Question: What did the first modern Mexican mural feature?
About the article "Mexican muralism", section "Antecedents".

Candidate passages:
Mexican Renaissance refers to the Mexican muralism movement between 1920 and 1950.
The phrase was first used in "Idols behind Altars" by Anita Brenner, with Jean Charlot.
Charlot also discussed it in his 1963 book, "The Mexican Mural Renaissance": 
After nearly a century since the beginning of the movement, Mexican artists still produce murals and other forms of art with the same “mestizo” message.
Murals can be found in government buildings, former churches and schools in nearly every part of the country.
One recent example is a cross cultural project in 2009 to paint a mural in the municipal market of Teotitlán del Valle, a small town in the state of Oaxaca.
High school and college student from Georgia, United States, collaborated with town authorities to design and paint a mural to promote nutrition, environmental protection, education and the preservation of Zapotec language and customs.
Mexican muralism brought mural painting back to the forefront of Western art in the 20th century with its influence spreading abroad, especially promoting the idea of mural painting as a form of promoting social and political ideas.
It offered an alternative to non-representational abstraction after World War I with figurative works that reflect society and its immediate concerns.
While most Mexican muralists had little desire to be part of the international art scene, their influence spread to other parts of the Americas.
Notable muralists influenced by Mexican muralism include Carlos Mérida of Guatemala, Oswaldo Guayasamín of Ecuador and Candido Portinari of Brazil .
Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros all spent time in the United States.
Orozco was the first to paint murals in the late 1920s at Pomona College in Claremont, California, staying until 1934 and becoming popular with academic institutions.
During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration employed artists to paint murals, which paved the way for Mexican muralists to find commissions in the country.
Rivera lived in the United States from 1930 to 1934.
During this time, he put on an influential show of his easel work at the Museum of Modern Art.
The success of Orozco and Rivera prompted U.S. artists to study in Mexico and opened doors for many other Mexican artists to find work in the country.
Siqueiros did not fare as well.
He was exiled to the US from Mexico in 1932, moving to Los Angeles.
During this time, he painted three murals, but they were painted over.
América Tropical, the only surviving public mural by David Alfaro Siqueiros in the United States is being conserved and construction of an adjoining visitor center is expected to be completed by 2012 or 2013.
The concept of mural as political message was transplanted to the United States, especially in the former Mexican territory of the Southwest.
It served as inspiration to the later Chicano Mural Movement but the political messages are different. 
Mexico has had a tradition of painting murals, starting with the Olmec civilization in the pre Hispanic period and into the colonial period, with murals mostly painted to evangelize and reinforce Christian doctrine.
The modern tradition has its roots in the 19th century, with this use of political and social themes.
The first Mexican mural painter to use philosophical themes in his work was Juan Cordero in the mid 19th century.
Although he did mostly work with religious themes such as the cupola of the Santa Teresa Church and other churches, he painted a secular mural at the request of Gabino Barreda at the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria (since disappeared).
The latter 19th century was dominated politically by the Porfirio Díaz regime.
This government was the first to push for the cultural development of the country, supporting the Academy of San Carlos and sending promising artists abroad to study.
However, this effort left out indigenous culture and people, with aim of making Mexico like Europe.
Gerardo Murillo, also known as Dr. Atl, is considered to be the first modern Mexican muralists with the idea that Mexican art should reflect Mexican life.
Academy training and the government had only promoted imitations of European art.
Atl and other early muralists pressured the Diaz government to allow them to paint on building walls to escape this formalism.
Atl also organized an independent exhibition of native Mexican artists promoting many indigenous and national themes along with color schemes that would later appear in mural painting.
The first modern Mexican mural, painted by Atl, was a series of female nudes using “Atlcolor” a substance Atl invented himself, very shortly before the beginning of the Mexican Revolution .
Another influence on the young artists of the late Porfirian period was the graphic work of José Guadalupe Posada, who mocked European styles and created cartoons with social and political criticism.
The Mexican Revolution itself was the culmination of political and social opposition to Porfirio Díaz policies.
One important oppositional group was a small intellectual community that included Antonio Curo, Alfonso Reyes and José Vasconcelos.
They promoted a populist philosophy that coincided with the social and political criticism of Atl and Posada and influenced the next generation of painters such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
These ideas gained power as a result of the Mexican Revolution, which overthrew the Díaz regime in less than a year.
However, there was nearly a decade of fighting among the various factions vying for power.
Governments changed frequently with a number of assassination, including that of Francisco I. Madero who initiated the struggle.
It ended in the early 1920s with one-party rule in the hands of the Álvaro Obregón faction, which became the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI).
During the Revolution, Atl supported the Carranza faction and promoted the work of Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros, who would later be the founders of the muralism movement.
Through the war and until 1921, Atl continued to paint murals among other activities including teaching the Mexico’s next generation of artists and muralists.
Xavier Guerrero is one of the most important artists from the state of Coahuila but he is relatively unknown, even in his home state as he did not achieve the level of fame that a number of his contemporaries did.
However, he was one of the pioneers of the Mexican muralism movement along with Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
In 1919, he signed a petition, along with other artists, requesting that President Venustiano Carranza provide facilities for the creation and promotion of Mexican art, just before what is considered to be the official start of the Mexican muralism movement with the efforts of José Vasconcelos.
One reason for his obscurity is that much of his mural work has disappeared, with the largest surviving collections found in Guadalajara and the Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo in the State of Mexico.
He began to paint murals in Guadalajara, generally with biblical topics, rural landscapes, allegories, and decorative perimeters He created his first mural in 1912 on a building in Jalisco called the Palacio de las Vacas when he was only sixteen years old.
From 1913 to 1914 he created a fresco on the ceiling of the Hospital de San Camilo representing the resurrection of Christ.
In 1919, he moved to Mexico City to painting the cupola of the former Monastery del Carmen and researched pre Hispanic fresco techniques.
Another reason for his obscurity is that much of his work was done in collaboration with or in subordination to other artists.
He worked with Roberto Montenegro at the former San Pedro y San Pablo monastery on the "El arbol de la vida" mural and the design of the stained glass windows "El Jarabe Tapatío" and "La vendedora de pericos".
He also designed the stained glass window with the seal of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in the same building with Jorge Enciso.
In 1921, Guerrero met Diego Rivera and became one of the artists to paint the San Ildefonso College building, then the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria and the Anfiteatro Bolivar, mostly done in encaustics.
Under Rivera and Siqueiros, he became one of the painters of the Secretaría de Educación Pública building along with Amado de la Cueva and Pablo O'Higgins.
Despite the subordinate position, he was the one to teach Rivera how to prepare walls for fresco work.
He assisted on works by José Clemente Orozco, Carlos Mérida, Miguel Covarrubias and Adolfo Best Maugard.
With Gabriel Fernández Ledesma he designed the wainscot made of Talavera tiles for the mural work titled "Zodiaco" in 1921.
Much of his mural work was done at the Universidad Autónoma de Chapingo, an agricultural college from 1923 to 1927.
He worked on the six pediments of the Parthenon building at the same time Rivera was painting the interior of the school’s former chapel.
The pediments were painted with allegories of humanity’s relationship to the fruit of the field, which also contain Communist symbols.
These murals were restored in 2006.
He also did a twenty two panel mural at the old Director’s House, which was demolished in the 1960s.
These panels were moved beforehand with five on permanent display at the Museo Nacional de Agricultura on the campus and the others in the possible of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes.
In total, Chapingo has twenty three fresco panels, one oil portrait, one pencil drawing and sculptured reliefs of his.
From the 1930s on, his career mostly concentrated on canvas work, which he is considered better at but did not bring him the recognition of his mural work.
However, from 1940 to 1942, he worked with David Siqueiros on a mural in Chillán, Chile called "Muerte al invasor" at the Pedro Aguierre Cerda Library of the Escuela México.
He painted the fresco panels called "De México a Chile" on the lobby of the same building.
They underwent restoration in 2009 but were damaged by an earthquake in 2010.
The Chillan murals became a major tourist attraction for the city.
Later murals also include "Motivos mexicanos" at the house of José Guadalupe Zuno and "El día y la noche" at the Ermita Cinema in Tacubaya in the 1950s.
He also painted murals at a residence in Guadalajara and at the Club de la Unión de Mecánicos, but only fragments remain.
Recogniztions include one major prize, first place at the International Competition of Contemporary Furniture Design sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
He was also accepted as a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana.
He had a large exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City in 1972.
In 2002, the state of Coahuila held a retrospective of his work called “Entre Torreón y San Pedro, homenajo al maestro Xavier Guerrero. 
Hernández Xochitiotzin’s most important work was the creation of the mural “La historia de Tlaxcala y su contribución a lo mexicano” (The history of Tlaxcala and its contribution to Mexican identity) inside the State Government Palace of Tlaxcala.
The project to create a mural that tells the history of Tlaxcala was promoted to the state by poet Miguel N. Lira and preparation work was begun in 1957.
The first section, “La Conquista” was painted between 1967 and 1968, with work continuing in stages over four decades.
The work shows influence from Rivera’s mural at the National Palace, but Hernández Xochitiotzin did not paint the original Tlaxcalans as traitors for their role in the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire .
The entire mural covers over 500 meters squared and is the last grand-scale mural to be created as part of the Mexican muralism movement.
However, the work was never fully completed before his death in 2007.
Before this time, Hernández Xochitiotzin’s asked state authorities to allow his son, Cuauhtlatohuac H. Xochitiotzin to continue the work on the mural but the state never responded.
The mural is one of the most important cultural and tourist attractions of the state, bringing visitors from Mexico and abroad.
However, the mural work has been damaged due to the effects of humidity and time, with several sections visibly affected.
These include “El señor de los tlaxcaltecas”, “Ritual en honor al Dios Camaxtli”, “Sacrificio gladiatorio, del general Tlahuicole en Tenochtitlan” and “Deidad Tlaxcalteca” the with most severe damage at the main entrance to the building.