Pre-Columbian art
Sun Stone, at National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City
Pre-Columbian art refers to the visual arts of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, North, Central, and South Americas from at least 13,000 BCE to the European conquests starting in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era continued for a time after these in many places, or had a transitional phase afterwards. Many types of perishable artifacts that were once very common, such as woven textiles, typically have not been preserved, but Precolumbian monumental sculpture, metalwork in gold, pottery, and painting on ceramics, walls, and rocks have survived more frequently.
The first Pre-Columbian art to be widely known in modern times was that of the empires flourishing at the time of European conquest, the Inca and Aztec, some of which was taken back to Europe intact. Gradually art of earlier civilizations that had already collapsed, especially Maya art and Olmec art, became widely known, mostly for their large stone sculpture.
Colossal Olmec head N° 1 of San Lorenzo, Mexico
Many Pre-Columbian cultures did not have writing systems, so visual art expressed cosmologies, world views, religion, and philosophy of these cultures, as well as serving as mnemonic devices. Artisans of the Ancient Americas drew upon a wide range of materials (obsidian, gold, spondylus shells), creating objects that included the meanings held to be inherent to the materials. These cultures often derived value from the physical qualities, rather than the imagery, of artworks, prizing aural and tactile features, the quality of workmanship, and the rarity of materials. Various works of art have been discovered large distances from their location of production, indicating that many Pre-Columbian civilizations interacted amongst each other. Many societies used raw materials carried from far away, suggesting difficulty of acquisition as a source of value.
For many of these cultures, the visual arts went beyond physical appearance and served as active extensions of their owners and indices of the divine. As spirituality was very prevalent among pre-columbian cultures, themes of the deities and ritual worship were often the subjects of artwork.
Mesoamerica
The Mesoamerican cultures are generally divided into three periods (see Mesoamerican chronology):
- Pre-classic (up to 200 CE)
- Classic (ca. 200–900 CE)
- Post-classic (ca. 900 to 1580 CE).
The Pre-classic period was dominated by the highly developed Olmec civilization, which flourished around 1200–400 BCE. The Olmecs produced jade figurines, and created heavy-featured, colossal heads, up to 2 meters (6.6 ft) high, that still stand mysteriously in the landscape. The Mesoamerican tradition of building large ceremonial centres appears to have begun under the Olmecs.
During the Classic period the dominant civilization was the Maya. Maya royalty commissioned artwork that commemorated their achievements and secured their place in time. Scenes depicting various rituals and historical events are embedded with hieroglyphic text to enable the viewer to identify the important figures, times and places instead of relying upon physical features that could be forgotten over time. The interpretation of the actions represented in the artwork goes hand in hand with understanding the decorative text that is woven into the picture. Unlocking this hieroglyphic text is vital as it removes anonymity and mystery from the scenes and reveals detailed records of those who held power throughout the timeline of the civilization. Like the Mississippian peoples of North America such as the Choctaw and Natchez, the Maya organized themselves into large, agricultural communities. They practised their own forms of hieroglyphic writing and even advanced astronomy. Mayan art consequently focuses on rain, agriculture, and fertility, expressing these images mainly in relief and surface decoration, as well as some sculpture. Glyphs and stylized figures were used to decorate architecture such as the pyramid temple of Chichén Itzá. Murals dating from about 750 CE were discovered when the city of Bonampak was excavated in 1946.
The Post-classic period (10th–12th centuries) was dominated by the Toltecs who made colossal, block-like sculptures such as those employed as free-standing columns at Tula, Mexico. The Mixtecs developed a style of painting known as Mixtec-Puebla, as seen in their murals and codices (manuscripts), in which all available space is covered by flat figures in geometric designs. The Aztec culture in Mexico produced some dramatically expressive artworks, such as the decorated skulls of captives and stone sculpture, of which Tlazolteotl (Woods Bliss Collection, Washington), a goddess in childbirth, is a good example. Aztec art, similar to other Mesoamerican cultures also focused on deity worship and portraying values in their society. In creating their art, Aztecs also were interested in naturalism, as making something life-like better conveyed their message through the artwork. For example, the Eagle Warrior statues are life-sized ceramic sculptures that show this sense of naturalism. The Aztecs believed these eagle warriors showed the value of youthful beauty, this can be seen in the sculpture with the Warriors young and soft features of his face.
- Feathered serpent sculpture in Teotihuacan
- Mural in Tetitla, Teotihuacan
- Mortuary mask of K'inich Janaab' Pakal
- Stele H, Copán
- Lintel 25, Yaxchilan
- Mural of the Structure 1 in Bonampak
- Dresden Codex page 74
- Zapotec mosaic mask that represents a Bat god, made of 25 pieces of jade, with yellow eyes made of shell. It was found in a tomb at Monte Albán
- Mixtec ceramic
- Mixtec pectoral of gold and turquoise, Shield of Yanhuitlan
- Serpent labret with articulated tongue, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Codex Borgia page 56, showing to Mictlāntēcutli and Quetzalcoatl
- Feather headdress of Moctezuma II
- Aztec vulture vessel in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1200-1521.
South America
Paracas culture border, flying man detail. This is a famous motif from the Paracas Necropolis burial textiles. It dates to 450–175 BCE but is in pristine condition. The field of view is about 10 inches (25.4 cm) wide. The Entire textile can be viewed at
See also
- Latin American art
- Muisca art
- Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas
- Painting in the Americas before European colonization
- List of Stone Age art
Notes
- ^ a b c d Golden kingdoms : luxury arts in the ancient Americas. Pillsbury, Joanne, Potts, Timothy F.,, Richter, Kim N.,, J. Paul Getty Museum,, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.),, Getty Research Institute. Los Angeles, CA. 2017-09-26. ISBN 9781606065488. OCLC 981761498.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
- ^ a b Schele, Linda; et al. (2006). The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art. G. Braziller.
- ^ Miller, Mary Ellen (2019), The Art of Mesoamerica, World of Art series, Thames & Hudson. pp. 260–263.
- ^ UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
- ^ World Heritage Sites: a Complete Guide to 1007 UNESCO World Heritage Sites (6th ed.). UNESCO Publishing. 2014. p. 607. ISBN 978-1-77085-640-0. OCLC 910986576.
References
- Esther, Pasztory. Pre-Columbian Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Further reading
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Pre-Columbian Cup, Smarthistory at Khan Academy |
- The Art of Precolumbian Gold: The Jan Mitchell Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1985. ISBN 9780297786276.
- Sawyer, Alan R. (1966). Ancient Peruvian ceramics: the Nathan Cummings collection by Alan R. Sawyer. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Bernal, Ignacio; Coe, Michael D.; et al. (1973). The Iconography of Middle American sculpture. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. OCLC 922169200.
- Leibsohn, Dana, and Barbara E. Mundy, Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520–1820. http://www.fordham.edu/vistas, 2015.
External links
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