Incluye referencias bibliográficas (páginas 319-328) e índice.

Indian roots -- Colonial roots -- Popular roots -- The Academy of San Carlos -- Birth of a national art -- Premural portents -- The deus ex machina -- Murals in the former church and convent of San Pedro y San Pablo -- The Preparatoria School -- Rivera: premural career -- Rivera's first mural -- "Dieguitos" -- Reminiscences: Fernando Leal -- Reminiscences: Ramón Alva de la Canal -- Reminiscences: Jean Charlot -- Siqueiros -- Orozco: premural career -- Orozco: first murals -- The syndicate -- Ministry of Education: first court -- Ministry of Education: second court -- The Preparatoria riot -- Exit Vasconcelos, enter Puig -- Renaissance in Guadalajara -- Conclusion.

This is the first book-length study of the Early Colonial manuscript painting of Mexico - a fusion of the arts of Pre-Conquest America and fifteenth-century Spain. Former studies, mainly in the hands of anthropologists and historians , have been limited by their disciplines. This book says in effect that the paintings are works of art worthy to stand beside the jades and terra cottas now so sought after by collectors. The definitions of the styles of the various Colonial schools are demonstrations of survival of Pre-Conquest schools and artistic attitudes and thus suggest directions that investigations may take into the Pre-Conquest styles of other arts. - from back cover.