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''History of Morelos, Conquest and Revolution'' (1929–1930) was a fresco painted by Mexican artist
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 ...
in
Cuernavaca Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D. The na ...
's Palace of Cortés. The piece was commissioned by Dwight Morrow, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico at the time. Rivera chose the history of Mexico's conquest for the subject of the mural. The mural begins with the invasion of Mexico by the Spanish, going in chronological order of Mexico's history from that invasion. Rivera chose to focus on the region of Cuernavaca, as that was the mural's location, and the Indigenous peoples of that region, showing their reactions towards the Spaniards' invasion and the events that took place afterwards. It is still available for viewing inside the Palace of Cortés in Cuernavaca today.


About the artist

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 ...
was a well-known artist from
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
. He was born in
Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...
,
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
and began studying art at the
Academy of San Carlos The Academy of San Carlos ( es, Academia de San Carlos) is located at 22 Academia Street in just northeast of the main plaza of Mexico City. It was the first major art academy and the first art museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1781 as th ...
in
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 ...
by the age of ten. In his adult years, Rivera spent time studying art in Europe both in
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, Spain and
Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, France. While there, he spent time with other artists, such as
Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (russian: link=no, Илья́ Григо́рьевич Эренбу́рг, ; – August 31, 1967) was a Soviet writer, revolutionary, journalist and historian. Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable autho ...
and Max Jacob, learning new styles of art. Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921 and then began his career in muralism. Coming back to Mexico during the middle of its political revolution, Rivera was drawn in by then Mexican Secretary of Education,
José Vasconcelos José Vasconcelos Calderón (28 February 1882 – 30 June 1959), called the "cultural " of the Mexican Revolution, was an important Mexican writer, philosopher, and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities ...
, who called him to create paintings on the walls of prominent state buildings. Rivera then began to partake in the muralist movement, creating works dealing with the political issues of the time – revolutionary nationalism – in relation to Mexico's past and quickly becoming one of the most well known artists of the Mexican muralism movement, with many considering Rivera's pieces to be unforgettable, as they stick within the minds and hearts of those that see them. There are many murals that Rivera is known for. Some of his earlier murals include those at
Chapingo Chapingo is a small town located on the outskirts of the city of Texcoco, State of Mexico in central Mexico. It is located at , about east-northeast of Mexico City International Airport. Chapingo is most notable as the location of Chapingo Aut ...
Chapel and those at the Ministry of Education (
Secretariat of Public Education The Mexican Secretariat of Public Education ( in Spanish ''Secretaría de Educación Pública'', ''SEP'') is a federal government authority with cabinet representation and the responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation of ...
). Both of these works focused on revolutionary ideas of the time and the timeline of the Mexican revolution itself. One of his later works, located at the
National Palace Buildings called National Palace include: * National Palace (Dominican Republic), in Santo Domingo *National Palace (El Salvador), in San Salvador *National Palace (Ethiopia), in Addis Ababa; also known as the Jubilee Palace *National Palace (Guatem ...
in
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 ...
and titled ''History of Mexico'', incorporates an illustration of Mexico's history with an illustration of the revolution currently taken place. Rivera also incorporated communist and socialist imagery into the mural, as he became a member of the Mexican Communist Party after returning to Mexico. Later, however, he was told to leave the party due to his affiliations and workings with the United States and the Mexican government.


Palace of Cortés

The Palace of Cortés was built as a place of refuge for Conquistador Hernán Cortés and his family after the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish. The land was gifted to Cortés which he then used to build his secondary palace. Construction dates are estimated between the late 1520s and early 1530s. It was used as the Cortés family's personal home for some time and then was transformed into a prison, state legislature, and eventually into a museum, which it remains as currently.


Commission

Dwight Morrow, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from 1927 to 1930, commissioned Rivera to do the piece in 1929. It was meant to represent an act of good will and good intention towards Mexico and the city of Cuernavaca. However, some believe it to be a strategic move of diplomacy after Morrow had worked with Mexican president, Plutarco Calles, to amend Mexican legislation in favor of American investors. Rivera agreed to complete the commission, on the condition that he be granted free rein over the subject chosen for the mural.


Description

The mural is a linear portrayal of Mexico's history, focusing on the city of Cuernavaca, painted in a chronological sequence. Because of the chronological sequence Rivera painted it in, the mural must be read from right to left. It takes up three walls and other smaller sections of an open corridor on the second floor of the palace, totaling to be 148.6 square meters of painted space. The mural ultimately has two different sections – the upper half, being the nine panels in color, and the lower half, being the eleven
grisaille Grisaille ( or ; french: grisaille, lit=greyed , from ''gris'' 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture. Many g ...
s in black and white or grey. The grisailles pieces underneath tell the story of Cortés' disembarkation and his initial meetings with the Indian locals and emissaries sent out by Moctezuma, as well as a paralleled representation of the story shown above. The remaining portions of the mural, in vivid color, go in detail about the actual conquest of the Mexican people in Cuernavaca as well as the fights and societal changes which took place after the conquest. Starting from the first panel, Rivera shows the fights which took place during the Spanish conquest. He portrays Aztec warriors and Spanish soldiers in their traditional war gear, showing the stark contrast between the metal uniforms of the Spaniards and the colorful war costumes of the Aztecs with their spiked wooden clubs. The mural moves on the show the defeat of the Indians in Cuernavaca and the events which took place afterwards, during Spanish rule. Rivera depicts the building of the Palace of Cortés by Indian slaves and then shows them as laborers for the Spanish ruled state of Morelos, in which they were predominantly sugarcane cutters. Rivera then proceeds to show the religious history and details the conversions by Catholic priests which took place throughout Mexico. The conversions are shown to be seemingly peaceful but also show the cruelty behind such conversions and what happened to the Indians throughout them. In the smaller piece above the doorway towards the end of the corridor, Rivera depicts persecutions and burning of Indian heretics by the Spanish, which mirrors the Aztec sacrifices that Rivera placed at the beginning of the mural. The very last panel, then, shows an image of
Emiliano Zapata Emiliano Zapata Salazar (; August 8, 1879 – April 10, 1919) was a Mexican revolutionary. He was a leading figure in the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920, the main leader of the people's revolution in the Mexican state of Morelos, and the ins ...
– a main and important figure in the Mexican revolution – depicting liberation from Spanish colonial rule.


Interpretation

Rivera made sure that he could choose the subject of this mural. Because he was working on his mural for the National Palace at the time, he decided to continue with his theme of Mexico's history in relation to Spanish conquest and the hardships natives endured because of it. Rivera portrays the dominance of the Spanish over the Indians in warfare and the violence which the Indians endured. Although the mural focuses on the accurate depiction of Mexico's history and its people's experiences with European conquest, it also is meant to show the nationalism of the Mexican people who were affected by such conquest. Through Rivera's idealistic depiction of Mexico and a darker, more negative depiction of the European world, one can see a message of Mexican integrity. In Rivera's opinion, the indigenous peoples were a perfect picture of resistance against colonialism and Mexican independence. Due to the subject of the mural and the backstory of its commission, there are many political interpretations of Rivera's work. A major political message throughout the mural is that of European invasion of Mexico and its culture. Rivera uses the influence of Italian renaissance compositional form, such as the grisailles, to show that European existed in the past and still currently exists. Rivera placed a small painting of an Aztec human sacrifice at the beginning of the corridor in order to allude to the brutalities committed by Spanish invaders, showing the exchange of Mexican culture's cruelty for the cruelty of Spanish culture. However, the final images of Zapata symbolize Mexico's liberation from Europe and colonialism.


Controversy and irony

Prior to working on this piece, Rivera was a steady member of the Mexican Communist Party. He was a strong supporter of
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and a strong nationalist and anti-imperialist. Rivera's murals were known for having heavy political connotations with references to Marx and other revolutionary figures. Despite this, Dwight Morrow, the U.S. Ambassador and an American capitalistic, commissioned Rivera for the piece. Because of Rivera's agreement to complete this project and others within the United States and for the Mexican government, the Mexican Communist Party began to doubt his loyalty to their cause. They ultimately kicked Rivera out of the party and he later went to the U.S. in order to work on other pieces.


References

{{Artists related to Mexican muralism Fresco paintings in Mexico 1920s murals Murals in Mexico War paintings Horses in art Paintings by Diego Rivera