Independence and its Heroes

1
Independence and its Heroes
Independenceremained by far the most important
moment for the new nations that emerged
representations of its heroes and martyrs have
become talismans or icons signifying those
beliefs, and reinterpreted with reverence,
or with irony, by artists in the twentieth
century for whom national or Latin American
identity in cultural and political terms remains
an unresolved and therefore potent issue.
(Ades p.7)
2
(left) Claudio Linati, Miguel Hidalgo, from
Costumes du Mexique, Brussels, 1828(center and
right) Juan OGorman (Mexican, 1905-1982), detail
from Chapultepec Castle (now National Museum of
History, Mexico City) mural showing Hidalgo,
c.1944 Portrait of Miguel Hidalgo, n.d.,
preparatory study for mural, charcoal on
paperHidalgo, a parish priest, initiated the
1810 indigenous uprising against Spain. However
Both culturally and economically, Independence
was for the creoles, not the Indians. (Ades)
Father of Mexico
3
Stairway roof with portrait of Miguel Hidalgo by
Jose Clemente Orozco in the Palacio del Gobierno.
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, 1937, fresco
4
Antonio Salas (attributed), Portrait of Simon
Bolivar 1829, o/c, 23 x 18. Bolivar
(1783-1830), from a wealthy Venezuelan creole
family, led independence wars in the present
nations of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador,
Peru, and Bolivia, gaining independence for most
of the northern part of South America
It will be said that I have liberated the new
World, but it will not be said that I perfected
the stability and happiness of any of the
nations that compass it. We have ploughed
the sea Bolivar
5
Pedro José Figueroa, Simon Bolivar, Liberator and
Father of the Nation, 1819, oil on canvas, Quinta
de Bolivar, Colombia Indian woman as America
or the New Republic
6
Academies and History Painting
The Royal Academy of san Carlos in Mexico City,
founded in 1785, was the first academy of art in
America, and the only one established under
colonial rule. In Brazil, the Academia Imperial
de Belas Artes was founded in Rio de Janeiroin
1826 with the French painter J.B. Debret, who
trained in Davids studio, as director. In Peru,
the Academy was founded in 1919. (coinciding
with the arrival of modern art) (Ades)
7
Natalia Majluf, Ce nes pas le Peru, or, the
Failure of Authenticity Marginal Cosmopolitans
at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855The
movement of artists and intellectuals from Latin
America to metropolitan centers (and usually
back) increased dramatically after independence
from Spain in the early nineteenth centuryyoung
Creole Americans traveled to Paris, London, and
Rome not as exiles or émigrés but as
cosmopolitans, as participants in a world
culture. but the international community
has systematically rejected any sign of their
sameness. (Majluf)
8
Francisco Laso, The Indian Potter (or Dweller in
the Cordillera), 1855, o/c, 44 H., Lima
The same comparative context that rejected the
cosmopolitanism of the Latin American artists
served simultaneously to locate France at the
very center of the international art scene.
Majluf
9
José Ferraz de Almeida Junior (Brazil 1859-1899),
The Guitar Player, 1899, o/c, 56 H, Pinocoteca
do Estado de Sao Paolo Academic genre
paintingscostumbrismo and realism
10
(left) Aztec goddess, Coatlique, c. 1500 C.E.
(right) Praxiteles, Hermes Dionysus, 4th
Century B.C.The Royal Academy of San Carlos in
Mexico City was thoroughly European in its aims
and practices. Students studied from a selection
of plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculptures
sent from Spain. The question of beauty of
European versus ancient Indigenous Mexican work
was discussed.
11
Juan Cordero (Mexico, 1824-1884), The Bather,
c.1860, oil on canvas, 59 X 45 in.
Corderos draped nude shocked Mexican visitors at
a 1864 exhibition.
12
Juan Cordero (Mexico, 1824-1884), Columbus
Before the Catholic Monarchs, 1850, o/c, 68 H.
First history painting of an American subject
seen by Mexican viewers.
Academic history paintings were popular in the
New World.
13
Martín Tovar y Tovar (Venezuela, 1827-1902), The
Battle of Carabobo (detail), 1887, one of six
canvas murals for the dome of the Salón Elíptico
in the capitol building of Caracas, Venezuela
1887. Simón Bolívars revolutionary army won the
1821 battle and entered Caracas to claim
independence for Venezuela.
14
José Maria Obregón, The Inspiration of Columbus,
1856, oil, 58 high
15
Arturo Michelena (Venezuela 1863 -1898), Miranda
in La Carraca, 1896, oil on canvas, Galeria de
Arte Nacional, Caracas. Comparison (right) is
Jacques-Louis David, Death of Socrates, 1787.
Neo-Classicism
16
Anonymous, Castes, 18th century, oil on canvas,
58 x 41

• Reading Dispossession, Assimilation, and the
  Image of the Indian in Late Nineteenth Century
  Mexican Painting,
• by Stacie Widdifield

17
The captions in the above paintings say, top,
"from mulato and mestiza, quadroon," bottom,
"from quadroon and mestiza, coyote."
Identifications varied in different sets of
"caste paintings." Some, for instance, defined a
"coyote" as an Indian and white mix without any
African.
What was Stacie Widdifields thesis
in Dispossession, Assimilation, and the Image
of the Indian in Late- Nineteenth-Century Mexican
Painting?
18
(left) Jose Agustin Arrieta, Market Scene La
Sorpresa, 1850, o/c, Mexico City
19
Felix Parra, The Massacrre of Cholula (detail,
below right), 1877, oil on canvas, 31 x 41
inches, National Museum of Art, Mexico City
Subjects are objects of paternalism typical of
19th century writing about the contemporary
Indian.
20
Felix Parra, Friar Bartolomé de las Casas, 1875,
oil on canvas, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico
City. The woman turns to the Christian friar and
not the Aztec god.
21
Isidro Martinez, The Princess Papantzin, 1880,
oil on canvas, 44 x 70inches. Museo de Bellas
Artes de Toluca, State of Mexico. Sister of
Moctezuma II, Papantzins Europeanized features
are a sign of her conversion to Christianity.
22
José Escudero y Espronceda, Portrait of Benito
Juarez and Margarita Maza de Juarez, 1890, oil on
canvas, 28 x 23 inches, Museu Nacional de
Historia, Mexico City
23
José Maria Obregón, Discovery of Pulque, 1869,
oil on canvas73 x 91 in., Museo Nacional de
Arte, Mexico City
Xochitl, who discovered pulque, presents it to
Tecpancaltzin Academic Neoclassicism in Mexico
24
Leandro Izaguirre, Torture of Cuauhtémoc, 1893,
oil on canvas, over 9 x 14 feet, National Museum
of Art, Mexico City. Cuauhtémoc (c.15021525)
was the Aztec ruler of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to
1521. Painted for the Chicago Worlds Fair of
1893.
Historicist indigenism
25

• For quiz on Monday, be prepared to write a
  20-minute essay that brings together all the
  readings and lectures through the concept of
  identity in representations of Latin America by
  both European and Latin American artists.
  Include as many facts as possible names, dates,
  titles, locations.
• NOTE Do not write a journal entry. I am behind
  in the lectures. Just study for the quiz.

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Traveler-Reporter Artists
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(left) Albert Eckhout (Dutch, ca.1610-1666)
Tarairiu Woman and Tarairiu Man, 1641, over 8 ft
tall, oil on canvas, National Museum of Denmark
28
Frederick Catherwood (English, 1799-1854), 1844,
lithograph, Classic Maya ruins at Copán Honduras,
Stele D (435-822), depicting ruler, Eighteen
Rabbit
Photograph showing detail of portrait stele
29
Frederick Catherwood (English, 1799-1854), 1844,
Maya, Cenote of Bolenchen, Yucatan, Mexico,
lithograph plate from Views of Ancient Monuments
in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, 1844,
Royal Institute of British Architects, London.
Catherwoods books were best sellers in Europe.
30
Main temple at Tulum, by Catherwood, from Views
of Ancient Monuments, 1844
31
Johann Rugendas (German, 1802-1858) (right) Study
of Palm Trees, c. 1831, oil sketch (left)
Costumes in Rio, 1823 (center) Slave Hunter,
1824

• From Voyage Pittoresque dans le Brésil
  (Picturesque Voyage to Brazil), with more than
  100 illustrations, still one of the most
  important documents about 19th-century Brazil.

32
Johann Rugendas, Indians on a Farm, 1824
33
(left) Joseph Skinner (British), 2 plates from
The Present State of Peru, London, 1805(right)
Carl Nebel (German) Indian Charcoal-Makers,
watercolor reproduced as lithograph in Voyage
Picturesque and Archeological in the Most
Interesting Parts of Mexico, Paris, 1836
2005 facsimile of Skinners 1805 book available
through Amazon.com
34
Carl Nebel (German) watercolor, 1829-1834,
reproduced as a lithograph in Voyage Picturesque
and Archeological in the Most Interesting Parts
of Mexico, Paris, 1836
35
Edouard Pingret (French, 1788-1875), (left)
Indian, oil on canvas, after 1857 (right)
Waterseller, c. after 1857, o/c, 23 HFrom 1850
to 1855 Pingret lived and worked in Mexico City,
exhibiting annually at the Academia de Bellas
Artes. Costumbrismo
Catalogue of Pingrets costumbrismo paintings
36
(left) Claudio Gay (French) Costumes of Country
People, Physical and Political Historical Atlas
of Chile, Paris, 1854(right) Juan Manuel Blanes
(Uruguayan), Dusk, n.d., oil on cardboard, 9 ½ H
37
Carmelo Fernandez, (left) Mestizo Farmers of
Anis, Ocana Province(right) Notables of the
Capital, Santander Province, Colombia , Colombia,
1850-9, watercolor, National Library, Bogota
38
Christiano Junior, Cartes de visite, 1860s, Rio
de Janeiro detail on right
39
Anonymous, Women of Lima, n.d., photograph, Lima
40
José María Velasco (Mexican,1840-1912)
41
José María Velasco, Templo de San Bernardo (San
Bernardo Church), 1861oil on paper mounted on
canvas, 13 X 17 ½ inches

• Velasco, in the context of the buildings section
  of his class in landscape painting, as a student
  at the Academy San Carlos in Mexico City, shows
  how, with the pretext of progress and
  modernization, the monasteries were destroyed to
  "straighten out" the contours of the city.
  Modernization of Mexico is documented in
  Velascos oeuvre with obvious ambiguity.

42
(right) José Maria Velasco, Valley of Oaxaca,
1888, oil on canvas, 42 x 63 (left) Claude
Lorraine (French, 1604-1682), Pastoral Landscape
1638
43
Velasco, Metlac Ravine, Viewed from near the
Station in Fortin, 1897, o/c, 41 h(right)
anonymous photograph of Metlac ravine,
1910Modernization of Mexico
44
José Maria Velasco, Valley of Mexico from the
Hill of Santa Isabel, 1877, o/c,
53x76(right) Thomas Cole (English-American,
1801-1848, Hudson River School) View from Mt.
Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a
Thunderstorm (The Oxbow), 1836
45
José Guadalupe Posada (Mexican
printmaker,1852-1913)
46
(left) José Guadalupe Posada (Mexican,
1852-1913), Artists Purgatory (right)
J.J.Grandville (Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard,
French, 1803-1847) Chamber of Deputies, 1867,
engraving
47
In 1900 Maucci Brothers, a Spanish publisher,
commissioned Posada to illustrate a series of
pamphlets for children on the history of Mexico.
Each pamphlet measuring 4 3/4 x 3 1/4 in. is
approximately 16 pages. The cover illustrations
are probably the only mechanically produced
chromolithographs that Posada ever did. Jean
Charlot collection, University of Hawaii
48
José Guadalupe Posada, Calavera of the
Newspapers, 1889-95type metal engraving, MoMA NYC
49
Posada, Streets of the City of Mexico on the
Morning of 9 February 1913, n.d., zinc
engraving,(right) Skeletons at a fractional
price as never seen before in all of the Capital.