So that you can better understand the figures and Mayan sculptures, visit this interesting article to discover a type of sculpture from the pre-Columbian era, from this indigenous culture that gave humanity a great treasure for its knowledge.
Characteristics of Mayan sculptures
The Mayan sculptures were made with materials from the area such as roses and precious stones, stucco and even wood, whose patterns formed a combination of miraculous symbols, forms of people and animals.
Highlighting reliefs, bas-reliefs and three-dimensional works, which were part of an architectural ornament or were monuments. In this way, they were organized into lintels, wall panels, door frames, stairways, facades, stelae, altars, tombstones, ceiling pieces, and individual figures.
Although the Mayans generally used the chisel or hammer to carve, stone sculpture finishes were made with an abrasive technique using items such as sand, rock crystal, or mollusk shells, then painted or stuccoed.
Major Mayan sculptures
Although the symbology used in Mayan sculptures is generally complex, they have a history in these figures. Let us describe some of the sculptural images of this art:
Chac Mool
Being a single effigy of a lying human body holding a vessel on the belly with his hands, it symbolizes the messenger of the gods.
It was an image that the Toltecs respected when they arrived at Chichen-Itza, and that forced them to live according to their beliefs. In this sense, many historians describe it as a Mayan-Toltec sculpture.
Copan and Quiriguá stelae
Being the most notable slabs of the Mayan culture, Stela E of Quiriguá stands out, which measures a little more than ten meters in height and had ceremonial functions. While Copan Stela H represents the sovereign Waxaklajuun Ub 'K'awiil.
ball game marker
These are stone rings and are placed in the center of ball fields such as Copán, Chinkultic and Toniná. In addition to serving as a marker in the rubber ball game, they represented the Moon.
Other sculptures include the Slave Plaque, the Chinkultic Disc, the portrait of King K'inich Janaab 'Pakal, the Holmul Friezes, the Turtle Altar.
Also representations of the eagle as a sacred animal, a cross that symbolizes the universal directions, the jaguar expressing the Sun on the way to the underground world and the feathered serpent.
All these monuments of the Mayan culture, loaded with amazing perfection, constitute a precious treasure for humanity.
mayan art
The expression of Mayan civilization refers to the material art of this culture that developed in the east and southeast of Mesoamerica from the end of the Preclassic (500 BC – 200 AD) and flourished in the classical era (200 AD – 900 AD.).
Many regional art styles existed, which did not always coincide with the shifting boundaries of Maya polities. The Olmec, Toltec, and Teotihuacan cultures had a significant influence on Mayan art.
This pre-Columbian cultural expression underwent an extended pre-classic phase that ended in the XNUMXth century, when problems associated with the Spanish conquest destroyed the Mayan court culture and put an end to their artistic tradition.
The main forms of traditional art still in use today are the production of textiles and the design of peasant houses.
Mayan art history
Following the XNUMXth and early XNUMXth century publications on Maya art and archeology by Stephens, Catherwood, Maudslay, Maler, and Charnay, which for the first time gave access to reliable photographs and drawings of the major monuments of the Classic Maya period.
In his 1913 book, Herbert Spinden, A Study of Maya Art, more than a century ago, he laid out the foundations for the development of Maya art history, including iconography.
The book contains an analysis of the themes and patterns present in Maya art, in particular the ubiquitous serpent and dragon patterns, and a review of "material art," such as the composition of facades, roof ridges, and temples.
Spinden's chronological treatment of Maya art was later refined by analyzing the motifs of Tatiana Proskouriakoff, in her book A Study of Classic Maya Sculpture (1950), "A Study of Classic Maya Sculpture."
Starting in the 1970s, the historiography of the Mayan kingdoms appeared, Palenque in the first place. Art-historical interpretation joins the historical approach advocated by Proskouriakoff, as well as the mythological approach pioneered by MD Coe, with art teacher Linda Schele as the driving force.
Seminal definitions of Maya art are found throughout Schiele's work, and in particular in Le Sang des rois, written in collaboration with the art historian M. Miller.
The history of this people was also due to the sharp increase in the availability of sculptural images and ceramics, due, on the one hand, to extensive archaeological excavations and, on the other hand, to looting on an unprecedented scale.
Since 1973, MD Coe has published a series of books with images and interpretations of unknown Mayan ships, using the myth of the heroic twins of the Popol Vuh as an explanatory model.
In 1981, Robicsek and Hales added a codex-style inventory and classification of Painted Mayan Containers, revealing even more of the previously little-known Mayan spirit world. With regard to development, Karl Taube has developed several important themes in Schele's iconographic work.
The current treatises on the analysis of Mayan art maintain advances of old Mayan ceramic workshops, which represent experience of the body and the senses in Mayan art and Mayan glyphs, considered as iconographic units.
At the same time, the number of monographs devoted to monumental art of specific courts continues to grow. The catalog for the exhibition Court Art of the Ancient Maya (2004), "Court Art of the Ancient Maya," gives a good impression of recent US and Mexican scholarship on the history of Maya art.
Architecture
The conception of the Mayan colonies and cities, and more particularly that of the ceremonial centers where the royal and court families resided, is characterized by the rhythm of the vast stucco floors of the plazas, often located on different levels, connected by wide and often steep stairs, dominated by pyramidal temples.
Under successive reigns, the main buildings were enlarged with the addition of new fill layers covered with stucco. Reservoirs, irrigation canals and drains constitute the hydraulic infrastructure.
Outside the ceremonial center, especially in the southern part of the Maya region, which sometimes resembles an acropolis, were the structures of minor nobles, small temples and individual shrines, surrounded by the houses of the common population.
From the ceremonial centers, the roads (sacbé), which looked like dikes, have spread to other cities. In accordance with the concept of "theatrical state" (Geertz), more attention seems to have been paid to aesthetics than to solidity of construction.
However, special attention was paid to the directional orientation of the construction. The basic styles of architectural structures make up:
- Ceremonial platforms, generally less than 4 meters high.
- Squares and palaces.
- Other residential buildings, such as the houses of the scribes and a possible municipal house in Copan.
- Pyramid temples and temples, the latter often with burials or infill at their base, with shrines at the top. A notable example is the concentration of dynastic mortuary temples on the North Acropolis of Tikal.
- Ball game fields.
The main structural units include:
- Triad pyramids, consisting of a dominant structure flanked by two small inward-facing buildings, all mounted on the same basal platform;
- Groups E, consisting of a square platform with a low pyramid with four steps on the west side and an elongated structure, or, alternatively, three small structures, on the east side;
- Twin pyramid sets, with identical pyramids of four degrees, appearing on the east and west sides of a small square; a building with nine entrances on the south side; and a small enclosure on the north side where there is a carved stele with its altar, which commemorates the final katun (k'atun) ceremony performed by the king.
stone sculpture
The main Preclassic sculptural style of the Maya region was that of Izapa, a large city on the Pacific coast, where a number of stelae and altars (frog-shaped) were found that include motifs also found in Olmec art.
The mostly uninscribed stelae often feature mythological and narrative themes, some of which appear to be related to the myth of the heroic Popol Vuh twins.
However, it is not yet known if the people of Izapa were Mayan, ethnic terms. The main types of stone sculptures of the classical period are:
- Stelae; long stone slabs, usually carved and inscribed, and often accompanied by circular altars. The hallmark of the classical period is that most of them carried representations of the rulers of the cities where they were, often represented as gods. While the faces of rulers, especially during the Late Classic period, are naturalistic in style, they generally do not exhibit individual features, with a few notable exceptions, such as Stela 35 from Piedras Negras. The most notable stelae are those of Copán and Quiriguá. They are exceptional for their intricate details, and those of Quiriguá also for their height; For example, Stela E de Quiriguá measures more than 7 meters above ground and extends 3 meters below ground. The Copan and Toniná stelae are generally carved on the front and sides. In Palenque, although it is an important center of Mayan art, no notable stela has been preserved.
- Lintels spanning building entrances. Yaxchilan in particular is known for the large number of deep relief lintels, some of the most famous sights of which are deified ancestors or, perhaps, local deities.
- Panels and boards, placed on the walls, pillars of buildings and sides of platforms. Palenque in particular is famous for the large tablets that decorate the interior of the sanctuaries of the Grupo de las Cruces temple, and for the refinement of masterpieces such as the «Palace Tablet» and the «Slave Tablet», as well as the panels of the platforms of the XIX and XXI temples. can also be included in this category.
- Circular or rectangular altars, sometimes supported by three or four stones. They may be wholly or partially figurative, such as the "turtle altar" at Copán, or they may have a relief image on top, sometimes consisting of a single symbol for Ajaw day, such as El Caracol and Toniná.
- zoomorphic; Large carved rocks, the shape of which resembles an animal, covered with elaborate ornaments. The zoomorphs seem to be limited to the kingdom of Quiriguá at the end of the classic period; they may have been used as altars.
- ball game markers; Rounded reliefs placed in the central axis of the playing field (such as those at Copán, Chinkultic, and Toniná), usually showing scenes from the actual ballgame.
- Thrones stone with a large square seat and a back sometimes carved with representations of human figures. Some examples from Palenque and Copán have supports that represent the cosmological carrier deities (Bacab, Chaak).
- The domed round sculpture it is particularly known from Copán and Toniná. He is represented by statuary, as a seated scribe from Copán and by certain captive personages and small stelae from Toniná; for figurative architectural elements, such as the twenty maize gods on the façade of the Copán temple, and for the very large sculptures that were an integral part of the architectural design, such as the jaguars and ape musicians at Copán.
Woodcarving
Although wood carvings are thought to have been common in the past, only a few examples have survived. Most of the XNUMXth century woodcarvings were considered objects of idolatry and destroyed by the Spanish colonial authorities.
The most important examples from the Classic period include finely worked wooden lintels, notably those from the main pyramid sanctuaries at Tikal and a copy from the neighboring site of El Zotz.
Tikal's wooden reliefs, each consisting of several beams, date from the XNUMXth century and show a king at his seat with a protective figure in the background in the form of a Teotihuacan-style "war serpent," a jaguar, or a representation human of the jaguar god of earthly fire.
Other lintels from Tikal depict an obese king, dressed in a jaguar robe, standing in front of his seat; and, most famously, a victorious king, dressed as an astral death god, standing on a palanquin beneath the domed figure of a plumed serpent.
A rare example of a utility object is the small Tortuguero box covered with a long hieroglyphic inscription. Among the free wooden sculpture, the dignified figure of a seated man stands out, dating from the XNUMXth century, and possibly serving as a support for a mirror.
stucco modeling
By the Late Preclassic period, plaster-covered stucco moldings covered the floors and buildings of urban centers and formed the framework for their stone sculptures.
Often large mask panels, with high-relief modeling of the heads of gods (particularly sun, rain, and earth deities), were attached to the sloping retaining walls flanking the steps of the plaques. . -shapes. temples (eg Kohunlich).
Modeling and stucco reliefs can cover an entire building, such as the Rosalila temple at Copán dating from the XNUMXth century. It has well-preserved plaster facades, in their original colors, and is dedicated to the first king of Copán, Yax K'uk' Mo'. Late Preclassic and Classic stucco friezes, walls, pillars, and shields have different decorative programs, sometimes with complicated symbolism.
Various solutions have been used to divide and order the stucco surfaces of buildings, including serial construction. The walls of the "Temple of the Night Sun" at El Zotz, dating to the Early Classic.
They are made up of a series of panels of deity masks with subtle variations, while a Balamku palace frieze, also Early Classic, had a series of depictions of four rulers seated on the serpentine open mouths of four different animals (including a toad) associated with symbolic mountains.
Alternatively, the friezes may be centered on a single ruler, also seated on a symbolic mountain (filled with corn), as seen on a Holmul frieze, with two plumed serpents emanating from under the ruler's seat, and another frieze, of Xultún, in which the sovereign uses a large ceremonial bar with emerging figures that resemble jaguars.
A frieze from the temple of Placeres, Quintana Roo, dating to the beginning of the classic, has a large mask panel with a young lord or deity in the middle and two lateral "grandfather" (mama) deities who extend their arms.
The friezes are often divided into compartments. For example, a frieze from El Mirador, dating to the Late Preclassic, shows the interspaces of the body of an undulating serpent filled with waterfowl and sections of an aquatic strip below with swimming figures.
A classical frieze from a palace at Acanceh is divided into panels with representations of different animal figures evoking the road, while a wall at Toniná shows diamond-shaped fields suggestive of scaffolding and present-day continuous narrative scenes relating to sacrifice. human.
The plastered crests of the temples are similar to some of the friezes mentioned above, in that they generally show large representations of rulers, who in turn may sit on a symbolic mountain and may be placed in a cosmological setting, as in the case of the Temple of the Sun in Palenque.
Other examples of stucco models dating to the Classic period include the pillars of the Palace of Palenque, decorated with a series of representations of ladies and gentlemen in ritual attire, as well as the "baroque" stucco entrance of Chenes, which dates to the Late Classic , showing naturalistic human figures on the Acropolis of Ek' Balam.
Classic period stucco modeling includes realistic portraits of a quality equivalent to that of the ancient Romans, as evidenced by outstanding examples of life-size stucco portraits of Palenque leaders and those of toniná dignitaries.
Some of these head portraits were part of life-size stucco figures that adorn the crests of temples. The modeling of the portraits is also reminiscent of certain Jaina pottery figures.
Mural painting
Despite the fact that relatively few Mayan paintings have survived intact to this day, due to the humid climate of the Central American plains.
Significant remains have been found in almost all of the large court residences, particularly in the suburb. structures that have been hidden under later architectural additions.
The walls usually form patterns that show some repetition, such as flower symbols, with subtle variations, on the walls of House E of the Palenque Palace; scenes of daily life, such as in one of the buildings that surround the central plaza of Calakmul and in a palace in Chilonche.
Or ritual scenes that include representations of gods, as in the murals of the Postclassic temples of Yucatán and the east coast of Belize.
They can also teach a more narrative character, usually with the glyphic "subtitles" included. The multicolored murals of Bonampak, for example, date from 790 AD. C. and that extend through the walls and arches of three continuous rooms, they show wonderful figures of nobility, battle and sacrifice, as well as a group of ritual personifications in the middle of a row of musicians.
The San Bartolo murals, dating from 100 B.C. C. refer to the myths of the Mayan god of corn and the twin hero Hunahpú, and represent a double enthronement; Although it dates back several centuries to the classical era, the style is already fully developed, with subtle and subdued colors compared to those of Bonampak or Calakmul.
In a room in Cacaxtla, in east-central Mexico, outside of the Mayan region, murals painted in a predominantly Classic Mayan style, with often strong colors, were found stretching over 20 meters and including a fierce fight scene; the figures of two Mayan lords, standing on serpents; and an irrigated corn and cocoa field, visited by the mercantile deity.
Wall painting also occurs in vault caverns, tombs (eg Blue River) and caves (eg Naj Tunich), usually done in black on an off-white surface, sometimes with the additional use of red paint.
Yucatan vault vaults often show a depiction of the enthroned enthroned deity, K'awiil (e.g. Ek' Balam).
A brilliant turquoise blue color, known as "Mayan blue", has been preserved throughout the centuries for its unique chemical characteristics; This color is present in Bonampak, Cacaxtla, Jaina, El Tajín and even in certain colonial convents. The use of Mayan blue continued until the XNUMXth century, when the technique was lost.
writing and books
The Mayan writing system is made up of approximately 1,000 different characters or glyphs, and like many ancient writing systems, it is a mixture of syllabics and logograms. This writing was in use from the third century before Christ. C. until shortly after the Spanish conquest in the XNUMXth century.
Currently, it has been possible to decipher a considerable part of the characters, but their meaning and configuration as text are not always known.
The books were folded and made from sheets of bark or leather paper, covered with a layer of adhesive stucco for writing; they were protected by jaguar skin covers or possibly wooden planks.
Since every fortuneteller probably needed a book, it is believed that a large number of books could have existed. Currently, only three Postclassic Mayan books are preserved: the Dresden, Paris, and Madrid codices.
A fourth book, the Grolier, is Mayan-Toltec rather than Mayan; apart from the calendar signs, it does not contain any text. Fragmentary and of low artistic quality, it has many anomalies, so its authenticity has been in doubt for a long time.
Most of the codices have a divinatory and priestly content, almanacs with astrological tables and ritual programs; The Paris codex also includes the Katun prophecies. Much attention has been paid to the harmonious balance of text and illustrations.
In addition to the texts included in the codices, there was a cursive script with a more dynamic character, found on murals and ceramics, and imitated in stone on the Palenque panels (such as the "Table" of the 96 glyphs"). .
Texts are often enclosed in square 'boxes' of different shapes within the representation. Murals may also be entirely composed of texts (Ek' Balam, Naj Tunich) or, more rarely, astrological calculations (Xultun).
These texts, sometimes written on a white stucco surface, and executed with particular care and elegance, resemble enlargements of book pages.
The glyphs are ubiquitous and have been written on every available surface, including the human body. The glyphs themselves are very detailed, and the logograms in particular are deceptively realistic.
From an artistic and historical point of view, the glyphs can be considered artistic motifs. Consequently, the sculptors of Copán and Quiriguá felt free to transform the glyphic elements and calendar signs into highly animated miniature dramatic scenes ("Glyphs with completed figures").
Ceramics and "codex style"
Unlike pottery in common use, which is found in large quantities among the rubble of archaeological sites, the most decorated pottery (cylindrical vases, plates with lids, vases, goblets) was once the "social currency" of the nobility. maya and was preserved as an inheritance. family, and also accompanied the nobles in their graves.
The aristocratic tradition of gift-exchange festivals and ceremonial visits, and the emulation that inevitably ensued during these exchanges, go a long way towards explaining the high artistic level achieved in the classical era.
Made without a potter's wheel, decorated pottery was delicately painted, sculpted in relief, incised, or especially early in the Classic, stuccoed, by applying paint onto a wet clay surface, a technique developed for Teotihuacan frescoes.
The precious ceramic objects were made in many workshops distributed throughout the Mayan kingdoms; Some of the most famous objects are associated with the "Chamá style", the "Holmul style", the "Ik style", and, for carved ceramics, the "Chocholá style".
Ceramic vessel decoration features great variation, showing palace scenes, court rituals, mythology, divination glyphs, and even dynastic texts taken from chronicles, and continues to play an important role in the reconstruction of Maya life and beliefs. of the classical period.
Pottery scenes and texts painted in black and red on a white background, similar to folded book pages, are known as "codex style"; The graphic and pictorial overlap with the three surviving Mayan codices is, at least so far, relatively weak.
Sculptural ceramic art includes Early Classic bowls with lids mounted by human and animal figures; Some of these bowls, burnished black, are among the most remarkable works of Maya art.
Sculptural pottery also includes incense burners and funerary urns. The richly decorated incense burners of the Classic period Palenque kingdom are well known, with the modeled face of a deity or king attached to an elongated cylinder.
The most represented deity, associated with a ground fire, also adorns large classical funerary urns in the Guatemalan department of El Quiché. Priestly personifications of the deities, who often carry offerings.
Finally, ceramic figures, many made in molds and with exceptional vividness and realism, constitute a minor but highly instructive genre.
In addition to deities, "animal characters", rulers and dwarfs, they represent many other characters, including scenes from everyday life. Some of these figures are ocarinas and may have been used in rituals. The most impressive examples come from the island of Jaina.
Gemstones and other sculpture materials
It should be noted that the Mayans, who did not have metal tools, created so many objects from jade (jadeite), a very thick and dense material, which included many (royal) clothing items such as belt plates, earmuffs, earrings and more expensive.
Sometimes the Celts (ie ax ornaments) were engraved with a representation similar to that on the ruler's stela, such as the "Leiden plate" dating to the Early Classic.
The best-known example of a mask is probably the death mask of K'inich Janaab' Pakal, the ruler of Palenque, which consists of irregularly shaped jade plates or tesserae and mother-of-pearl and obsidian eyes.
Another death mask, belonging to a Queen of Palenque, consists of malachite plates. Likewise, some cylindrical vessels from Tikal have an outer layer of square jade disks. Many stone sculptures were inlaid with jade.
Other carved and engraved materials include flint, shell, and bone, which have often been found in caches and burials. The so-called "eccentric flints" are ceremonial objects, of uncertain use, which, in their most elaborate forms, have an elongated shape.
Usually with several extended heads on one or both sides, sometimes representing the Lightning Deity (K'awiil), but more often an anthropomorphic lightning bolt with the characteristics of the heaped maize god.
The shells were used to produce disks and other decorative items depicting human heads, and possibly ancestral heads and deities; Seashell trumpets were decorated in the same way.
Human and animal bones were decorated with incised symbols and scenes. A collection of small modified tubular bones, which come from an XNUMXth-century royal burial located in the Temple of the Great Jaguar at Tikal, contains some of the most subtle carvings known of the Maya, including several scenes showing depictions of the maize god. tonsured in a canoe.
Applied arts and body decoration
Classic-era cotton fabrics have not survived, but depictions in Maya art provide detailed information about their appearance and, to a lesser extent, their social function. They include delicate fabrics used as envelopes, curtains, and awnings in palaces. and also clothes. Dyeing techniques may have included ikat.
Daily dress depended on social position. Noblewomen wore the long dresses, belts, and loincloths of noblemen, leaving the legs and upper body more or less exposed, unless jackets or blankets were worn. Both men and women could wear turbans.
The costumes worn during ceremonies and at numerous festivals were lush and expressive; animal-derived headdresses were common. The most elaborate costume was the king's formal robe, depicted on royal stelae, with many elements having symbolic meaning.
Known only from chance representations in sculptural and ceramic art, basketry and weaving must once have been ubiquitous; the famous pop ("mat") motif attests to its importance.
Body decorations often consisted of patterns painted on the face and body, but could also be more permanent in character and mark differences in age and social position. Permanent decorations included artificial deformation of the skull, tattooing of the face, filing of the teeth, and addition of inlays.
museum collections
There are a large number of museums that have Mayan artifacts in their collections. The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies (FAMSI) includes more than 250 museums in its database on museums with Mayan artifacts and the European Association of Mayanists (WAYEB) lists around fifty museums, in Europe alone.
In Mexico City, the National Museum of Anthropology has a particularly large collection of Mayan artifacts. Several regional museums in Mexico have important collections, including the “Román Piña Chan” Museum of the Stelae in Campeche, the “Palacio Cantón” Regional Museum of Yucatán in Mérida, and the “Carlos Pellicer Cámara” Regional Museum of Anthropology in Villahermosa, Tabasco.
In Guatemala, the most important collections are those of the Popol Vuh Museum and the National Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, both located in Guatemala City.
The British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Museum of Archeology and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania are some of the other museums that display notable collections. of Mayan objects.
The Museum of Cultures in Basel, Switzerland, has a series of Tikal wooden lintels; The Ethnological Museum in Berlin, Germany, has a large collection of Mayan artifacts. In Belgium, the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels house an important collection.
The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago has a remarkable collection of Mayan pottery and the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio has one of the largest collections of Mayan artifacts in the United States.
The American Museum in Madrid houses a large collection of objects from Palenque; It is also the museum where the Madrid Codex is kept. Other notable European museums are the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden in the Netherlands and the Rietberg Museum in Zurich in Switzerland.
Pre-Columbian art
Pre-Columbian art is the name given to the set of artistic and intellectual works, such as sculpture, architecture, stone art, ceramics, textiles, metal and painting made by natives of the American continent through the era before the European invasion.
This is the most important element that allows knowledge and recognition of pre-Columbian civilizations, proof of their level of development and the ability to transform their environment.
Although the term "pre-Columbian" is broadly defined as everything that was in the Americas before the Spanish arrived in the Americas in 1492, it actually refers to a period of time in which different cultures developed that left a permanent mark. in the country. Art and which are currently the subject of scientific studies.
When the Spanish arrived, not all American peoples were in the same cultural state, and there were those who had all the characteristics of civilization and others who were at an earlier stage of evolution.
That is why anthropologists and archaeologists have delineated two areas. The so-called nuclear America is occupied by civilized peoples and roughly includes Mexico, part of Central America and the Andes and its surroundings, from Colombia to Chile.
The term "classic period" began with the development of the Mayan culture around 292 and ended with its apparent decline around 900. It was coined by those who believe that this period represents the peak of the splendor of pre-Columbian art.
This idea is currently being discussed by those who point out that pre-Columbian art before and after this period was not inferior to that of the classic period.
The pre-Columbian stages were structured preferably isolated from each other during the period of origin, but during the classic stage, a formation of learning and mutual influence began, even between the two main areas of civilization: Mesoamerica and the Andes. The coincidences in the representation of certain myths, similar words and some customs suggest that, especially after the classical period, the contacts between different civilizations were not sporadic.
Geographic framework
The geographical structure is conditioned to the foundation of the Spanish colonies on the continent, since the term "pre-Columbian" designates a signal from the Hispano-American point of view. Consequently, other American cultures from non-Hispanic territories are named differently. Among these territories of pre-Columbian cultures, there are fifteen in particular that stand out for the enormous amount of traces and materials located especially in two areas: Mesoamerica and the Andes.
In Mesoamerica, which includes the current territory of Mexico and Central America, the civilizations are preceded by the Olmecs and the foundation of one of the first American cities: Teotihuacán. The other cultures would be the Mayans, the Mixtecs, the Toltecs, and finally the Aztecs.
In the Andes, which comprise the territories of all the countries crossed by the mountain range of Venezuela and Colombia, in the north, towards the northern areas of Chile and Argentina, in the south, the Chibchas stand out as the meeting point between Mesoamerica and the Andes, San Agustín, Colima, Sinú, Chavín, Nazca and Inca.
Mesoamerica
Archaeologists, anthropologists and historians describe Mesoamerica as a large cultural, historical and geographical region of about one million km2, bordering the Sinaloa River in northwestern Mexico on the coast of the Gulf of Lerma and Soto de la Marina and in the south with the Ulúa river in Honduras and Puntarenas in Costa Rica.
Mexico is its epicenter, where the cultures of the three most important regions were based from a historical and artistic perspective: the Valley of Mexico in the center, the Valley of Oaxaca in the southeast of the former, and the Gulf Coast in the east. Despite the different chronological classifications, the history of the region is generally divided into five main periods.
Olmec
Olmec art refers to the preserved artistic expressions of the Olmec culture that developed during the Middle Preclassic period in Mesoamerica (flourished between 1200 BC and 500 BC) and is considered the first of the great civilizations of that region.
Although the Olmecs particularly occupied the northern part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the main archaeological sites are in San Lorenzo, La Venta and Tres Zapotes, as well as in Villahermosa and Tabasco, their influence spread to many Mesoamerican regions and many common cultural aspects began. of these cultures.
With them, like the culture of the mountains and reflections (like the conical pyramid of La Venta), the culture of the feathered serpent and the jaguar god, the ball game or symbolism. religious jade The Olmec culture, which invented writing, using pictograms and ideograms, and the calendar, was originally identified as an artistic style and remains its hallmark.
It was a reference and a legacy for all subsequent cultures in Central America: Toltecs, Zapotecs and more and with the Aztecs: the Mayan writing is an example with its roots in the first glyphic system developed by the Olmecs.
His artistic expression is manifested in a great technical mastery of sculpture and carving, which for many has no comparison with any other pre-Columbian civilization.
Most of the Olmec art is naturalistic, but it also uses a rich iconography, it reflects a religious meaning, with other fantastic ones. , often highly stylized anthropomorphic creatures.
A colossal or monumental art, made of clay, stone (mainly basalt and andesite), and wood, and a smaller art or decoration, based on jade jadeite and other green stones (serpentine), and obsidian. – along with some cave paintings. Stone monuments can be divided into four classes:
- colossal stone heads (up to 3 m in height and 10 t in weight), an example of monumental sculpture carved from basalt from distant quarries, which are the most representative works of Olmec art, including 17 specimens have been found at various sites in the Olmec core zone. They are characterized by their Negroid appearance, with puffy eyes, full lips and a wide nose, with a tight-fitting helmet, which would represent gods, warriors or chiefs, family heads or ancestors, and even ball players. . (The appearance of Negroids led to the conjecture that they were evidence of certain inter-oceanic contacts in ancient times.)
- "Altars" rectangular (probably thrones) [citation needed] like the famous altar 4 of La Venta, with a cavity in the front that represents a door to the subterranean world, from which a mythological character emerges holding a rope that surrounds the altar as a border.
- Sculptures on round beams and independent, such as "The Twins" of El Azuzul, the monument of San Martín Pajapan 1 or the Lord of Las Limas, a serpentine work of a seated young man with a jaguar in his arms, a frequent motif in Olmec art.
- Stelae, introduced later than colossal heads, altars or free-standing sculptures. At first, they were a simple representation of characters, such as Monument 19 or Stela 1 of La Venta, but later they came to represent historical events, in particular acts that legitimized the rulers. This trend is said to culminate in post-Olmec monuments such as La Mojarra Stela 1, which combines images of rulers with glyphs and calendar dates with long countdowns.
Another smaller contraption variant is the mask-shaped carvings of hard jade stone. Jade was a particularly precious material and would be used by the ruling classes as a sign of rank. Already in 1500 a. C., the first Olmec sculptors dominated the human form, as evidenced by the wooden sculptures discovered in the swampy areas of El Manatí.
Curators and researchers refer to "Olmec-style" face masks: human heads are quite large relative to the character's body, a combination of deep-set eyes, flat nostrils, and a wide, slightly arched, slightly asymmetrical mouth.
With a thick upper lip (the Olmec lip, which has been linked to the shape of the jaguar's mouth) and a small chin, sometimes with a cleft on the head, but, to date, no example has been found in a archaeologically controlled Olmec context.
They were found in places of other cultures, including one deliberately placed in the ceremonial precinct of Tenochtitlán (Mexico). The mask was probably around 2000 years old when the Aztecs buried it, suggesting that these masks were prized and collected, much like Roman antiquities in Europe.
As the Olmec arts were strongly linked to their religion, which highlighted the jaguars (he believed that in the distant past a race of "jaguar men" would have formed between the union of a jaguar and a woman) the "Olmec style" also combines human facial features and jaguars.
A series of clay and stone statuettes, known as Olmec miniatures, also abound in archaeological sites throughout the Formative period, and among them, the so-called baby faces, small white ceramic sculptures with the faces of children, with a large head, almond-shaped eyes, full lips, a helmet and a pear-shaped body.
Kunz axes (also known as "votive axes"), sculptures representing "jaguar weremen" and suggestively used in rituals, can also be cited. In most cases, the head is half the total volume of the figure. All Kunz shoulders have a flat nose and an open mouth.
The name "Kunz" comes from George Frederick Kunz, an American mineralogist who described a figure in 1890. Other characteristic jades are the so-called "Olmec spoons". Art displays are very complex and there are still many objects under investigation. Ceramics also developed in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec area, reaching great artistic heights in Barra, Locona, and Ocós.
The most important Olmec pieces have been recovered from excavated sites and transferred to museums, the best collections being the Xalapa Museum of Anthropology and the La Venta Park Museum, with outstanding specimens also in the National Museum of Anthropology in the Mexican capital.
Teotihuacán
The culture of Teotihuacán practices a solemn art of worshiping the gods and nature, whose sole purpose is to represent the sublime and the terrible of the struggle between various gods.
She aspires not to beauty but to the achievement of a religious mission and a cosmic vision of life. The Teotihuacanos are distinguished mainly by their work in stone, both in the architectural part and in sculpture, used to reinforce the mythical and religious beliefs of this city.
The main deity artistically represented in this city was Tlaloc, god of rain who dominated all manifestations of nature.
Teotihuacán is a temple of the city, without walls. The main avenue, called "Calle de los Muertos" by the Aztecs, connects the many temples, such as that of Quetzalcóatl, the serpent god, with other buildings, such as the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon.
Abundant mask work, defined by wide faces and a trend towards two-dimensionality and the use of jade and stones in these wonderful artistic expressions.
Maya
The Mayans were located in southeastern Mexico, mainly the Yucatan peninsula, as well as much of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. They built a large number of cities whose splendor spanned several centuries, such as Kaminaljuyú, Tikal, Calakmul, Palenque, Copán and Chichén Itzá.
Mayan art focuses on the Mayan elite and the worship of divine kings, and deals with a greater variety of themes than any other artistic tradition in the Americas. It has many regional styles and is unique to ancient America in sound with narrative text.
The Mayan civilization has left behind a vast architectural heritage that includes palaces, acropolises, temples, pyramids, and astronomical observatories. Mayan architecture has also incorporated glyphic writing and various art forms, such as stone carving.
Stone stelae are common at city sites, often associated with low circular stones called "altars". Stone sculpture also took other forms, such as the relief limestone panels of Palenque and Piedras Negras and the stone stairs decorated with sculptures in places such as Yaxchilán, Dos Pilas, Copán, among others.
The largest Mayan sculptures were elaborate stucco architectural facades that, after being modeled, were painted in bright colors and placed on temple facades.
They prized green jade and other green stones, associating themselves with the sun god K'inich Ajau. They carved artifacts ranging from fine pearls and tesserae to sculpted heads weighing 4,42 kg.25 The Maya nobility practiced dental modification, with some lords wearing jade inlays on their teeth.
Tomb mosaic masks could also be made of jade. They also worked in wood, flint, flint and obsidian and highlighted eccentric flint. They also carved bones and shells of humans and animals of the genus Spondylus. They later made small gold, silver, and copper items using hammering and lost-wax techniques.
The Mayans had a long tradition of mural painting, with polychrome patterns painted on smooth plastered walls. Although most of these no longer exist, there are several surviving murals, painted in cream, red, and black, in the Early Classic period tombs at El Caracol, Río Azul, and Tikal, as well as the series of large Late Classic paintings at Bonampak.
Mayan pottery was made using the roller deformation technique. It was unglazed, although it often had a fine, burnished finish. It was painted with a clay bath mixed with minerals and colored clays.
The Ik-style polychrome ceramic corpus, comprising finely painted plates and cylindrical containers, was born at the end of the classic period in Motul de San José. It includes a number of features, such as glyphs painted in a pale pink or red color, and scenes of masked dancers.
One of the most distinctive features is the realistic representation of the themes as they appear in real life. The vases' themes included court life in the Petén region in the XNUMXth century AD. CC, such as diplomatic meetings, festivals, ritual bloodletting, warrior scenes, and the sacrifice of prisoners of war.
Mixtecs
These indigenous people occupied the Oaxaca valley around 1300 AD, displacing the Zapotecs from Monte Albán and other important cities, forming independent lordships. Traces of the occupation of La Mixteca dating back at least 6,000 years have been found.
With the invasion of Monte Albán and the establishment of the city of Mitla as its capital, the Mixtec culture reached its period of maximum splendor. Its decline began with the expansion of the Mexica around 1458, until the end of the Spanish conquest of the Mixtec Empire around 1521.
The Mixtecs have developed a type of pictographic writing that combines elements from Monte Albán and Teotihuacán, and their literature is preserved in various codices such as Nuttal and Selden. Huehueteotl, one of the main gods of the Mixtecs, is frequently depicted on Zapotec-influenced ceramic urns.
However, his tutelary god was Dzahui, who shares attributes with Tlaloc. The Mixtecs were also goldsmiths and potters, and they exported luxury items to other regions of Mesoamerica, such as polychrome ceramics, feather art, and gold coins, which they combined with turquoise, as in the case of the Yanhuitlán shield.
One of the best-known pieces is the gold mask of the god Xipe Tótec, patron saint of the goldsmiths' guild. Another pendant is made up of four plates connected to each other by rings and crowned by four elongated bells.
The upper plate shows a ritual playing field with two deities representing eternal duality and a skull in the center, the second is a solar disk, the third symbolizes the Moon and the fourth symbolizes the Earth.
For many archaeologists, the pieces from Monte Albán are the highest artistic, technical and aesthetic expression of the pre-Hispanic world. The skill and perfection of the Mixtec, who created the approximately five hundred jewels of the so-called tomb n. º 7 were combined with sobriety and functionality.
An example of this is the pectoral muscles, which can be used independently or combined to form a large collar, the chest muscles, which is a figure wearing a mouth mask with gaunt teeth and a helmet, which is performed in a spring sophisticated.
On the chest there is a writing that refers to a correction of the calendar and the cosmology of the historical moment in which the pieces were made.
Mexican
The art of the so-called Mexica stands out for the monumentality of its stone sculptures, which stand out for their drama and original beauty.30 The Pedra do Sol, the Monolith Tlaltecuhtli, the Monolith Coyolxauhqui and the sculpture of the goddess Coatlicue are considered masterpieces. . of Mexican sculpture.
The religious architecture of Mexica was developed following the guidelines of the Mesoamerican tradition, providing as an innovation the construction of twin temples with double steps, as a representation of the dual nature of the Mexica gods.
It is worth highlighting the Templo Mayor, located in México-Tenochtitlán, which occupied an area of 100 x 80 m and reached a height of 40 m. It was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc, tutelary gods of the Tenochcas. Another very typical construction of the Mexicas was the tzompantli, a structure where the skulls of the sacrificed were accumulated.
The art of the pen, made by lovers, was one of the most representative and dedicated artistic expressions of the Aztecs. They made ornaments based on gold, precious stones and various feathers, especially quetzal.
These clothes were used to adorn the sculptures of the gods, to make offerings or as military insignia. The most outstanding pieces of this plumeria were part of Huey Tlatoani's treasure.
The pictography of Mexica was created by Tlacuilo, artists in charge of illustrating Mexican codes, murals and sculptures. Mexican codices were made from beloved shells and painted with various dyes.
Here are some links of interest: