Manuel Gustavo Antonio Revilla was born in the City of Mexico, February 7, 1863. His father, Domingo Revilla, was a distinguished author and from him the son appears to have inherited his studious inclinations. Young Revilla studied law, completing his course in 1887, but the practice of that profession had little attraction for him, and he has devoted himself to teaching and writing. Having a strong taste for the fine arts, he developed sound art criticism, and in 1892 was appointed Professor of the History of Art in the National School of Fine Arts. During the following year he wrote his Arte en Mexico (Art in Mexico), of which the Spanish art writer, MenÉndez y Pelayo, said:—“I have read with much pleasure, and I believe with much profit, Arte en Mexico, learning from it new data regarding architects, sculptors, and painters, of the times of the Viceroys, who are almost unknown in Spain. As well from the novelty and interest of its subject, as for the good taste and sound art criticism with which it is treated, the book deserves every kind of praise, and will no doubt receive it, from all intelligent readers.” After ten years of class instruction Professor Revilla was appointed Secretary of the same school, in February, 1903. At the same time he was appointed one of a committee of three to prepare a systematic catalogue of the works of art belonging to the institution.

SeÑor Revilla is a public speaker of power and some of his addresses have attracted notable attention. Among these may be mentioned the Independence Day oration of September 16, 1889, and that commemorating the forty-third anniversary of the Death of the Cadets of the Military School of Chapultepec. He has also been a prolific writer for periodicals. To El Tiempo (The Time), he has long been an editorial contributor, especially upon topics of public law, political economy, and social problems. Traveling in Guatemala, he was connected for a time with El Bien Publico (The Public Weal), in which he published an article upon the Monroe Doctrine, which attracted considerable attention in Latin America. In his writings of every kind, Revilla shows the greatest care in the choice of words and use of language. In 1902 he was named a Correspondent of the Mexican Academy.

At present SeÑor Revilla is writing a series of critical biographies of Mexican artists. This is an absolutely new undertaking in Mexico and the work demands exceptional information and much research. Volumes have so far appeared regarding the sculptors PatiÑo, Ixtolinque, and Guerra, the architect Hidalga, the painter Rebull, and the musicians Paniagua and Valle. This series is being published by AgÜeros and will be extended. Revilla has also written a biography of Francisco Gonzales Bocanegro, author of the Mexican National Hymn.

Our selections are taken from El Arte en Mexico.

THE FINE ARTS IN MEXICO.

The three arts do not attain the same grade of development, nor prosper equally, at all times. At the beginning, that is, during the sixteenth century, their growth was slow, as was to be expected of all pertaining to a young community, and they were sustained, thanks to masters from the art centres of Spain. But, from the very beginning of the seventeenth century, these are to be seen surrounded by disciples, many born in the colony, to whom they transmit their knowledge, and, owing to the increasing demand for works, which they receive, the production augments and a new artistic manifestation appears, which, although derived from the Spaniards, may be considered indigenous.

During the seventeenth century is when painting was practised with greatest brilliancy and the schools of Mexico and Puebla were formed, which, although decadent, were maintained in the following century.

On the contrary, this eighteenth century, is the period of greatest lustre for architecture; during it, ancient edifices, begun long before, were carried to completion, many others were rebuilt, and new ones were erected, and there appears in houses, palaces, and churches, a style in which symmetry is but laxly observed and ornamentation is profuse or lavish.

Sculpture, long confined to imperfect wooden statues and crude bas-reliefs in stone, acquires an actual existence only near the close of the past century, with the famous Valencian[18], author of one of the most famous of equestrian statues; with him also architecture assumed correctness, simplicity and proportions in harmony with the classical canon.

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The fine arts in Mexico, without having arrived, in general, to the perfection to which the Spaniards carried them, ... cannot, for that reason, be considered unworthy of esteem and study, since in them are found undeniable and many excellences. The defects met with in them are not sufficient to invalidate their merits. The literary works of that time are also open to criticism, but no one has denied the value of the literature of the vice-royal period, during which arts and letters attained equal prosperity. Echave, the elder, yields in nothing to Balbuena; JosÉ Juarez and Arteaga stand forth conspicuously as Sister Juana InÉz de la Cruz; PerusquÍa or Tres Guerras are comparable with Navarette; and, as famous as is RuÍz de AlarcÓn in his line, is Tolsa in his.

TRES GUERRAS AND TOLSA.

Independently, in a modest city, a creole artist, Eduardo Tres Guerras, followed the same impulse, with result and applause. Student of the Academy, he had been trained in painting; having attained no great result in which, he dedicated himself to architecture, which yielded him merited laurels for constructing—besides various beautiful private houses—the Church of the Carmen of Celaya and the Bridge of the Laja in the same city.

Tolsa and Tres Guerras have many points of likeness; both, professing another art,—the one statuary, the other painting—dedicated themselves later to construction; both cultivated the same style, that of the Renaissance, and succeeded in imparting majesty to their buildings. Tolsa is more severe, elegant, and grand; Tres Guerras better knows how to express grace and is more audacious. This one sometimes lacks good taste, the other—rather frequently becomes heavy. Withal, both are notable architects; and, if one wins constant applause, the other gains an enduring fame.

Although it might be thought that Tres Guerras felt Tolsa’s influence, nothing is further from the truth, since Tres Guerras had already constructed the Carmen and the Laja bridge, before Tolsa had reared his edifices.

With these two artists, the cycle of vice-royal architecture ended. Beginning rude and coarse it developed brilliant and overloaded, and ended simple and correct, ever showing itself strong and robust as the virile, conquering, race that produced it.

When these glaring offenses against art were not only condoned, but authorized by religion, it will be appreciated how great credit is due to a group of modest and industrious artists, who, in the City of Puebla, about the second half of the past, and the beginning of the present, century, without good masters nor great models for imitation, cultivated the sculpture of images, forming their own canons. The Coras, with all their defects, play the rÔle of restorers to respect of an art, which could not fall to a more lamentable extremity. There were three principal—though other artists of lesser value figure in turn—JosÉ Villegas de Cora, the master of all; Zacarias Cora, and JosÉ Villegas, who also took the surname Cora, as an honorific title.

JosÉ Villegas de Cora, called in his time the Maestro Grande, from having been the founder of the school, was the first to insist upon the observation of the natural, from which indeed he himself took but a general idea, leaving the arrangement of the details of the projected work to fancy; from this proceeds the arbitrary character, to be observed in the minutiÆ of almost all of his images. At the same time he sought naturalness in the arrangement of draperies; that for which he was most esteemed, was the grace and beauty of the faces, particularly those of his Virgins; which, like most of his other works, were made to be clothed.

Zacarias Cora made show of some knowledge of anatomy, accentuating the muscles and veins, which did not prevent his figures from frequently lacking proper proportions and appearing to have been supplied with them from sentiment rather than accuracy. In expression, he competed with his master. His best work was the San CristÓbal with the infant Jesus, which is in the temple of that name in Puebla.

Unlike the preceding, most of the works of JosÉ Villegas were of full size; in them he handled the draperies well, though at times falling into mannerisms, as did Zacarias also, in exaggerating movements and delicacy in them. His faces are less pleasing. His Santa Teresa, larger than life, belonging to the church of that name in Puebla, offers a good example of draperies, and presents the feature,—common to all the works of the sculptors of this school, of a pursing of the lips, with the purpose of making the mouth appear smaller.

Each of the three artists named had some quality in which he was distinguished from the others; one in the attractiveness of the faces, another in the greater attention to the natural, the other in the regular proportions and in having preferred to make figures of life size. After them the school decayed and died.

THE WORKS OF TOLSA.

Tolsa did not make many statues, since another art robbed him of a great part of the time which he might have given to sculpture. The few, which remain, suffice to show his knowledge, his talent, his brilliancy and his power.

Besides the superb equestrian statue of Charles IV, legitimate pride of the City of Mexico, he made the principal statues of the tabernaculo of the Cathedral of Puebla, those of the clock of the Cathedral of Mexico and some pieces in wood. Only two of his sculptures were run in bronze, the Charles IV, and the Conception, of the tabernaculo, the others which adorn this, and which represent the four great doctors of the Latin Church, being of white stucco, imitating marble, and those of the faÇade of the Cathedral of Mexico, which represent the three virtues, being of stone. The size selected for all of these is the colossal, which so well lends itself to the grand. And this is Tolsa, beyond all, grand in proportions, in type conceptions, in postures, in gestures, in dress.

The horse of the statue of the Spanish monarch, treated after the classic, is of beautiful outline, natural movement, graceful and animated in the extreme; as for the figure of the king, although a little heavy, it is majestic, in movement well harmonized with that of the noble brute, and forms with it a beautiful combination of lines. There has been abundant reason for counting it one of the best equestrian statues.

The remaining sculptures of Tolsa, that is, the Doctors, the Conception, and the Virtues, are distinguished by the movement, which gives them an appearance full of grace and life. All reveal sufficient personality combined with conscientious study of the antique. If one sought to find defects he might say that at times he is heavy, over-emphasizes and gives a berninesque execution to his draperies.

In wood, he has left two heads of the Dolorosa and a Conception, artistically colored.

BALTASAR DE ECHAVE.

We have the scantiest personal notices of Baltasar de Echave, commonly called Echave the elder, to distinguish him from the painter of the same name, his son, who is designated as Echave the younger; but although these data are scanty, they are abundant in comparison with those which are preserved of other painters (of the time), of whom we know only the names. He was a Basque, born in Zumaya, in the Province of GuipÚzcoa, and besides being a painter was a philologist, having published a work upon the antiquity of the language of Cantabria. He has several sons, of whom two were painters. Torquemada states that, at the time when he was writing his Monarquia Indiana (1609), Echave finished his great retable of the Church of Santiago Tlaltelolco; further, it is known by the examination of his works, that already in 1601, he was painting, as the colossal canvas of San CristÓbal, which bears that date, shows, and that still in 1640, the activity of his brush had not ceased, since in that year he executed the Martyrdom of Santa Catarina for the Dominicans of Mexico....

His fecundity did not prevent his pictures from having that completeness and detailed study which makes them so agreeable; yet, at times he falls into carelessness of drawing, which cannot at all be attributed to lack of skill, but to the fact that his pictures were generally destined to occupy high places in churches, rendering unnecessary a minute attention to finishing, unappreciable at a great distance and in the feeble light of the interior of churches....

Being of versatile genius Echave displayed varied characteristics; sometimes we see him most painstaking in outlines; sometimes easy and firm in handling the brush; now varied in types and attitudes and again attentive to the arrangement of draperies; now skillful in the nude, of which but few examples are found in the Mexican school; now notable as a colorist, worthy of comparison with the Venetians. When it suits him, he can give beauty of expression, but he does not so persistently seek it, that it becomes a mannerism.

He neglected, yes, systematically, the figures of secondary importance, his draperies are often hard and confused, and his halos and glories lack luminous intensity. Without being weak, he lacks strength in his modelling and he does not delight in strong contrasts of light and shade—both qualities in which the Spaniards surpass. His pictures, in general, do not profoundly move, although they produce an agreeable impression largely because he does not highly develop expression, although undertaking highly emotional incidents, such as the martyrdom of certain saints, at the moment of their suffering. Thus it is not the expression which most interests in his San Ponciano, San Aproniano, and San Lorenzo, but the nude figures of the martyrs, the character in the participants in the scene, and the fine coloring.

As an example of feminine beauty and of undeniable and palpable Raphaelean influence, may be cited the figures of the Saints and the Virgin, respectively, in the paintings of Santa Cecilia, Santa Isabel, Queen of Portugal, the Porciuncula, and the Adoration of the Magi.

In the latter, one figure is seen, that of the king who adores the infant Jesus, which is admirably conceived and executed; type, expression, attitude and drapery, are worthy of a great master. The coloring and rich draperies of the Santa Isabel and of Santa Cecilia are also notable. But the best pages of Echave, and at the same time the most mystical creations, are his Christ praying in the Garden, and Saint Francis receiving the Stigmata; both compositions as simple as they are beautiful; the figure of Jesus, in the first, is so peaceful and resigned, that it has been justly compared to the celestial visions of Overbeck; that of Saint Francis is equally imposing and majestic for its great asceticism, for the sincerity and truth with which the ecstasy in which the Christ of the Middle Ages is overwhelmed, is represented.

To him belong also the Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple, the Visitation, and a masterly Conception, which is in the State College of Puebla, of vigorous execution and strong light and shade. Echave gave life size to most of the figures on his canvases, as did—indeed—most of the other painters of the school.

MIGUEL CABRERA.

Miguel Cabrera exaggerated the defects of Ibarra and fell into others, because he is more incorrect in form, more neglects the study of the natural, lacks strength in execution, and reduces coloring to the use of five or six tints, monotonously repeated; he is weak in perspective, and in composition never maintains himself at any great height; yet, with all this, his vogue was great during his lifetime and his prestige has not ceased today. The religious communities outbid each other for his works, connoisseurs sought his canvases, the University entrusted important commissions to his hand, Archbishop Rubio y Salinas appointed him his court painter, and when, in 1753, a group of painters were organizing the first Academy of Painting, they elected him perpetual president. How can we explain the high opinion in which he was held? The reason may be found in the bad taste then prevalent, bad taste which in other times has even elevated a Gongora, or has caused that a Lucas JordÁn shall be compared with, and preferred to, a Claude Coello. But there is a further reason for the popularity, which Cabrera enjoyed; that he painted prettily, taking great pains with the faces, even when he neglected the rest, and employing brilliant coloring, pleasing to the crowd.

To his fame, have contributed his activity and extraordinary productiveness, shown by the quantity he produced, but particularly by his having painted the thirty-four great canvases of the life of San Ignacio, and the same number of that of Santo Domingo, in the short period of fourteen months. The fact is not, really, so surprising if one considers on the one hand his unfinished style, and on the other that it is in those very pictures, that his style reached its fullest expression; these being, for that reason, the worst we have seen of that artist. It must be added, too, that other artists worked in his studio, who naturally assisted him in his heavier commissions. Furthermore, it is not the quantity of the works of an artist, nor the rapidity with which he turns them out, that gives the measure of his value, but their quality, no matter how small their number. Otherwise, Luca, of course, would have long since been proclaimed the greatest painter of the world, and criticism would have relegated to oblivion such works as the Santa Forma of Claude Coello, for having been made, although marvelously perfect, with patient slowness.