“Hidalgo and National Independence”
This detail is from a fresco mural painted by the Mexican symbolist artist, José Clemente Orozco, in 1937. This mural, titled “Hidalgo and National Independence”, was painted at the Governor’s Palace, the Palacio de Gobierno, in Guadalajara, Mexico. This is the very same building where Father Hidalgo abolished Mexican slavery on December 6, 1810.
Jose Vasconcelos, the Minister of Education at the time, was an advocate and supporter of many of Mexico’s emerging artists. During the 1920s and 1930s, the government commissioned many murals, such as this one here, to help foster and solidify the burgeoning national identity and personal national history.
This piece depicts Miguel Hidalgo, the Spanish Roman Catholic priest who helped lead the war for Mexican independence. He is known as a founding father for the country. Hidalgo is brandishing a fiery torch at the oppressors and slavers of the Mexican people essentially igniting the Mexican revolution. Hidalgo lunges toward the viewer in defense of the anguished and tormented Mexican people seen en masse at the bottom of the fresco.
“Hidalgo and National Independence” can still be viewed at the Palacio de Gobierno, in Guadalajara, Mexico today. The mural itself is located on a vaulted ceiling just above the main staircase inside the courtyard of the palace. The walls of the ceiling are flanked by more of the painting. A second Orozco mural is located on the second floor.
For more on José Clemente Orozco, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
