page_title: Roberto Montenegro
section_title: Murals
hierarchical_section_title: Roberto Montenegro / Career / Murals
caption_attribution_description: English: Stained glass work entitled "La Vendedora de Pericos" (The Parrot Seller) designed by Roberto Montenegro and Xavier Guerrero in the 1920s. Located in Museo de las Constituciones in the historic center of Mexico City.
context_page_description: Roberto Montenegro Nervo was a painter, muralist and illustrator, who was one of the first to be involved in the Mexican muralism movement after the Mexican Revolution. His most important mural work was done at the former San Pedro and San Pablo monastery but as his work did not have the same drama as other muralists, such as Diego Rivera, he lost prominence in this endeavor. Most of his career is dedicated to illustration and publishing, portrait painting and the promotion of Mexican handcrafts and folk art.
context_section_description: Montenegro's first mural was done while he was living in Mallorca, for the Casino de la Palma. He was an early participant in the budding Mexican muralism movement, recruited by Secretary of Education José Vasconcelos and returning to Mexico in 1921. His most important mural work is in the former monastery and school of San Pedro y San Pablo, the church portion of which is now the Museo de la Luz. The first mural was done in 1922 called the Arbol de la Vida (Tree of Life) which alludes to the origin and destiny of man. The next was the Fiesta de la Santa Cruz (Festival of the Holy Cross) which depicts a traditional festival related to construction workers on May 3 done between 1923 and 1924. This is considered to be the most important of the murals in this building. Resurrección (Resurrection) was painted between 1931 and 1933. It is a geometric composition with some Cubist influence. In the stairwell of San Pedro y San Pablo, Montenegro painted El Zodíaco (The Zodiac), which was left unfinished in 1923. He came back to it in 1931, finishing it in 1933. In addition to the murals, Montenegro created two stained glass windows influenced by Mexican folk culture called the Jarabe Tapatío (Guadalajara dance) and  the La Vendedora de Pericos (The parakeet seller). The work on the building ran into political problems resulting in changed to the original plans. First, Vasconcelos insisted that Montenegro change a depiction of Saint Sebastian, who was partially nude, androgynous and pointing a bow and arrow at the other central figure, a woman, stating it did not represent revolutionary values. In Fiesta de la Cruz, a figure of Vasconcelos was originally included, surrounded by women and holding the flag of the Universidad Nacional de México. When Vasconcelos fell out of favor, this image was painted over and replaced by that of a woman.
  Other early murals included América Latina done in 1924 at the library of the Universidad Iberoamericana, which is an allegory of Latin America in the form of a map. La historia was done in 1926 at the Escuela Benito Juárez. It is a formally designed painting with Oriental figures. Montenegro also painted Vasconcelos' private offices at the Secretaría de la Educación Pública and the Hermeroteca (magazine library) of the Universidad Nacional.
  Despite his early entrance into the Mexican muralism scene, he quickly lost prominence. His work did not have the dramatic flair of Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros, who would become the main three figures in the movement. Montenegro moved onto other projects but returned to doing some mural and building decoration work in the late career. In 1958, he painted a frieze called Apolo y las musas (Apollo and the muses) for the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara; however, because of poor installation, it collapsed in 1963. In 1964 he designed a mosaic for the Casa de las Artesanía in Guadalajara called La muerte de la artesanías (The death of handcrafts) He also painted a mural at the Banco de Comercio with an allegory titled Industria, comercio y trabajo (Industry, commerce and work).
caption: Stained glass work entitled La Vendedora de Pericos (The Parrot Seller) designed by Roberto Montenegro and Xavier Guerrero in the 1920s.
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