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HOME :
Pre-Columbian Art :
Mayan Art : Mayan Stucco Head
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Mayan Stucco Head - CK.0688
Origin: Mesoamerica
Circa: 300
AD
to 900
AD
Dimensions:
7" (17.8cm) high
x 6" (15.2cm) wide
Collection: Pre-Columbian
Medium: Stucco
$9,900.00
Location: United States
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| Description |
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The Classic Maya period was an age of
profound intellectual and artistic
achievements, when the Maya built
monumental pyramids and magnificent urban
centers in homage to their gods. At a time
when the Western world languished after the
fall of the Roman Empire, the New World
experienced an age of imperial grandeur, when
great city-states like Tikal and Copán
proclaimed Mayan hegemony over the emerald
forests of Mexico and Guatemala. Theirs was a
sophisticated but startlingly brutal civilization—
wars were waged not for land or prestige, but
for blood, for slaves sacrificed atop the great
pyramids to appease the god’s insatiable lust
for human flesh. The Mayan world was an
arcane realm where the earth was contiguous
with the heavens and the underworld. It was
a society infused with spiritualism, a society
that reflected both the majesty and savagery
of the rain forests. Like the ancient societies of
the Mediterranean, ceramic forms were vital to
the Mayan economy and traded alongside
coveted resources such as Jade, obsidian, flint,
and shells.
The Maya believed the universe was divided
into three parts: the Over world (heaven), the
Middle world (the world of humankind), and
the Underworld (hell). All three were
considered interconnected and accessible
through "doorways", or through Shamanic
ritual. It was believed the Underworld could be
entered through a cave or through bodies of
standing water, such as a lake or ocean. To
comprehend the nature of these three worlds
and the beings that inhabit them was
important to daily life of Maya society.
Mayan art was composed of a complex
symbolic language with deeply important social
functions. Mainly commissioned by kings and
other elite figures, works of Mayan art fulfilled
both political and social purposes. Because the
art functioned as a type of language, to be
understood by the entire population, a certain
consistency in subject matter and its portrayal
was necessary. Whether on a cylinder vessel
or a great mural, Maya art essentially depicts
ritual. The impressive Maya ceremonies,
recorded for posterity in their art, were crucial
events in the lives of the kings, and
consequently important to society as a whole.
In Maya believe, an actual ritual ceremony is
directly connected with the art which
represents it; both conceived of as a power
process that transformed spiritual beings into
corporeal beings on the human level, and
allowed people and objects to become the
sacred beings they represented.
In the 9th and 10th centuries AD, the
productivity of the southern regions went into
decline for reasons that are still uncertain
(although ecological causes are the likeliest
option), although the northern areas
continued to flourish on a reduced scale until
the arrival of European forces and the
subsequent decimation of Native American
cultures across both continents. What is left,
however – particularly dating to the Classic
Period – includes art and other achievements
that many consider to be the most refined and
beautiful of the ancient New World. Stucco,
mural painting (notably with the use of “Maya
Blue”, the secret of which has been lost since
the 16th century) and sculpture were all of an
astounding quality and naturalism, with some
sophisticated expressionistic tendencies.
- (CK.0688)
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