m The Olmec were ancient Pre-Colombian people living

in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico,

m flourished during the Formative (or Preclassic) period

of Mesoamerican chronology, dating from 1200 B.C.E.
to about 400 B.C.E., and are believed to have been the
progenitor civilization of later Mesoamerican
civilizations.
m Much of their culture remains and the Olmec are
credited (at least speculatively) with many innovations
in Mesoamerica, including writing, the calendar using
zero, and the Mesoamerican ballgame prevalent in the
region.
m Olmec artforms remain in works of both monumental
statuary and small jade work.

m Much Olmec art is highly stylized and uses an

iconography reflective of a religious meaning. Some
Olmec art, however, is surprisingly naturalistic,
displaying an accuracy of depiction of human anatomy
perhaps equaled in the pre-Columbian New World only
by the best Maya Classic era art.
m Common motifs include downturned mouths and slit-
like slanting eyes, both of which are seen as
representations of "were-jaguars.´

m The Olmec used art to glorify rulers by making them

monuments of super natural creatures to portray them
such as part human, part beast. It is believed that these
monuments were annihilated after the death of the
leader.
1. The
Wrestler
Ä an ancient basalt
statuette
Ä one of the most
important sculptures
of the Olmec culture.
Ä has been praised not
only for its realism
and sense of energy,
but also for its
aesthetic qualities.
Ä fully three-
dimensional
!
„ l ssal heads

m The Olmec colossal heads are enormous heads,

wearing helmets, that were sculpted out of rock.

m They were carved from huge basalt boulders

m Carving a single head has been estimated as taking

1,500 people, about three to four months of work.
a. Cabeza olmeca (Olmec Head); La Venta Park, Villahermosa. Tabasco.
-2




b. Monumental head
from the Olmec
civilization exhibited
at the Museo Nacinal
de Antropología e
Historia, Mexico
m hardstone carvings in jade of a face in a mask form.
Curators and scholars refer to "Olmec-style" face
masks as despite being Olmec in style

m they have been recovered from sites of other cultures,

including one deliberately deposited in the ceremonial
precinct of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), which would
presumably have been about 2,000 years old when the
Aztecs buried it, suggesting these were valued and
collected as Roman antiquities were in Europe.
- Olmec-style mask from
Tabasco (Mexico).
Muséées Royaux d'Art et
d'Histoire, Brussels
(Belgium)
m a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known
fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian
Americas, as well as its art, architecture, and
mathematical and astronomical systems.

m Initially established during the Pre-Classic period (c.

2000 BC to 250 AD), according to the Mesoamerican
chronology, many Maya cities reached their highest
state development during the Classic period (c. 250 AD
to 900 AD), and continued throughout the Post-Classic
period until the arrival of the Spanish.
m Maya art is the artistic style typical of the Maya
civilization, that took shape in the course the Preclassic
period (1500 B.C. to 250 A.D.), and grew greater
during the Classic period (c. 200 to 900 AD), and went
through a Postclassic phase until the upheavals of the
sixteenth century destroyed courtly culture and put an
end to a great artistic tradition.

m Traditional art forms have mainly survived in weaving

and the design of peasant houses.
m Maya architecture is first of all the lay-out of
the impressive houses, courtyards, and temples
where the kings resided, characterised by the
immense horizontal floors of the plazas
located at various levels, and the broad and
often steep stairs connecting these. Dam-like
causeways spread from these 'ceremonial
centers' to other nuclei of habitation.
A Maya temple at Tikal
m stone, wood, stucco, and jade.
m A common form of Maya sculpture was the stela.

m The stelae almost always contain hieroglyphic texts,

which have been critical to determining the
significance and history of Maya sites.

m Another major group of stone carvings consists of

stone lintels spanning doorways and relief panels set in
the walls of buildings.
- A Maya carving
depicting a blood
sacrifice. Lintel from
Yaxchilan showing 2
elites, one standing with
a torch, the other
drawing a rope through
their tongue as a blood
sacrifice.
m Stucco sculpture adorned the facades of many buildings
and was usually painted.
- °

   
   °

  

 

  




 
 
 

m Many stone carvings had jade inlays, and there were

also ritual objects created from jade.
the death mask of
K'inich Janaab' Pakal,
ruler of Palenque. A
life-size mask created
for his corpse had
"skin" made from
jade and "eyes" made
from mother-of-pearl
and obsidian.
6 






The colourful Bonampak murals, dating from 790 B.C. and decorating the interior of a temple,
show scenes of nobility, battle, and sacrifice.
m A beautiful turquoise blue colour has survived
through the centuries due to its unique
chemical characteristics. This color, called
Maya Blue (^
), is present in
Bonampak, El Tajín Cacaxtla, Jaina, and even
in some Colonial Convents.
m Most of the decorated pottery (vases, bowls) once was
'social currency' among the Maya nobles, exchanged at
feasts and ceremonial visits, and preserved as
heirlooms; this is also the sort of ceramics which
accompanied the dead aristocracy into the grave.

m These precious objects were delicately painted, carved

into relief, incised, or show the Teotihuacan fresco

m Sculptural ceramic art includes incense burners,

particularly from the kingdom of Palenque, and hand or
mold-made figurines, sometimes used as ocarina's. The
figurines are often of an amazing liveliness and
realism.
Maya vase of the codex
style, representing a lord
of the underworld
stripped of his clothes
and headgear by the
young Maize divinity,
assisted by a midget and
a hunchback.
Terracotta, northern
Petén (Guatemala), 7th-
10th century.
m an archaeological Mesoamerican culture that
dominated a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo in the early
post-classic period of Mesoamerican chronology (ca
800-1000 CE).

m The later Aztec culture saw the Toltecs as their

intellectual and cultural predecessors and described
Toltec culture emanating from Tollan (Nahuatl for
Tula) as the epitome of civilization, indeed in the
Nahuatl language the word "Toltec" came to take on the
meaning "artisan".
An expressive
orange-ware clay
vessel in the
Toltec style.
Columns in the form of Toltec warriors in Tula.
Toltec pyramid at Tula, Hidalgo
Stucco relief at Tula, Hidalgo depicting Coyotes, Jaguars and
Eagles feasting on human hearts.
mCarved relief of a Jaguar at Tula, Hidalgo
View of the Columns of the Burned Palace at Tula Hidalgo, the second
Ballcourt is in the background
Depiction of an anthropomorphic bird-snake deity, probably
Quetzalcoatl at the Temple of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli at Tula, Hidalgo
m ethnic groups of central Mexico
m spoke the Nahuatl language

m dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th

centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in
Mesoamerican chronology.

m Aztec (^  ) is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan", a

mythological place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time,
and later adopted as the word to define the Mexica people[1].
Often the term "Aztec" refers exclusively to the Mexica people
of Tenochtitlan (now the location of Mexico City), situated on an
island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as  
 or  
 . Sometimes the term also includes
the inhabitants of Tenochtitlan's two principal allied city-states,
the Acolhuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan, who
together with the Mexica formed the Aztec Triple Alliance which
has also become known as the "Aztec Empire".
m they favored most sculptures

m Designing clothes, mainly in the upper class was

another form of art in the Aztec culture. Women
usually made the clothing, and they decorated them
with beads, flowers and precious metals. Gold was
often used for decoration, and was abundant in the
Aztec empire.
m Among the craftsmanship valued by the Aztec Indians
was art, music, poetry & tattoos.
The Aztec
Pyramid at St.
Cecilia
Acatitlan,
Mexico State.
Pendant-mask
associated to the
rituals of Aztec
god Xipe Totec.
Stone, Mexico
Valley, 15th
century±before
1521.
Large ceramic statue of an
Aztec eagle warrior exhibited
at the Museo Nacional de
Antropología e Historia,
México
Aztec feather headdress attributed to Moctezuma II exhibited at the
Museo Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México
The Aztec "Calendar Stone". Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico
City.
Aztec statue of
Coatlicue, the earth
goddess from the
Museo Nacional de
Antropología in
Mexico City.
Two-headed turquoise serpent which was probably used as a chest
ornament during ceremonial occasions. It is made of carved wood
covered with turquioise, with red and white shell being used for the
mouth and eyes. It was likely created in Mixtec areas under Aztec control
between 1400 and 1521.
Turquoise mask.
Mixtec-Aztec.
1400-1521.