There
is a long tradition in Mexican art to lampoon saints and
sinners alike. Jose Guadalupe Posada (1851-1913)
is renowned for his political and satirical skeleton prints
or calaveras (which literally means "skulls") that criticized
both the secular and the sacred. Many of Posada's calaveras
reflected the public's dissatisfaction with the corrupt
regime of the dictator Porfirio Diaz, while others poked
fun at the everyday fears and concerns held by ordinary
people. Posada's skeletal scenes were used to illustrate
mock obituaries aimed at persons from all levels of society
but Posada's most critical calaveras disparaged the autocratic
rule of Diaz and his unscrupulous upper-class cronies. The
use of skeletal imagery in art dates from the pre-Hispanic
civilizations of Mesoamerica and later gained satirical
meaning through popular prints executed in nineteenth century
Mexico. |
