page_title: San Ildefonso College
section_title: Colegio Grande
hierarchical_section_title: San Ildefonso College / Description / Colegio Grande
caption_attribution_description: English: Feliciano Béjar exhibition "Explorador" at the Museo de la Luz in Mexico City
context_page_description: San Ildefonso College currently is a museum and cultural center in Mexico City, considered to be the birthplace of the Mexican muralism movement. San Ildefonso began as a prestigious Jesuit boarding school, and after the Reform War it gained educational prestige again as National Preparatory School. This school and the building closed completely in 1978, then reopened as a museum and cultural center in 1992. The museum has permanent and temporary art and archeological exhibitions in addition to the many murals painted on its walls by José Clemente Orozco, Fernando Leal, Diego Rivera and others. The complex is located between San Ildefonso Street and Justo Sierra Street in the historic center of Mexico City.
  The college was founded 1588 and it is composed of six sections, that are five colonial baroque: the Colegio Grande, Colegio Chico, the chapel, El Generalito and the courtyard of los Pasantes, all completed in 1749; and one modern neo-baroque: the Amphitheater Bolívar completed in 1911.
context_section_description: Colegio Grande or Large College is the largest and original portion of the complex. It consists of one large patio, surrounded on all four sides by simple rounded arches, hallways, and rooms and one smaller patio called the "Patio de los Pasantes." The school part has three floors with a monumental staircase and contains most of the mural work done at San Ildefonso, and most of this was done by José Clemente Orozco between 1922 and 1927.
  In what was once the portico, there is a mural by Ramón Alva de la Canal entitled The Spanish Landing and Planting of the Cross on New Land done in 1922. This fresco is considered to be the first of "The New School" of painting dealing with a specific point of Mexican history. On the opposite wall of the portico is the Allegory of the Virgin of Guadalupe by Fermin Revueltas. During the commission of this work, after not being paid for a number of weeks, Revueltas staged a kind of a strike at the school. Armed with a pistol and being somewhat drunk, he forced the porter to close the doors of the school. Since neither students nor teachers could enter the school, classes were suspended. The situation was resolved when David Alfaro Siqueiros met with Education Minister José Vasconcelos to arrange payment in gold coins. The story ends with both Siqueiros and Revueltas spending the money at a local cantina.
  From the large patio of the Colegio Grande, one can see murals done by Orozco on all three floors. In the second floor corridor is a piece by Orozco called The Old Order which is considered a satirical work and The Trench which is considered one of his best works. On the third floor corridor is another series of murals by Orozco known as New Ideals.
  The staircase connecting the three floors also contains Orozco's mural The Origin of Spanish America, but the upper portion of the staircase contains works by other artists. The southern wall of the stairway leading to the third floor is occupied by a mural by French artist Jean Charlot entitled The Conquest of Tenochtitlan. This work covers an aspect of Aztec history for the first time and is also noted for the use of metallic encrustations on the necklaces worn by Aztec lords. The northern wall contains a work called The Festivities of the Lord of Chalma by Fernando Leal. The work is noted for its use of bright color on the dancers and is considered a notable example of Neo-Baroque style.
caption: The museum has temporary exhibitions of diverse topics like for example this
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3200", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2013:06:23 12:46:11", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "38084", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "38212", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9014", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/25", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2013:06:23 12:46:11", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2013:06:23 12:46:11", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "60", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "6016", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4000", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "38052", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}