Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City (In Pictures)

If you’ve been following our blog (and why the heck wouldn’t you be?), you know that Mrs. Perez and I recently took a trip down to Mexico City to attend the screenings of two of my films in the Shorts Mexico Film Festival. But staying in a hotel right in the heart of Mexico City’s Centro Histórico (Historic Center) offers visitors to one of the largest cities in the world many great attractions (and we were gonna see as many of them as possible in our five days there).

Now, anyone who knows me knows I love a good art museum (check out my photoset from Museo Soumaya) and with the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) walking distance from our hotel, paying it a visit was a given. The Mexican national art museum, formerly known as the Communications Palace, was built between 1905 and 1911 by the Italian architect Silvio Contri and is one of the most accomplished and representative buildings of the early XX century Mexican architecture. The Museo Nacional de Arte was founded in 1982 and currently focuses on the exhibition, study and diffusion of Mexican and international art from the 16th century to the first half of the 20th century.

The cost to enter the museum is $42 pesos (about $2.50 US) plus an additional $5 pesos (about .25 cents) to take photographs and being that I never leave home without my trusty Panasonic GH2 (plus a few good lenses), I gladly paid the 5 pesos so that I could bring you all a glimpse into Mexico’s most notable art museum (you’re all welcome).

Enjoy the photographs…

Here’s the view from the outside – Manuel Tolsá’s large equestrian statue of Charles IV of Spain (far right) was covered for renovation…

Once inside, the Staircase of the Lions takes you to the top floors…

The staircase (decorated with intricate wrought iron design) led us to the third and top floor where we were greeted by beautiful Corinthian columns and a stunning mural on the ceiling by Italian painter Carlo Coppedè…

Here’s another look at the ceiling looking up from the top floor…

Costa Rican-born Mexican artist Francisco Zúñiga’s powerful bronze sculpture, ‘Grupo de cuatro mujeres’ (Group of Four Women), 1974

An assortment of works from Spanish painter José Juárez from the mid 1600s…

This fellow here seems relatively disinterested in Mexican painter Francisco Antonio Vallejo’s massive ‘Glorificación de la Inmaculada’, 1774

Sculpture of ‘Tlahuicole’ (1851), a legendary warrior from Tlaxcala who defended his people against the Aztecs, by Spanish-born artist Manuel Vilar…

Paintings and sculptures commingling…

Mrs. Perez enjoying Spanish painter Francisco de Goya’s ‘Fernando VII en un campamento’, ca 1815

Bronze sculpture by Spanish artist Manuel Tolsá

‘Job on the Dunghill’, 1881, by Mexican painter Gonzalo Carrasco

Helmet of the Imperial Guard of Mexican Emperor Maximilian with the Imperial Eagle, ca 1865

A couple enjoying a painting of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs of Soain and the Indies by an unknown artist

(the museum featured quite a few pieces by unknown artists)

19th century silk and satin dresses, Colección Concepción de Lizardi del Valle

Mexican sculptor Fidencio Lucano Nava’s ‘Après l’orgie’ [After the Orgy], 1909, adorns the main lobby of the museum…

Overall, an excellent way to spend a few hours in Mexico City’s beautiful historic district…

Check out my photographs from Mexico City’s Zócalo and the ruins of the ancient city of Teotihuacán (you won’t be sorry you did – promise!)

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