page_title: Guillermo Tovar y de Teresa
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Guillermo Tovar y de Teresa / Early years
caption_attribution_description: Nombre: Altar_del_ perdón Autor: Carlos Martínez Blando (2005) Otra información: Altar que se encuentra en la Catedral de México. Tomado con una cámara Canon Digital Rebel XT. Editado con Photostudio 5.5 (tamaño).
context_page_description: Guillermo Tovar de Teresa was a Mexican historian and an art collector, bibliographer, philanthropist, cultural promoter, and scholar. He was a constant defender of the historical and artistic Mexican heritage, mainly from his hometown, of which he was chronicler, an appointment that was originally in charge of the Presidency and to which he resigned to propose the creation of the Council of the Chronicle of the City of Mexico. He was a specialist in the New Spain/Mexican colonial period art, history and literature. He published several books about Colonial Mexican art and collaborated, among others, for the newspaper La Jornada. He stood out for his early intelligence: he learned to read long before entering school, and at age 13 he was advisor to colonial art of the then president Gustavo Díaz Ordaz. At 23, he published his first book, Renaissance painting and sculpture in Mexico. He was a member of the Historical Center Executive Committee, corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, in Madrid, and honorary member of the Hispanic Society of America, the latter based in New York City.
context_section_description: He learned to appreciate history and art books from a very young age, thanks to his grandfather, Guillermo de Teresa y Teresa, and his father, Dr. Rafael Tovar y Villa Gordoa, his "guardian figures". He said, that his grandfather had taught him to read in the pages of the newspaper... Self-taught by choice (I decided to train on my own (...) I was bored), lived away from universities. At the age of seven he received, from then President Adolfo López Mateos, "a medal in recognition of his dedication to the study of Mexican history and art." At age 11 he was invited by the historian Jorge Gurría Lacroix to collaborate in the National Institute of Anthropology and History. At age 12 he was appointed advisor to President Díaz Ordaz in matters of colonial art. At 14, he had already given his first lectures at the Institute of Aesthetic Research of the UNAM, and at a very young age he received a distinction from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. At 16 he concluded his formal investigation into the history of Tacubaya, years later published as Historical news of the Miguel Hidalgo Delegation.
caption: Detail of the Altar del Perdón, in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City. The scholarly comments of Guillermo Tovar de Teresa at the age of 11 with the then Mexican President, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, about the fire in a structure and his criticism of restoration made him deserving of the official appointment of Counselor in Colonial Art, with a payment of a centenary.[3]