Museo Nacional de Arte

The National Art Museum fills the Palacio de Comunicaciones, a 1911 Italianate palace by Silvio Contri whose bronze-railed grand staircase and frescoed ceilings would justify the ticket empty. On Plaza Tolsa outside stands Manuel Tolsa's bronze equestrian Charles IV - El Caballito, unveiled in 1803 and among the finest such statues anywhere. Inside, MUNAL runs the national story of painting from New Spain to mid-century: viceregal altarpieces by Correa and Villalpando; the nineteenth-century academy of Velasco, whose vast luminous valley-of-Mexico landscapes are the museum's heart; Julio Ruelas's fin-de-siecle phantoms; and the moderns - Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros, Saturnino Herran, Dr. Atl and Frida Kahlo's contemporaries - up to 1954. It is the missing link between the Anthropology museum's ancient Mexico and the contemporary galleries: three floors that explain how Mexican painting became Mexican.

What you actually see

• The palace - Contri's marble staircase and painted ceilings.
• El Caballito - Tolsa's monumental bronze, unveiled 1803, on the plaza.
• Velasco's landscapes - the valley of Mexico in panoramic light.
• The moderns - Herran, Dr. Atl, Rivera and Orozco closing the story.

When to go

Any morning but Monday; Sundays are free and busiest. Two unhurried hours cover the chronology; the staircase photographs best under midday skylight.

Honest expectations

Labeling is Spanish-first with uneven English. The collection stops at 1954 - no late Kahlo cult pieces here, and her presence is modest. Temporary shows sometimes displace favorite rooms.

Nearby

The Palacio de Mineria faces it across Plaza Tolsa; the Palacio Postal, Bellas Artes and the Zocalo are all within five blocks.