Forjando Patria: Pro-Nacionalismo

9: The Work of Art in Mexico

48 It seems risky to classify all of the manifestations of art that exist in Mexico— architecture, sculpture, painting, ceramics, pottery, decorative arts, and so forth. Besides being diverse and little-studied, these art forms differ in terms of their cultural origin, character, technique, and symbolic value. But by having a basic knowledge of the characteristics of Western art, examining the art of the pre-Hispanic period, and studying how the two have influenced each other, one can make the following provisional classification: 1) The work of pre-Hispanic art; 2) The foreign work of art; 3) The work of traditional art that emerged through evolutionary incorporation and the work of traditional art that emerged through systematic incorporation; 4) The work of art of reappearance, by copy; the work of art of spontaneous reappearance. A. The Work of Pre-Hispanic Art This type of art was produced in Mexico until the arrival of the Conquest. Its most interesting manifestations, when compared with objects of the same antiquity in the Orient and Occident, included architecture, feather art, lapidary art, artistic metallurgy of gold and copper, ceramics, profuse and original 9 The Work of Art in Mexico 49 T h e W o r k o f A r t i n M e x i c o decoration. Distinctive architectural elements included the corbelled arch, the plastering and polishing of walls and floors, and mural painting. There was also a pavement made of superimposed coats of a concrete made from pumice, conglomerates , and lime. The pre-Hispanic architects employed a column made with a base, shaft, and capital and a prismatic pillar with pyramidal base. All of these artistic and technical achievements can be considered along with a thousand other details that the brevity of this article forces us to omit. Overall, they denote great powers of observation and constructive knowledge among the pre-Hispanic architects, as well as the aesthetic sense that can be observed in the marvelous decorations of their buildings. The same can be said of their gold and silver jewelry, smelted, beaten, and “braided,” and the opulent mosaics of feathers, turquoise, rock crystal, and jade. This type of art was produced by the civilizations of the Maya, Aztecs, Teotihuacanos, and Mixteco-Zapotec, and others. B. The Foreign Work of Art This art has been imported from other countries since the Conquest. It has been slightly influenced by the particular environmental conditions of Mexico, but not by indigenous art. During the sixteenth century, Spanish art predominated, although there were also some traces of the art of Flanders and Italy, given the contact in Europe between Spain, Italy, and the Low Countries. Afterward, the importation of artistic forms was extended to other countries, primarily France. Today, we have art from all of the cultured countries of the world. C. The Traditional Work of Art This is the national work of art, the one that most interests us. As we have said, it has emerged in two ways. 1. By Evolutionary Incorporation. This kind of art originated with the Conquest. Spanish and pre-Hispanic art met face-to-face; they invaded one another, mixed, and in many cases melded harmoniously. Looking carefully at manifestations of this kind of art, one can see that they have two clearly defined social sources or bases. The Indian, a living repository of pre-Hispanic art, continued to cultivate it with fervor but was often forced or chose to include elements of Spanish art into his own. The indigenous artistic industries that one finds today are examples of this phenomenon. In the same way, the Spanish 50 T h e W o r k o f A r t i n M e x i c o promoted and imposed their invasive art but could not prevent elements of pre-Hispanic art from being incorporated into it. This can be seen primarily in architecture. The arches of Tecamachalco and the churches of Coyoacán, Atzcapotzalco, Tlalnepantla, and other colonial towns have a profusion of decorative elements such as flowers, birds, feathers, and geometric motifs that can also be found in the codices and architectural, sculptural, and ceramic monuments of the pre-Hispanic period. 2. By Systematic Incorporation. We have said that the kinds of traditional art that emerged from evolutionary incorporation have two sources or bases, the indigenous and the European. Differences between these two sources reflect the distinct sensibilities of the Mexican...