143. Dream of a Sunday Afternoon on the Alameda Park. Diego Rivera. 1947-1948 CE Fresco.

• Form
  • 50-foot-long fresco, 13 feet high
  • Horror vacui; didactic painting
  • Colorful painting
  • Revival of fresco painting, a Mexican specialty
• Placement
  • Originally in the lobby of the Hotel del Prado
  • After a 1985 earthquake destabilized the hotel, the fresco was placed in a museum adjacent to Alameda Park, Mexico City’s first city park–built on the grounds of an Aztec marketplace
• Content
  • Three eras of Mexican history depicted from left to right:
    • Conquest and colonization of Mexico by the Spanish
    • Porfirio Diaz dictatorship
    • Revolution of 1910 and the modern world
  • Depicts a who’s who of Mexican politics, culture, and leadership:
    • Sor Juana, in nun’s habit, at left center
    • Benito Juarez, five-term president of Mexico, left at top
    • General Santa Ana handing the keys of Mexico to General Winfield Scott
    • Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota
    • Jose Marti, father of Mexican Independence
    • General Porfirio Diaz, with medals, asleep
    • A police officer ordering a family out of an elitist park
    • Francisco Madero, a martyred president
    • Jose Posaro, artist and Rivera hero
  • Rivera is in the enter, age ten, holding hands with Caterina and dreaming of a perfect love.