Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/665

Rh Their native land is thereby given an honorable position among the learned nations.

The foundation of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Carlos, in 1773, inaugurated the promotion of the fine arts in New Spain. Its main object was to facilitate the study, free of expense for the pupils, of architecture, sculpture, and painting. Among the teachers were Manuel Tolsa, sculptor, Rafael Jimeno, painter, Gerónimo Antonio Gil, engraver, and Antonio G. Velazquez, architect. Humboldt speaks of the great interest taken, adding that here all ranks were levelled. National taste in architecture became developed; but the same can hardly be said in regard to painting and animate sculpture. The patronage of the church failed, there were faulty methods, a rigid adherence to stagnant features of Spanish art, and a suppression of originality. Superior models were not to be had. Many, indeed, were the causes that defeated the objects of the academy, among others the disturbed condition of the country.

Baltasar de Echave, the elder, has been by many regarded as the founder of the art of painting in New Spain. His contemporary, in the beginning of the 17th century, was Luis Juarez, who must have been his pupil. An impressive idealism pervaded this artist's subjects. José Juarez excelled all of his predecessors in drawing, and showed a promising originality. He must be classed as the equal of Echave. Friar Herrera was called the divine — praise due rather to striking features of expression than to general merit. The opening of the 18th century was marked by two artists, the brothers Rodriguez and Juarez, of whom Juarez was called the Mexican Apelles, and compared