Download or read book Unseen Art written by Claudia Brittenham and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Unseen Art, Claudia Brittenham unravels one of the most puzzling phenomena in Mesoamerican art history: why many of the objects that we view in museums today were once so difficult to see. She examines the importance that ancient Mesoamerican people assigned to the process of making and enlivening the things we now call art, as well as Mesoamerican understandings of sight as an especially godlike and elite power, in order to trace a gradual evolution in the uses of secrecy and concealment, from a communal practice that fostered social memory to a tool of imperial power. Addressing some of the most charismatic of all Mesoamerican sculptures, such as Olmec buried offerings, Maya lintels, and carvings on the undersides of Aztec sculptures, Brittenham shows that the creation of unseen art has important implications both for understanding status in ancient Mesoamerica and for analyzing art in the present. Spanning nearly three thousand years of the Indigenous art of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize, Unseen Art connects the dots between vision, power, and inequality, providing a critical perspective on our own way of looking.

Download or read book Figurines written by Jaś Elsner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-22 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Figurines are objects of handling. As touchable objects, they engage the viewer in different ways from flat art, whether relief sculpture or painting. Unlike the voyeuristic relationship of viewing a neatly framed pictorial narrative as if from the outside, the viewer as handler is always potentially and without protection within the narrative of figurines. As such, they have potential for a potent, even animated, agency in relation to those who use them. This volume concerns figurines as archaeologically-attested materials from literate cultures with surviving documents that have no direct links of contiguity, appropriation, or influence in relation to each other. It is an attempt to put the category of the figurine on the table as a key conceptual and material problematic in the art history of antiquity. It does so through comparative juxtaposition of close-focused chapters drawn from deep art-historical engagement with specific ancient cultures - Chinese, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican, and Greco-Roman. It encourages comparative conversation across the disciplines that constitute the art history of the ancient world through finding categories and models of discourse that may offer fertile ground for comparison and antithesis. It extends the rich and astute literature on prehistoric figurines into understanding the figurine in historical contexts, where literary texts and documents, inscriptions, or surviving terminologies can be adduced alongside material culture. At stake are issues of figuration and anthropomorphism, miniaturization and portability, one-off production and replication, and substitution and scale at the interface of archaeology and art history.

Download or read book Golden Kingdoms written by Joanne Pillsbury and published by Getty Publications. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume accompanies a major international loan exhibition featuring more than three hundred works of art, many rarely or never before seen in the United States. It traces the development of gold working and other luxury arts in the Americas from antiquity until the arrival of Europeans in the early sixteenth century. Presenting spectacular works from recent excavations in Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Mexico, this exhibition focuses on specific places and times—crucibles of innovation—where artistic exchange, rivalry, and creativity led to the production of some of the greatest works of art known from the ancient Americas. The book and exhibition explore not only artistic practices but also the historical, cultural, social, and political conditions in which luxury arts were produced and circulated, alongside their religious meanings and ritual functions. Golden Kingdoms creates new understandings of ancient American art through a thematic exploration of indigenous ideas of value and luxury. Central to the book is the idea of the exchange of materials and ideas across regions and across time: works of great value would often be transported over long distances, or passed down over generations, in both cases attracting new audiences and inspiring new artists. The idea of exchange is at the intellectual heart of this volume, researched and written by twenty scholars based in the United States and Latin America.

Download or read book Identities Experience and Change in Early Mexican Villages written by Catharina E. Santasilia and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2022-05-03 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New perspectives on an important era in Mesoamerican history This volume examines shifting social identities, lived experiences, and networks of interaction in Mexico during the Mesoamerican Formative period (2000 BCE–250 CE), an era that helped produce some of the world’s most renowned complex civilizations. The chapters offer significant data, innovative methodologies, and novel perspectives on Mexican archaeology. Using diverse and non-traditional theoretical approaches, contributors discuss interregional relationships and the exchange of ideas in contexts ranging from the Gulf Coast Olmec region to the site of Tlatilco in Central Mexico to the often-overlooked cultures of the far western states. Their essays explore identity formation, cosmological perspectives, the first hints of social complexity, the underpinnings of Formative period economies, and the sensorial implications of sociocultural change. Identities, Experience, and Change in Early Mexican Villages is one of the first volumes to address the entirety of this rich and complex era and region, offering a new and holistic view. Through a wealth of exciting interpretations from international senior and emerging scholars, this volume shows the strong influence of cultural exchange as well as the compelling individuality of local and regional contexts over two thousand years of history. Contributors: Catharina E. Santasilia | Guy D. Hepp | Richard A. Diehl | Jeffrey P. Blomster | Philip (Flip) J. Arnold III | Patricia Ochoa Castillo | Christopher Beekman | Tatsuya Murakami | Jeffrey S. Brzezinski | Vanessa Monson | Arthur A. Joyce | Sarah B. Barber | Henri Noel Bernard| Sara Ladrón de Guevara| Mayra Manrique| José Luis Ruvalcaba

Download or read book Archaeology of Households Kinship and Social Change written by Lacey B. Carpenter and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-25 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Archaeology of Households, Kinship, and Social Change offers new perspectives on the processes of social change from the standpoint of household archaeology. This volume develops new theoretical and methodological approaches to the archaeology of households pursuing three critical themes: household diversity in human residential communities with and without archaeologically identifiable houses, interactions within and between households that explicitly considers impacts of kin and non-kin relationships, and lastly change as a process that involves the choices made by members of households in the context of larger societal constraints. Encompassing these themes, authors explore the role of social ties and their material manifestations (within the house, dwelling, or other constructed space), how the household relates to other social units, how households consolidate power and control over resources, and how these changes manifest at multiple scales. The case studies presented in this volume have broader implications for understanding the drivers of change, the ways households create the contexts for change, and how households serve as spaces for invention, reaction, and/or resistance. Understanding the nature of relationships within households is necessary for a more complete understanding of communities and regions as these ties are vital to explaining how and why societies change. Taking a comparative outlook, with case studies from around the world, this volume will inform students and professionals researching household archaeology and be of interest to other disciplines concerned with the relationship between social networks and societal change.

Download or read book Teotihuacan written by Matthew Robb and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Founded in the first century BCE near a set of natural springs in an otherwise dry northeastern corner of the Valley of Mexico, the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan was on a symbolic level a city of elements. With a multiethnic population of perhaps one hundred thousand, at its peak in 400 CE, it was the cultural, political, economic, and religious center of ancient Mesoamerica. A devastating fire in the city center led to a rapid decline after the middle of the sixth century, but Teotihuacan was never completely abandoned or forgotten; the Aztecs revered the city and its monuments, giving many of them the names we still use today. Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire examines new discoveries from the three main pyramids at the site—the Sun Pyramid, the Moon Pyramid, and, at the center of the Ciudadela complex, the Feathered Serpent Pyramid—which have fundamentally changed our understanding of the city’s history. With illustrations of the major objects from Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Antropología and from the museums and storage facilities of the Zona de Monumentos Arqueológicos de Teotihuacan, along with selected works from US and European collections, the catalogue examines these cultural artifacts to understand the roles that offerings of objects and programs of monumental sculpture and murals throughout the city played in the lives of Teotihuacan’s citizens. Published in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Exhibition dates: de Young, San Francisco, September 30, 2017–February 11, 2018 Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), March–June 2018

Download or read book Rethinking the Aztec Economy written by Deborah L. Nichols and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Rethinking the Aztec Economy provides new perspectives on the society and economy of the ancient Aztecs by focusing on goods and their patterns of circulation"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Art of Mesoamerica From Olmec to Aztec Sixth World of Art written by Mary Ellen Miller and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mary Ellen Miller’s rich visual and scholarly survey of pre-Hispanic art and architecture, including the most recent archaeological finds. Expanded and revised in its sixth edition, The Art of Mesoamerica surveys the artistic achievements of the high pre-Hispanic civilizations of Central America—Olmec, Maya, Teotihuacan, Toltec, and Aztec—as well as those of their lesser-known contemporaries. Providing an in-depth examination of central works, this book guides readers through the most iconic palaces, pyramids, sculptures, and paintings. From the Olmec colossal head 5 recovered from San Lorenzo to the Aztec calendar stone found in Mexico City’s Zocalo in 1790, this book reveals the complexity and innovation behind the art and architecture produced in pre-Hispanic civilizations. This new edition incorporates fifty new lavish color images and extensive updates based on the latest research and dozens of recent discoveries, particularly in Maya art, where excavations at Teotihuacan, the largest city of Mesoamerica, and Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecs, have yielded new sculptures.

Download or read book Human Figuration and Fragmentation in Preclassic Mesoamerica written by Julia Guernsey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-02-27 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the social significance of representation of the human body in Preclassic Mesoamerica.

Download or read book The Codex Mendoza new insights written by Jorge Gómez Tejada and published by USFQ Press. This book was released on 2022-02-16 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conceived as a contribution to the continuous construction of the identity of the Codex Mendoza, the present volume is organized around three axes: material analysis, textual and stylistic interpretation, and reception and circulation studies. The works of Barker-Benfield and MOLAB further our objective of understanding the manuscript's materiality. The re-binding and conservation process registered by Barker-Benfield has allowed us to do away with speculation regarding the method of production used to create the manuscript and its previous bindings. This, in turn, has allowed heretofore accepted connections, such as the authorship of Francisco Gualpuyogualcal, to be reexamined. Similarly, the analysis undertaken by the MOLAB team and headed by Davide Domenici has settled the debate on the nature of the pigments used in the production of the manuscript. This has added additional layers of nuance to previously held interpretative hypotheses on the meaning of specific pigments and the strictness of their application in the tlacuilolli. While color holds meaning for the tlacuilo, color is not inexorably linked to its materiality. These observations have the potential to inspire a new generation of interpretative studies, based on ever more accurate data regarding the material nature of the Codex Mendoza. Interpretative studies of the manuscript in this volume represent a line of inquiry that, by considering the manuscript from the complex perspectives of the work of art, literature, and bibliography, complement previous anthropological and historical readings of the Codex Mendoza. My essays as well as those by Diana Magaloni and Daniela Bleichmar reconsider the number and style of the artists who produced the manuscript in order to understand both the process by which it was created as well as the place it occupies in the artistic context of the early viceroyalty. Far from entering a binary relation between subjugator and subjugated, the decisions made by these artists and intellectuals manifest the forms of thinking and seeing time and space in the Mesoamerican world. I demonstrate that the pictures in the Codex Mendoza were painted in a workshop in which one, two, or more individuals collaborated on each page to create a single composition; as such, the creation of these pictures took on an air of rituality and functioned as "an instrument to recreate, reactualize, and make coherent the historical becoming linked to territory with cosmic patterns" (Magaloni, this volume). This last observation complements and reinforces Joanne Harwood's proposed reading of the third section of the manuscript. For Harwood, notwithstanding the originality of the visual solutions used to compose this section of the manuscript, the Codex Mendoza's pre-Columbian model resonates with a Mesoamerican religious genre: the teoamoxtli.

Download or read book El C dice mendocino nuevas perspectivas written by Jorge Gómez Tejada and published by USFQ Press. This book was released on 2021-12-23 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conceptualizado como una contribución a la continua construcción de la identidad del Códice mendocino, el presente volumen está organizado en torno a tres ejes: el análisis material, la interpretación textual y estilística, y la recepción y transmisión del manuscrito. Los estudios de Barker Benfield y MOLAB abren una ventana hacia el entendimiento objetivo de la materialidad del manuscrito. El proceso de conservación y reencuadernamiento del Mendocino registrado por Barker Benfield ha disipado especulaciones en cuanto al método de construcción del manuscrito y sus posibles encuadernaciones previas, permitiendo que conexiones antes aceptadas, como la autoría de Francisco Gualpuyogualcal, sean reexaminadas. Asimismo, el análisis llevado a cabo por el equipo de MOLAB —liderado por Davide Domenici— ha sacado del ámbito de la especulación la naturaleza de los pigmentos del manuscrito, así como ha permitido que hipótesis interpretativas —previamente articuladas al respecto del significado de pigmentos específicos y lo estricto de su aplicación en el tlacuilolli— sean refinadas y contenidas. Si bien el color tiene significado para el tlacuilo, este no está directa y necesariamente ligado a su materialidad. A partir de estas observaciones se puede desarrollar una nueva generación de estudios interpretativos cuyas propuestas se basen en datos cada vez más certeros acerca de la naturaleza material del Mendocino. Los estudios interpretativos del manuscrito que ocupan el presente volumen representan una línea de investigación que, al considerar al manuscrito desde la perspectiva compleja de la obra de arte, bibliográfica y literaria, complementa las lecturas antropológicas e históricas que se han hecho del Mendocino en estudios anteriores. Así, los ensayos de Diana Magaloni, Daniela Bleichmar y Jorge Gómez Tejada, editor del libro, reconsideran el número y estilo de los artistas que crearon el manuscrito para entender tanto el proceso de creación del mismo como el lugar que este ocupa en el contexto artístico del virreinato temprano. Las decisiones que estos artistas e intelectuales toman en el Mendocino, lejos de insertarse en una relación binaria dominante-dominado, se presentan como una manifestación de los modos de pensar y ver el espacio y el tiempo en el mundo mesoamericano. Las pinturas del Mendocino —ejecutadas a manera de taller en donde uno, dos o más individuos intervienen en una misma página para crear de manera sincronizada una sola composición, tal como demuestra quien escribe— toman visos de ritualidad y funcionan como "instrumento para re-crear, reactualizar y hacer coherente el devenir histórico ligado al territorio y los patrones cósmicos" (ver Capítulo 4). Esta última observación complementa y refuerza la lectura de la tercera sección del manuscrito propuesta por Joanne Harwood, para quien, independientemente de lo original de las soluciones visuales utilizadas para componer esta sección del manuscrito, su modelo prehispánico se encuentra en un género de resonancia religiosa mesoamericana: el teoamoxtli.

Download or read book The Murals of Cacaxtla written by Claudia Lozoff Brittenham and published by . This book was released on 2015-02-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Between AD 650 and 950, a small city-state in central Mexico produced dazzling murals of gods, historical figures, and supernatural creatures on the walls of its most important sacred and public spaces. This study explores how the Cacaxtla murals constitute a sustained and local painting tradition, in which generations of ancient Mexican artists, patrons, and audiences created a powerful statement of communal identity that still captures the imagination"--

Download or read book Lapidaria olmeca written by María Antonieta Cervantes and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Obras written by Beatriz de la Fuente and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Estudios de cultura n huatl written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Catalog written by University of Texas. Library. Latin American Collection and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 752 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Balance Y Perspectiva de la Antropolog a de Mesoam rica Y Del Centro de M xico written by Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología. Mesa Redonda and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: