There is also an action of lines dumping down, the lines of the lances coming in at the steepest angle from the top right, 2. background red). Monsignor Daniel Dever has suggested that this abbreviates ut in omnibus Deo Gloria 'that in all things glory be given to God.' Reforma, El Angel, Number 24, May 15, pp. Charlot, Jean, 1938. Most important, Charlot used encaustic for the lances; he would not do mixed media murals in the future. Standing on the landing, one sees the painting from very near. B. These works were the beginnings of the Mexican Mural Renaissance, an artistic movement that celebrated indigenous and mestizo traditions rather than looking back to European art or the … The bullet, seen head-on, is divided into six spaces from which radiate disconnected planes as if the surface of the picture had been broken like a pane of glass. I learned, of course, that if I worked too much on the page, I spoiled the effect, and I learned a certain lightness of touch by which the paper shone, so to speak, the white of the paper shone through the film of watercolor. He embraces the classical idea of a hierarchy of subject matter that, properly treated, evokes emotional responses of different levels. "Jean Charlot: Pionero del muralismo mexicano." Charlot's Massacre in the Main Temple and Rivera's Creation form the beginning of the major phase of the Mexican Mural Renaissance; of the two, Charlot's was technically and thematically the more seminal. But the stairs were even more complicated. The lecture was given on May 24, 1938. Jean Charlot is generally recognized as having brought international attention to José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican printer who had produced more than 15 thousand prints and lithographs, devoted mostly to the popular readers of newspapers in pre-revolutionary Mexico, in which he would present political satires using cartoon-like skeletons. The shape given to me to paint was not a rectangle, but distinctly different, Figure II. A water color, scale 1/10th, to sample values and colors. So he is represented well by that unmoving, upright rectangle, ANOD. So those things that I had when I was very young have remained with me all my life. et l'ordonnance d'un sujet entrevu cérébralement plutôt que connu. [30] But other sources were available to anyone as versed as Charlot in the history of art; for instance, Poussin's The Battle of Joshua against the Amorites displays mounted soldiers with spears charging down a three-dimensional diagonal and pushing unmounted soldiers into the lower right corner (where the grimacing soldier in flight resembles the face of one of the Indians distorted into a tragic mask). (2) un casque (gris fer)allemand FIGURE croix rouge et croix de bois (3)sorte d'arc en ciel FIGURE côté rouge blanc noir bleu.etc. A horizontal line suggests "mer, couché, horizon (cf. Although these murals are under cover, they are out-of-doors, and the latter is subject to severe weather conditions. One of the foci of his renewed meditation on composition was curiously a set of Baroque prints by Boucher and others that was owned by his Mexican uncle Louis Labadie and that Charlot studied while staying at his house on his first, exploratory trip to Mexico in early 1921 (Interview, May 14, 1971): So I passed actually as far as art is concerned that first trip to Mexico in looking through the books of my Uncle Louis. 8. The wet mortar is beautiful in itself, and the smooth surface created by a master mason is itself a work of art. References to the interviews in Charlot 1970-1971 will be "Interview" followed by the date. On the shadow side of Charlot's Paris mural project, cold colors would have been used to express the sadness of war; on the sunny side, warm colors to express the joys of peace. Now that corner or the compressed rectangle ANOD even has the shape of a squatting Indian seen from the side, Figure VIIIb. Note the emphasis on the Indians' costumes, jewelry, and lack of weapons. I obtained it thus: the lime slaked beforehand and in fine powder, the fine sand resulting from sieving, were mixed with water and stirred vigorously. The means are colors with their values, the juxtaposition of which creates lines. He calls therefore for "conférences techniques" 'technical conferences' especially on "les différentes méthodes d'expression : peinture à l'œuf, à la fresque" 'the different methods of expression: tempera, fresco,' and so on. Charlot 1922a. The article continues with harsh criticisms interlaced with acute perceptions, for example: lo mejor que tiene es la distribuición [sic] de las líneas de fuerza, representadas por las lanzas, resolución inspirada un tanto en las cargas de caballeros de Paolo Uccello y de Pietro della Francesca; dichas lanzas las interrumpe el asta de un pendón (?) Geometric composition was based in fact on an essential component of human perception as he states in his Traité de Peinture: Chercher l'harmonie de la ligne : illustration par les systèmes de lignes dans la vision naturelle : (dégager ces systèmes de leurs données accessoires) qu'en cas de vision douteuse, l'œil reconstruit par équivalents géométriques, l'appareil de photo aussi (cf. As stated above, Charlot felt that colors, like lines, had connotations: "Aux couleurs s'attachent des idées" 'To colors ideas attach themselves' (1920-1922). Jean Charlot (1898-1979) Masacre en el Templo Mayor o La Conquista de Tenochtitlan, 1922-1923 Fresco y encáusticaEl muro está dividido por un eje central marcado con un enorme bastón de tres colores. As he would throughout his life, Charlot simply tackled the problem directly (Charlot 1963: 130 f., 181, 184). Charlot, John (February 16–20, 1998). Mexico City. In effect, Charlot poured into The Massacre the feelings that still haunted him from World War I, and the mural is unique in his œuvre for its depiction of the violence and horror of battle. The left part, the upright rectangle ANOD, could be considered the dumping spot. Charlot, Jean. A white man sitting on a chair has those little tooth picks under him. I used to go every weekend to the Louvre and soak in the Old Masters. The transfer to the final coat was done with a pattern marker (roulette). But this expressive intent does not excuse the breaking of the "principios inmutables" 'immutable principles' of mural decoration: así en la gran decoración mural que es "un complemento" de la arquitectura, es fundamental que como ella tenga estabilidad, resultante también de un equilibrio de masas y de fuerzas...hay que hacer constar por otra parte, que la modernidad de una obra, no está reñida con esos elementales principios, y tenemos allí la decoración de Diego Rivera, en que la más libre concepción y ejecución se aunan con la estabilidad más absoluta... "Being the complement of an architecture, great mural decoration should possess a similar basic stability," resulting also from the equilibrium of the masses and forces..."To prove that the modernism of the work need not be jeopardized by such a rule, we have here the decoration of Diego Rivera, where the greatest freedom of conception and execution is welded to absolute stability.". Finally, the making of the fresco was the culminating moment of Charlot's early career, the point towards which he had been working for many years: "I had trained myself already to be ready, shall we say, if the possibility of making murals would come, and it's very nice that it did come" (Interview, August 7, 1971); "I would say that I was supremely happy when I painted that first fresco of mine" (Charlot March 8, 1972). 5. 35. L'écueil était qu'une reproduction purement historique de ce fait en aurait affecté la signification symbolique. The matter by the two planks placed around offering the idea wood which superposes itself on the deciphered form, etc. Rosales 1999: 301, finds the collage character of the mural significant. The basic idea embodied, expressed without compromise, is perhaps unfair, but the plastic language is not amenable to nuances. In Memoria Congreso Internacional de Muralismo: San Ildefonso, cuna del Muralismo Mexicano: reflexiones, historiográficas y artísticas, Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City, pp. Well, Poussin always, but the Italians, Piero Della Francesca, Uccello, are probably my greatest models for surface geometric construction. But they would have been the true verticals and horizontals of the rectangle before it was tipped. : dignity, hidden life)'; "Ainsi à la ligne correspond une idée comme à la lettre (ou au système de lettres), un sens (à travers le son qui est ici l'image reconstruite)" 'Thus to the line corresponds an idea just as to the letter (or system of letters) a meaning (through the sound, which is here the reconstructed image).' Anything you put on the canvas is a composition, but this kind is very obscure, more like a scramble. Painted from October 2, 1922, to January 31, 1923, on a wall of unusual shape (14 feet by 26 feet) in a stairwell of the Escuela Preparatoria, now the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, The Massacre also has considerable historical importance as the first fresco completed in Mexico since the Colonial Period[2] and as the first completed mural of the young group that produced the major work of the Mexican Mural Renaissance. The stone has been exposed, of varying types, mostly "Tezontle.". In Olivier Debroise, Otras Rutas hacia Siqueiros, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and Curare, Mexico City, 1996, pp. Unpublished; Jean Charlot Collection. To cold colors are attached the ideas of sadness, weakness, and night; to warm colors, vigor, joy, and day. Lances pierce into the crowd, connecting the two. El Primer Fresco de Jean Charlot: La Masacre en el Templo Mayor [Jean Charlot's First Fresco:The Massacre in the Main Temple]. Appropriate for the covering of great spaces, [these compositions] seem less appropriate for decoration in a family setting.At the very summit comes the representation of spiritual personages, like the virtues, the angels, and the saints in their glory—that is the most elevated genre because it nourishes the highest peaks of human contemplation. Of cement and sand applied by throwing it with the trowel. That is, they would return to subject matter as an important, indeed a basic, element of their work. grandeur) etc." J'ai été frappé, à mon arrivée à Mexico, du contraste entre la spiritualité de la race indienne et la civilisation mécanique venue d'Europe d'abord, des États-Unis maintenant. The most perceptive contemporary analysis of Charlot's composition, other than his own writings, was curiously the newspaper attack by Molina of April 26, 1923 (Charlot 1963: 186 f.). As to hierarchy, he would say that all art was sacred and that a picture of a peasant could be just as religious as one of Christ or a bishop. I would say that the respect with which I treat the different coats of mortar that make the fresco is probably one of the reasons why the wall has a not only permanent look, but a permanent actual quality, and the changes, the chemical changes, in the wall from mortar to marble are done in such a way that I haven't, I feel that I haven't hurt the material, the natural qualities of the material. Cartons : Le tracé géométrique sur papier, grandeur naturelle. So this seems an ideal representation of that difference--not too much difference. The significance of this is that "la valeur de l'œuvre d'art n'est que la valeur de l'émotion et de la qualité d'émotion qu'elle suscite" 'the value of a work of art is nothing more than the value of the emotion and of the quality of emotion that it arouses. Propres à couvrir de grands espaces elles semblent moins aptes à la décoration familiale.Tout au sommet vient la représentation des personnages spirituels, comme sont les vertus, les anges et les saints dans leur gloire—c'est là le genre le plus élevé puisqu'il nourrit les cimes extrêmes de la contemplation humaine. Je crois pourtant qu'il faut l'employer dans toutes les parties destinées à subir des frottements ou exposées à des agents de destruction, la chaux seule n'offrant aucune résistance. La matière par des planches placées autour offrant l'idée bois qui se superpose à la forme déchiffrée, etc. J'ai donc, volontairement, employé l'anachronisme comme indication donnée au spectateur que le spectacle représenté n'était pas réel, mais figuré d'un événement semblable sur le plan intellectuel. Paris: Chez Sébastien Mabre-Cramoisy. It's just not much of it; it's just a minimum to make a composition, and the rest—the elongated figures and the spirituality or spiritualism, if you want—are still what I call Gilde Notre-Dame. Su influencia sobre los otros consistia no en imponerse, por una u otra razones, sino en manifestarse dentro de su capacidad tecnica, cultural, que él trajo a America de Francia...Juán fue un especie de director de lo que se hacía técnicamente en el momento en que se inició el movimiento del Renacimiento Mexicano...Él fue pues un maestro, desde el principio, y su opinión, su filosofía, su técnica, su saber sobre el arte de la historia fue de una ayuda incomensurable en el desarollo del Movimiento Mexicano... 'Jean was from that time a master in his technical capacity as he has always been. Charlot used this fresco technique—"light washes and reserves of white mortar" (Charlot 1972: 389)—very successfully in his Ministry of Education fresco, Cargadores, Burden Bearers (1923), and continued to develop it throughout his career. Charlot's fresco Massacre in the Templo Mayor (1921–1922) is in front of Fernando Leal's The Dancers of Chalma" (1921–23) Alfredo López Austin (611 words) [view diff] exact match in snippet view article find links to article Congreso Internacional de Muralismo: San Ildefonso cuna del muralismo mexicano, Reflexiones historiográficas y artísticas (in Spanish). To this end, I avoided human details (hands, faces), leaving only what was suggestive of the spirit of cruelty that animates this mass. The inscription was not the decorative and meaningless lettering the Cubists used. For example, the vertical position of the Spaniard on the extreme right is coming to the diagonal position of the Spaniard in front of him, which represents that dumping movement I spoke of. They had remained dormant, I would say, while I was trying to do those Catholic things. There was also the diagonal of the staircase. Marcel-Lenoir later used "la fresque au mortier : deux parties de sable, une partie de chaux" 'mortar fresco: two portions of sand, one portion of lime'. As you know, Mexico is made primarily of two races, the Indian and the Spanish. The one on the left was upright with true horizontals and verticals; the one on the right was tipped upwards, with a higher right side. The question was rather that of the importance of the subject. The use of cement for the scratch coat is vouched for, pages 17-18 of his book; its use for the final coat, page 22: "Rich lime, hydraulic lime and cement have diverse properties and can all three be used in the preparation of the mortar..."; and page 23: "Commercial cement delivered in sealed bags can be used as is. GQG et diplomates : a) général. You mustn't be angry with me. Apply too many brush strokes too quickly and the wall "tires." Baudouin, Paul Albert, 1914. Charlot, John, 1990-1991. Rivera had already moved in this direction with his Zapatista Landscape—The Guerrilla of 1915. 14. In relief (some armor hinges), indented (background all-over pattern obtained with a stamping tool), and incrusted with diverse metal applications. Il n'en est pas de même des bariolages dont on l'a surchargée à l'aide de rouge pour les lèvres. Couche intermédiaire : Composée de ciment et sable appliqués en mouchetis dans la proportion de 1 de ciment pour 5 de sable. Edited by John Charlot. And I had an innate distaste for oil painting because of the quality that everybody praises oil for, that is, the facility with which it can be done and undone. In his first article on Mexico (1922a), written as he started painting on the wall, he describes the members of an Indian family making their way through Mexico City: Quand leur famille fuit devant l'automobiliste qui ricane, il me semble que recommence le massacre d'adolescents danseurs par Alvarado. Le spectateur satisfait dans ces connaissances archéologiques superficielles n'aurait pas cherché plus profondément. Unpublished; Jean Charlot Collection. J'ai voulu, non une réunion d'hommes, mais quelque chose comme une locomotive en pleine vitesse. FINAL COAT. John Charlot 1990-1991: 66 ff. L'accumulation des noirs en haut ajoute à l'idée d'instabilité celle d'écrasement des deux masses "combattantes," l'une est pénétrée par l'autre, très supérieure en volume, en vitesse et en force. 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