Cuauhtémoc
Primary
David Alfaro Siqueiros
(Santa Rosalía (now Ciudad Camargo), Mexico, 1896–Cuernavaca, Mexico, 1974)
NationalityMexican, North America
Date1946
MediumPyroxylin on masonite
DimensionsFramed: 20 × 23 1/16 in. (50.8 × 58.6 cm)
Sight: 17 × 20 1/4 in. (43.2 × 51.5 cm)
Image: 17 × 20 1/4 in. (43.2 × 51.4 cm)
Sight: 17 × 20 1/4 in. (43.2 × 51.5 cm)
Image: 17 × 20 1/4 in. (43.2 × 51.4 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Archer M. Huntington Museum Fund, 1980.76
Rights Statement
Collection AreaLatin American Art
Object number1980.76
On View
On viewLocations
- exhibition BMA, Gallery, C4
Collection Highlight
The tradition of narrative history painting experienced a renaissance during the 1920s following the Mexican Revolution. Here David Alfaro Siqueiros set his scene in 1521, when, during the conquest of the Aztec Empire, Hernán Cortés tortured the emperor Cuauhtémoc by burning his feet. Cuauhtémoc’s refusal to reveal the location of hidden Aztec wealth embodies indigenous resistance to colonization. The revolutionary Siqueiros treats the subject dramatically by using radical foreshortening, with fire in the foreground and the figure receding in space. Instead of oil paint he favored Pyroxylin, an industrial material utilized for painting cars. The combination of Mexican history, contemporary politics, and artistic experimentation makes this a characteristic work by Siqueiros.
Exhibitions
![Desnudo Sentado (Bañista de Tehuantepac) [Seated Nude (Tehuantepec Bather)]](/internal/media/dispatcher/15794/thumbnail)
David Alfaro Siqueiros
1931
![Tierra roja [Red earth]](/internal/media/dispatcher/7132/thumbnail)
![Con el usurero, del portafolio 13 grabados en madera [At the Pawn Brokers, from the portfolio 13 Woodcuts]](/internal/media/dispatcher/7401/thumbnail)
![Prostitución, del portafolio 13 grabados en madera [Prostitution, from the portfolio 13 Woodcuts]](/internal/media/dispatcher/7402/thumbnail)
David Alfaro Siqueiros
1931
![La comida de los presos, del portafolio 13 grabados en madera [The Inmates’ Food, from the portfolio 13 Woodcuts]](/internal/media/dispatcher/7403/thumbnail)