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MEXICO MAGICO
TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people |
Chapter VIII - Final Days - The Baroque Years 75th part. [continues.)
By Prof. German Estrada - May 2007 |
Prominent criollos, some with titles, also wanted to display their affluence. The façades of their homes, to use a metaphor, announced figuratively to visitors that they were in the presence of an important family. The houses had huge patios surrounded by massive pillars holding up the roof. Private chapels graced their interiors, as well as long dining rooms for scores of guests. In Mexico City, about forty homes were in this category. Alexander von Humboldt, the observant traveler, baptized it the City of the Palaces, having in mind, no doubt, the Casa del Conde de Miravalle, the Casa del Marquez de Santa Fe de Guardiola, the Casa del Conde del Valle de Orizaba, and, of course, the Casa de Don José de la Borda, the mining magnate. On a lesser scale, similar residences could be found in Puebla (the Casa del Alfeñique), Querétaro, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, and, because of its mercantile importance, Veracruz.
Just when the Churrigueresque loomed undisputed monarch, a rival style made its entrance. The Bourbons, of certified French stock, wanted to modernize Spain, to bring it into the Western mold. The Neoclassical found its way to Mexico City when the Real Academia de San Carlos, the national art school, accepted its first students, in 1781. Its patron, Antonio Gil, a Spaniard of Neoclassical bent, modeled its building after the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid and the Academia de San Carlos in Valencia. Teachers from Spain taught classes in painting, sculpture, and architectural design. Both state and church buildings were influenced by the Neoclassical.
To critics nostalgic for the old, the Neoclassical, rather than establish architecture of note, introduced imitations of the European, seldom matching the grandeur of the Churrigueresque.
Enduring just forty years, Neoclassical architecture bequeathed monuments of its own. One was the Colegio de Minería, the genius of Manuel Tolsá, who also drew up the blueprints for the church of Bishop Juan Cruz Ruiz in Guadalajara, later the Hospicio de Cabañas, where José Clemente Orozco, the twentieth-century muralist, painted. Another stalwart of architecture was Miguel de Constanzo, born in Barcelona and remembered for his mapping expeditions to California. Two criollo architects made significant contributions: José Damián de Ortiz, born in Jalapa, and Eduardo de Tresguerras from Celaya, a town in the Bajio.
Neoclassical painting, however, rarely partook of the triumphs of architecture. Admiration for Descartes and his companions encouraged a rejection of the Baroque and a fancy for Neoclassical art destined to dictate tastes until the mid-1850s. This art frowned on the wild imagery of the Baroque, distrusted emotion and passion, and demanded obedience to form.
The painting of Francisco Goya and his realistic school influenced strongly the artists of this time in New Spain. Lamentably, imitation spawned a feeble art, lacking the spontaneity of the Baroque, cold, seemingly done by prescription.
Still, portrait art won acclaim during the eighteenth century, relegating religious art to the ashcan of history. Anonymous artists left countless pictures of viceroys and church dignitaries and of rich criollos, while the Academia de San Carlos conferred official stature on this art. The art of the anonymous portrait painting survived the colony, becoming the gist of its popular successor of the nineteenth century. Among the painters of imagination were Miguel Cabrera, famous for his portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Patricio Morlete Ruiz, who painted the Viceroys Amarillas, Cajigal, and Croix; José de la Paz, noted for his Jueces de la Acordada; and José Ibarra and José Alcibar, both of whom did religious scenes. A stalwart of this era was Rafael Ximeno, praised for his portraits of Manuel Tolsá and Jerónimo Gil; both appear solemn and majestic, dressed in elegant finery. Ximeno, who also did saints and angels, painted the murals in the dome of the cathedral of Mexico City. The best of the artists, say critics, dwelt in Mexico City; yet painters of equal talents worked in Puebla, Valladolid, Guadalajara, Tlaxcala, and Oaxaca.
With its emphasis on form and the human body, the Neoclassical breathed fresh life into the labors of the sculptor. One exponent, the architect Manuel Tolsá, who arrived in Mexico City to teach at the Academia de San Carlos, was not merely the best of the day but the giant of the century. Born in Spain, he raised the art of the sculptor to the levels of pre-Hispanic days. His statue of Charles IV, standing in the heart of Mexico City, embodied the flavor of the Roman era. Sitting proudly on a prancing stallion, Charles wears a Roman toga, and his regal manner recalls Alexander the Great.
Popular music and dance, too, enjoyed a turnabout, which imbued them with a hearty and sensuous savoriness. Once molded by church dictates and puritanical mores, they assume a secular and worldly air. For the poor and middling sectors of society, the sones, fandangos, jarabes, seguidillas, tiranas, and boleros, the popular dances, bespoke sensuality. Their music was in identical taste, while those who danced to its seductive rhythms wore colorful and provocative dresses. Never again were the dancers of music of New Spain the same.
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Caballito de Manuel Tolsa
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Prof. Germán Estrada
E-mail: estradanav@yahoo.com
Source: From the book Triumphs and Tragedy, a History of the Mexican People by his author Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, and with his authorization. (W.W. Norton & Company. New York-London).
Prof. Germán Estrada is the author of the best selling book, México Mágico: Everything You Wanted To Know About... But Nobody Told You..." available in Puerto Vallarta at The Net House, Mail Boxes, Etc., Books, Books as well as directly from his website.
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