Diego Rivera Mexican Artist 1886- 1957 Mrs. Naft, Reading Specialist, anaft@bcps

Diego RiveraMexican Artist

1886- 1957

Mrs. Naft, Reading Specialist, anaft@bcps.org

Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera was born in Mexico on December 8, 1886. As a child he was a good student and a talented artist.

By the time he was twelve years old, he was a full time art student. At twenty Diego Rivera was well known as a painter.

After finishing school, the Mexican government sent Diego to Spain to study art. He returned to Mexico for one year at the start of the Mexican Revolution when the poor workers and farmers were demanding the government return the land to the poor. 

The next year he returned to Europe for many years, but moved back to Mexico after the Revolution. Diego taught that art should be on big walls where everyone can see it. These types of paintings are called murals.

Diego represented the ideas of the Mexican Revolution by painting murals of indigenous (native) people and their history. What point of view did he have about them in the next pictures?

Before 1520

Mexican flower farmers and vendors in the 1900’s.

Diego wanted his murals to give workers and Mexicans pride in their jobs, culture, history, and optimism about their future.

Workers building machine

s for Mexico’s growing industry

in the 1900’s.

Diego Rivera painted until the end of his life in 1957.

Mural of Mexican History in the Palace of Cortes

The mural is in a large hall and covers three of its walls. The pictures blend into one another to show the events in chronological order (beginning, middle, and end). It begins on one side with the arrival of the Spanish in 1521 and ends on the other side with the Mexican Revolution in 1910.

The Palace of Cortes today in Cuernavaca,

Mexico.

We will interpret pictures from the mural in the Palace of Cortes in order to identify Diego Rivera’s point of view about these events.

The Spanish conquest of the natives of the land that later became Mexico.

This is a drawing of the center of Tenochtitlan before the arrival of the Spanish. It was made

by a Spanish artist and is based on descriptions of the Spanish conquerors and the

surviving ruins of the Aztec pyramids.

Cortesledthe war against the natives.

An Aztec warrior knight dressed for battle in

jaguar skins, a shield, and a war club made of black obsidian (a volcanic stone

that is like glass).

A Spanish knight and horse dressed in full metal armor.

The conquest of the indigenous natives by the Spanish in 1521.

The Spanish priests and

soldiers leadthe native

Mexicans in their first Christian religious service.

The indigenous native Mexicans build the Palace of Cortes under the supervision of the Spanish rulers.

The indigenous Mexicans work in the sugar cane industry under the supervision of the land owners.

The priestsoversee the building of thecathedral by the indigenous workers.

Emiliano Zapata leads the Mexican people in a revolution against the Mexican government.

Not all of Diego Rivera’s murals tell

events in chronological order. The next one is

in the Presidential Palace in Mexico City and shows the history

in one big picture.

Another way to show events.

1- the founding of

the Aztec capital

2- Spanish conquest

3- Colonial period when Spain ruled the country

4- War for freedom against Spain

5- Laws of reform

6- MexicanRevolution