Antonio Rivas Mercado (26 February 1853 – 3 January 1927) was a Mexican architect, engineer and restorer. His most notable project was the design of the Independence Column in downtown

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

. He was the father of

Antonieta Rivas Mercado María Antonieta Rivas Mercado Castellanos (April 28, 1900 – February 11, 1931) was a Mexican intellectual, writer, feminist, and arts patron. Biography Rivas Mercado was born as the second of four children (Alicia, Antonieta, Mario, and A ...

. Rivas Mercado was born in

Tepic Tepic () is the capital and largest city of the western Mexican state of Nayarit, as well as the seat of the Tepic Municipality. Located in the central part of the state, it stands at an altitude of above sea level, on the banks of the Rí ...

in the then Territory of Tepic, but his parents decided to send him to study in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

at the age of 10. Eventually, he studied Fine Arts and

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

from where he returned to

in 1879 to practise as an architect and teach at the Schools of Engineering and Architecture (today part of the National Autonomous University of Mexico). Among Rivas Mercado's various projects figure the house that eventually became the

Wax Museum A wax museum or waxworks usually consists of a collection of wax sculptures representing famous people from history and contemporary personalities exhibited in lifelike poses, wearing real clothes. Some wax museums have a special section dubb ...

of Mexico City (1883); the restoration of haciendas of historical importance such as the Hacienda of Tecajete in the State of

Hidalgo Hidalgo may refer to: People * Hidalgo (nobility), members of the Spanish nobility * Hidalgo (surname) Places Mexico * Hidalgo (state), in central Mexico * Hidalgo, Coahuila, a town in the north Mexican state of Coahuila * Hidalgo, Nuevo Le� ...

(1884), and Chapingo in the

State of Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...

(1900); the

customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

building in Tlatelolco, (1884); the restoration of several government buildings including the facade of the

Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

in Mexico City (1887); and his own house (1898) in Mexico City, now preserved as a historical building. The

Teatro Juárez The Teatro Juárez is a historical 19th century theater located in the Mexican city of Guanajuato. It was built from 1872 to 1903 from a design by architect José Noriega and by order of General Florencio Antillón. The building was completed b ...

in Guanajuato, which Rivas Mercado built between 1892 and 1903, is considered to be one of the finest buildings of the period. The neoclassical exterior and

neo-moorish Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of Romanticist Orientalism. It reached the height of its popularity after the mid-19th centur ...

interior are a clear reflection of his eclectic architectural style. In 1902 he was commissioned by President Porfirio Díaz to design and build the Independence Column on occasion of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the

Mexican War of Independence The Mexican War of Independence ( es, Guerra de Independencia de México, links=no, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from Spain. It was not a single, co ...

. The project, which he realised in collaboration with sculptor Enrique Alciati, was finished in 1910, the same year as the anniversary. Rivas Mercado was Director of the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City from 1903 to 1912. He instituted new methods of study and design and is said to have modified the curriculum of the "Architecture and Civil Engineering" major in order to make two different ones out of it. During his tenure he managed to raise enough money to fund

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

's scholarship to study

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

in Europe. He moved back to Paris shortly after his tenure ended. However, he returned to Mexico in 1926 and died a few months later in Mexico City, aged 74. On 26 February 2019,

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celebrated what would have been Mercado's 166th birthday with a

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References

External links

# {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivas Mercado, Antonio 1853 births 1927 deaths Mexican architects Mexican civil engineers

See also

References

External links