With Two Fine Color Pictorial Maps of Patzcuaro
A pair of brilliantly colored pictorial maps of the beautiful town and lake of Patzcuaro, Michoacan. The area remains a great draw for tourists seeking to experience the natural beauty of this lake region. One of the pictorial maps depicts the town of Patzcuaro, and is based on a plan made in 1895, to which Fernandez updated with street names, neighborhoods, and landmarks. There is an inset oval portrait of Vasco de Quiroga on the map of Patzcuaro as well as the coat of arms of the city, the latter in the lower right corner. The second pictorial map shows the Lago de Patzcuaro and the surrounding villages. The text presents an excellent historical overview of Patzcuaro, including the island of Janitzio, and the villages around Patzcuaro lake. The following legends are printed around the outer perimeter of the maps, and make reference to Tariácuri, a 14th-century leader of the Purépecha people, generally credited with expanding the Purépecha Empire from an individual city-state to a dominant power in what is now the Bajío region of central Mexico.
Esta es la Imagen de la Ciudad de Patzcuaro de Michoacan Fundada en 1324 por Cura Tame + Reconstruida en 1362 por Tariacuri + Repoblada por el Ilimo. Señor Quiroga, Quien Traslado a Ella La Catedral de Tzinzunizan en 1540.
Patzcuaro significa "Lugar de Alegria" Fundado por los Puhrepechas, Tariacuri Poderoso Rey de los Tarascos, Dividio el Territorio en 3 Grandes Señorios - Patzcuaro, Tzintzuntzan y Cuyugan, Carlos V de España le Dio Titulo de Ciudad de Michoacan en 1534, D. Vasco de Quiroga la Repoblo en 1540 y Fundo el Colegio...
The introduction is by Manuel Toussaint, a noted Mexican art historian and intellectual who wrote about Mexican maps, among other topics.
Rarity
While well represented in institutional collections, this work, with its pair of fine pictorial maps of Patzcaro, is rare in such pristine condition.
Justino Fernández García (September 28, 1904 – December 12, 1972) was a researcher, historian and art critic who is particularly known for his work documenting and critiquing Mexican art of the 20th century.
Fernandez studied and developed his career with the National Autonomous University of Mexico, as a protégé of Manuel Toussaint. After Toussaint's death in 1955, Fernandez took over as head of the Aesthetic Research Institute at UNAM, where he would perform writing and research until his death. Fernandez’s work was recognized by the Mexican government with the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in 1969.
Justino Fernandez Garcia was born on September 28, 1904 in Mexico City. He was grandson of Lic. Tomas Reyes Retana senator of Mexico during "El Porfiriato" and Loreto Najera Nader. His father was Justino Fernandez Mondoño, one of the delegates of the congress that created the 1857 Constitution of Mexico. His father was originally from Mexico City. His mother was Sergia Garcia, originally from Valladolid, Spain. His sister was Leonor Nicaela Fernandez García, who maries José Ignacio de la Luz Federico Reyes-Retana y Najera a Colonel from the Mexican Army.
Justino began school at the Colegio Francés de la Perpetua, but in 1910, he was sent to the United States to avoid the Mexican Revolution. He returned to Mexico in 1923, at the time when the Mexican muralism movement was being established.
He did all of his undergraduate and graduate work at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). As an undergrad, he studied under José Gaos and Juan David García Bacca, who introduced him to German philosophy and that of José Ortega y Gasset. He earned his master's degree in 1953 and his doctorate the following year with a thesis entitled “Coatlicue: estética de arte indígena antiguo” (Coatlicue, the aesthetics of ancient indigenous art)
Before he was established as a writer and researcher, he had a number of jobs, including working as an assistant of an architect.
Career
While still a student, in 1932 he founded the Editorial Alcancía publishing concern with Juan O'Gorman which operated until 1959.
As a graduate student, he was a protégé of well-known researcher, historian and critic Manuel Toussaint, becoming his assistant when he founded the Aesthetic Research Institute at UNAM in 1936. The following year he began teaching summer classes at the university in art history.
He remained with this institution until his death, and concentrated most of his research and art criticism here. In this way, he continued the work of his mentor, Toussaint.
Influenced by positivism, he is best known as a specialist in modern (20th century) Mexican art, in both its documentation and interpretation, relating it to art movements in the rest of the world. He particularly wrote about Mexican muralism, especially the work of José Clemente Orozco. However, he also did research work in both colonial period and 19th century Mexican art, writing an important work on the Altar of the Kings at the Mexico City Cathedral and studied the work of José María Velasco .
When Toussaint died in 1955, Fernandez became the interim director of the Aesthetic Research Institute with the position becoming permanent the following year. He remained as such until 1968. In 1969 UNAM named him a researcher emeritus. From 1970 to 1972, he served as member of the governing board of UNAM.
Other important associations included being a member of the Academia Mexicana de la Historia (as liaison to the Academia Real in Madrid) in 1965 and was a founding member of the Academia de Artes.
His highest award was the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes from the Mexican government in 1969. Publications about the writer include: Homenaje a Justino Fernández en sus 60 años, Del arte. Homenaje a Justino Fernández and Bibliografía sobre arte colonial de Justino Fernández.
Major publications
Recuerdo de Tasco (1934)
Morelia (1936).
Pátzcuaro (1936).
Uruapan (1936).
El arte moderno en México (1937).
La danza de los Concheros de San Miguel Allende (with Vicente T. Mendoza, 1941)
Orozco: forma e idea (1942).
Prometeo: ensayo sobre pintura contemporánea; Gaugin, Matisse, Rousseau, Cézanne, Braque, Picasso, Dada, Breton, Dalí, Rivera, Orozco (1945).
Arte moderno y contemporáneo de México (1952).
Coatlicue: estética del arte indígena antiguo (1954).
El retablo de los reyes: estética del arte de la Nueva España (1959).
El hombre: estética del arte moderno y contemporáneo (1962).
Miguel Ángel: de su alma (1964).
El arte del siglo XIX en México (1967).
Pedro Coronel, pintor y escultor (1971).
Estética del arte mexicano (1972).
Arte mexicano: de sus orígenes a nuestros días (1958, republished in 1975) .