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| Mesoamerican art | |
|---|---|
| Name | Mesoamerican art |
| Period | Pre-Columbian |
| Region | Mesoamerica |
Mesoamerican art is the visual and material culture produced by diverse pre-Columbian peoples across a region that includes parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador, and that was shaped by interactions among polities such as Olmec, Teotihuacan, Maya, Zapotec, and Aztec. Scholars trace artistic exchange through archaeological sites including San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, Monte Albán, Tikal, Palenque, Copán, and El Tajín, and by linking objects found in collections at institutions like the British Museum, the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico), and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Artistic traditions arose within complex societies such as Olmec, Epi-Olmec, Classic Veracruz, Maya, Teotihuacán, Mixtec, Zapotec, Totonac, Huastec, Toltec, Purépecha/Tarascan and Mexica/Aztec, and were connected to political centers like La Venta, Chalcatzingo, Xochicalco, Cacaxtla, Mitla, Tenochtitlan, and Tula. Ritual and elite contexts at sites such as Uxmal, Chichén Itzá, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, Palenque, and El Mirador produced ceramics, murals, reliefs, and portable objects that circulated via routes linking Gulf Coast, Pacific Coast, and highland corridors like the Balsas River and Grijalva River valleys.
Chronologies organize traditions into periods including Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic and map local florescences such as Olmec at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán and La Venta, Teotihuacán at Teotihuacán, Classic Maya at Petén Basin sites (Tikal, Palenque, Copán), and Postclassic centers like Tenochtitlan and Cholula. Regional schools—Mixtec manuscript painting from Codex Zouche-Nuttall, Zapotec tomb reliefs from Monte Albán, and Veracruz urns from El Tajín—reflect interactions among polity networks such as those centered on Tula and Cholula, and were affected by episodes like the arrival of Spanish Empire forces under Hernán Cortés.
Artists deployed materials including jadeite, obsidian, basalt, terracotta, slipware, polychrome ceramics, stucco, pigments, featherwork, gold, and copper alloys across objects ranging from stelae to codices such as the Codex Mendoza, Codex Borgia, and Codex Selden. Techniques—stone carving at Monte Albán and Copán, mural painting at Bonampak and Teotihuacán, lapidary work associated with Lamanai, and metalworking linked to Tairona and Mixtec workshops—demonstrate transfer among centers like Quiriguá, Uxmal, and Zaculeu and involve artisans documented in ethnohistoric sources including accounts by Bernal Díaz del Castillo.
Iconography encodes motifs tied to rulers, deities, and cosmology—representations of figures such as Kukulkan, Chaac, Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and the jaguar motif prominent in Olmec and Maya contexts—while emblem glyphs and calendrical signs connect to systems like the Long Count calendar and the Mesoamerican calendar system. Composite figures and scenes from murals at Bonampak, reliefs at Yaxchilan, and codical images in the Codex Borgia invoke mythic narratives and rites also recorded in texts like the Florentine Codex and linked to rulership at sites such as Tikal and Tenochtitlan.
Monumental forms—pyramids, plazas, ballcourts, and causeways—appear at urban centers including Teotihuacán, Tenochtitlan, Monte Albán, Calakmul, and Cholula alongside sculptural programs such as the colossal heads of Olmec origin at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán and La Venta, the talud-tablero facades of Teotihuacán, and shaft tomb ensembles from west Mexico. Architectural sculpture—stelae at Copán and Quiriguá, relief panels at Palenque, and chacmool figures found at Tula and Chichén Itzá—served political and ritual functions within urban grids documented by explorers like Stephens and Catherwood.
Portable regalia—headdresses of quetzal feathers, mask assemblages of jadeite and shell, and metalwork ornaments—appear in burial contexts at Monte Albán, Rio Azul, and Pakal's tomb at Palenque; musical and performative elements such as conch shell trumpets, drums, and dance costumes feature in archaeological deposits at Tenochtitlan and ethnohistoric descriptions preserved in sources like the Codex Mendoza and writings of Diego Durán. Ritual architecture accommodated ceremonies including ballgame rituals at sites like Chichén Itzá and El Tajín, and sacrificial imagery is attested in sculptural programs linked to elites at Tenochtitlan and iconographic cycles in the Codex Borgia.
Postconquest transmission occurred via collectors, missionaries, and institutions such as the Spanish Empire and later museums like the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico), shaping modern artistic revivals in regions including Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Puebla and inspiring artists such as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Rufino Tamayo, and movements in Mexican muralism. International exhibitions at venues like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and scholarly work by archaeologists including Alfonso Caso, Sylvanus G. Morley, Matthew Williams Stirling, Michael D. Coe, and Linda Schele have influenced debates about provenance, repatriation, and conservation, linking pre-Columbian material culture to contemporary discussions involving institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and legal frameworks developed after cases involving collections in the United States and Mexico.