25

Part Production and Assembly of a Motor (Rivera), 82,

103, 100
Paseo de la Reforma, 72
Patterns, 19
Patzcuaro Market, 146

Pegasus of the Conquest (Siqueiros), 96, 119
Peons (landless serfs), 48
"Petate" ( Aztec for "mat" ) , 17

Peter of Ghent (Flemish monk who taught the In-
dians), 55
Piotographic records (made by priest-artists), 45
Plaza and Church of Santo Domingo, Mexico City, 42, 59
Plateresque (silver-like), 70
Plaza and Temple of Tlaloc, 25
Plumed Serpent (carved on Pyramid of TeotihuacAn),

15, 29
Pomona College, 94
Polynesia, 16
Popular Arts, 141

Popocateptl, Viewed from Ameca, 1, 14, 27

Porfirian Period (Diaz Presidency), 80

Portrait of a Child {Anonymous Colonial Artist), 66, 84,
82

Portrait of a Girl (Siqueiros), 98, 121

Portuguese, 118

Posada, Jos6 Guadalupe, 80, 102

Post-Impressionism, 104

Post-Reconstruction Period, 97, 118

Post-Revolutionary art, 87

Post-Revolutionary Government, 85

Pottery ("corriente"), 16,20, 91

Pre-Columbian art, 64, 85

Pre-Conquest, 17, 87, 91

Pre-Hispanic art, 114; murals, 32, 88, 91

Priests: Classic Period, determined calendar, 24, 27; con-
soled peons, 55

Prometheus (Orozco), 78, 98, 94

Puebla, 17, 20, 32, 57, 58; colored glass, 59

Pyramid of Cuilcuilco, 25

Pyramid of the Moon, 27

Pyramid of the Niches (Totonac at El Tajin), 25

Pyramid of the Sun (Teotihuacan), 27

Quetzalc6atl, God of Peace, Air, Earth, Life, Sky, 29
QuetzalcSatl, God of Peace (Orozco), representing the

Toltec Legend, 17, 31
Quetzalc6atl, Temple of (decorated with carved ser-
pents), 16, 30

The Rear Guard (Orozco)', 61, 77

Rebozo (popular handcrafted scarf), 148

Religious Mural, Tepepulco, (artist Colonial Period, un-
known), 72, 92

Renaissance of Mexican Art, 54, 76

Republic, desired by Mexicans, 179

Retable artists, 62

Revolution, 1910, 54, 55

Rivera, Diego (frescoes), 66, 85, 86, 90, 95, 99, 104, 106,
108, 125

Rockefeller Center, R.C.A. Lobby ( Rivera's controversial
mural), 125

Rubens tapestries sent to Mexico's Churches, 64

Rousseau, Henri, 103

The Origin and Legacy of Mexican Art

Russia: Rivera portrait paintings while there, 107

Sahagiin, Bernardino de (Franciscan historian), 55

San Carlos Art Academy, 63, 69, 82, 110, 118

San Juan TeotihuacAn, 25, 27

Santa Anna, General Antonio Lopez de (Mexican dicta-
tor), 78

Seated Man, Pre-Columbian Sculpture, 3, 18

Self Portrait (Izquierdo), 114, 139

Self Portrait (Kahlo), 115, 140, 139

Self Portrait (Rivera), 83, 104

Self Portrait (Tamayo), 110, 135

Sevillian: architects, 57; -Moorish style, 57, 58, 59, 66

Siqueiros, David Alfaro, 55, 86, 90, 93, 103, 111, 118-25

Smithsonian Institute, 16

The Sob (Siqueiros), 97, 120

Sorolla (Spanish artist), 83

Standing Warrior, 37, 49, 51, 52

Stepped pyramids, 23

Stirling, Dr. Mattew, 16

The Stone of Tizoc, 51, 49

Street Art Fair, Mexico City, 71, 89

"Strife" ( condemnation of war ). Mural. (Orozco), 114

Suarez, Manuel (Mexico City industrialist who sponsors
Siqueiros's art projects), 118

The Sun God, 49

The Sun Kingdom, ruled by Aztecs, 42, 43, 45, 48, 54

Sunrise of Mexico (Siqueiros), 99, 122, 123

Surrealism, 135

Symbolism, 104

Syndicate Manifesto of Mexican Art, 87, 101-18

Tabasco, 14

Talvera tiles, 149; made in Puebla, 150

Tamascal steam baths (Aztec), 28

Tamayo, Rufino, 86, 125, 127, 133, 134, 135, 136, 139,

146
Tarascan nation, 16

Taxco, Guerrero, 71, 120, 151; silver craft-workers, 151
Teatro, Movie House, Taxco, Guerrero, 57, 73, 71
Temple of Agriculture, 27
Temple of Bonampak, 91
Temple of Quetzalcdatl, 16, 30, 27, 28, 29
Temple cities, 23

Temple de Los Remedios, Cholula, 53, 69, 68, 70
Temple of the Sun, 127

Temples, first made in rock-lava mounds, 24
Tenariuh (Sun God), 49
Tenayuca (village), 48

Tenayzin: temple honoring mother of Aztec Gods, 69
Tenocha-Aztec tribe, 42, 43
"Teocalli" (Indian temple), 32, 59
Tepotzotlan Villa (restored as museum), 64
Texas: lost in war with United States, 78
Tenoned Head, Man with a Dolphin Helmet, 7, 20
Tenochtitlan, 43, 48, 58; capital city of Aztecs, last

building phase, 49
Teotihuacdn, Pyramid of the Sun, 13, 28, 25, 27, 28; now

an archaeological zone, 91
Terraces, 27

Terra Cotta Head, 6, 19
Texoco public market, 46-54
Thanksgiving Day, 95
"Tiaquiz" (weekly market), 28, 147

Index

159

Tile, dome-making of ceramic, 58

Tiles, blue majolica, for "House of Tiles" made at

Puebla, 58, 59,
Tintoretto, 95, 115
Titian's "Entombment," 64
Tizoc, king famed for conquests, 49
Tlachtli (a ball game), 33
Tlaloc, Rain God, 29, 91, 142
Tlaxcala (wool-weaving center), 147
Tlaxcalan: chiefs, 54, 57; tribes, 54
Tollan (also called Tula), 17, 25; burned a.d. 927
Toluca (basket- weaving center), 148
Tomb, 7; Monte Albdn, 36
Tolsd, Manuel, 62, 64, 71
Toltec, 16, 17, 19; architecture, 25, 32, 42, 63; ceramics,

28; codex, 28, 33; craftsmen, 28; faith, 27
Toltec Warrior: The Giant Atlantes, 12, 26
Tortillas (food), 48
Totonac: jungles, 23; sculptors, 21
"Trachite" and "Tezontl" (porous red rock used for

building), 77
Trajin art style, 21
"Trachti" (ball game), 23
Typical Market Day Scene, 14, 28
Tzintzuntzen ruins (once capital of Tarascan nation), 24

University of Arizona, Department of Archaeology, 25
University of Mexico, 33; founded, 72, 130

Valladolid: changed name to Morelia, 76

Vallejo, Francisco Antonio, 63

Vasconcellos, Jos6, 85

Vasquez, Pedro Ramirez, 142

Vera Cruz, 23, 48

Viceroy's Forces, 75; Colonial art patrons, 64

Viga Canal, 95

Vienna Museum, 51

Virgin Mary, 69

Virgin Soil. Mural, Chapingo Chapel (Rivera), 85, 106

Water Girls (Tamayo), 109, 134
Weaving, 17, 20

Weighing of the Grain (Rivera), 104
Workers United (Rivera), 75, 95, 93

Xavier, Saint Francis, 64

Xochimilico, Mexico City (reminiscent of Aztec days), 43

Zapata, Emiliano, 80, 95, 107

Zapata Leading the Agrarian Revolt. Detail (Rivera), 64,

80
Zapata Leading the Agrarian Revolt (Rivera), 68, 87
Zapatistas (Orozco), 63, 79, 80
Zapotec, 16; craftsmen, 19, 23, 33, 40, 63
ZapotlAn, Jalisco (birthplace of Orozco), 110
Zocalo, 43, 58, 59, 117
Zolce, Alfredo, 86
Zualoga, 83

SSjEf;-

l'ii»illiii^

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