International studio (51.1913/1914)

The Art Treasures of Mexico

The art treasures of Mexico
BY MARY WORRALL HUDSON
Many of the churches of Mexico

contain priceless old paintings, but it is impossible
for art lovers in the United States, if they have
never visited Mexico, to believe that this is a
treasure-house of pictures. The existence of
“Old Masters” in Mexico has been more fabled
than real in our minds, and many have smiled at
the credulity of the unlearned masses of this em-

ingly important event of the century, and dreams
of avarice beyond all former imaginings filled the
minds of a mighty host. From the great
unknown Western world was to come the wealth
that would make every ambitious man a king.
First of all, these wild, untutored people must be
converted to Christianity. Every stone that has
been laid in Mexico since Cortez set foot upon the
shores of the Gulf, tells the story of the Catholic
and the Moor. The architecture that the Moor
planted in Spain has followed the Spaniard into

bryonic republic. It is
true that the unques-
tioning majority know
nothing and think
nothing of a picture
except what the padre
tells them, but it must
be remembered that
the men who rule the
destinies of Mexico are
educated, traveled,
cultured in the schools
and universities of the
old world, and emi-
nently capable of ap-
preciating the fine arts.
Furthermore, they are
all Catholics, and
hence are imbued with
the traditional rever-
ence for religious art
that we cannot wholly
comprehend. It might
be said that this very
reverence would in-
capacitate them as
impartial critics of this
art, but, be this as it
may, it has served a
purpose invaluable to
the student of today.

TRAVESURAS DEL AMOR BY MANUEL OCARANZA]


every colony that he
has founded, but it is
all crowned with the
cross.
The church was very
rich in the seventeenth
century, and amply
able to send works of
art of great value to
Mexico and other col-
onies. It was also the
period when art flour-
ished most in Spain,
when Murillo lived
and Seville was a great
art center.
The missionary
priests in Mexico soon
discovered that the In-
dians were unable to
comprehend the spirit
of the Christian relig-
ion, and that they
must substitute pic-
tures and images of
the Christ for the
heathen gods and idols
they were trying to
supplant. Churches,
convents and chapels

Their love, in many in-

were multiplied rapidly after the Conquest, and

stances their worship, of these old masterpieces,
has caused the careful preservation not alone of
the picture but often of the records of its presen-
tation by some royal and devout donor to a

it became a pious duty, often emphasized by an
order of Cortez, to bring paintings and statues
of saints to the New World.
Many of the great pictures that were at that

church in New Spain.
Instead of an unreasonable and preposterous
claim, it is the most reasonable of conclusions
that many, very many, valuable works of art
were sent to Mexico as religious offerings in the
days of the conquerors and the successive and
rival reigns of the viceroys.
The conquest of Mexico was the overwhelm-

time favorites in Spain, Italy and the Nether-
lands, were copied and the copies brought over
by monks and missionary priests, and many
originals by the master painters of the time were
sent as offerings by members of the royal house
of the mother country. The difficulty of locating
all these originals is, of course, great, for the
reason that many of them are hung on the high

CHI