CH 14-NATIVE ARTS OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE 1300 DAVINA LAM, SAMANTHA FARNSWORTH, JONATHAN LU, MONG HIM NG.

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SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURES

• Chavin culture• Large stone complexes which were decorated with detailed steles

and stone figures of human-animal hybrids

• Paracas (400 BCE-200 CE)• Famous for its cotton weavings with designs unique to its people• Used over 150 colors

• Nasca (200 BCE-600 CE)• Named after Nasca River valley• Heavily influenced by Paracas style• Renowned for ceramic vessels with varying designs• Known for their art on the Nasca plain

SOUTH AMERICAN CULTURES

• Moche (1 CE-700 CE)• Famous for their clay sculptures and unique plat-bottomed, stirrup-spouted jars• Influenced by Chaven prototypes• Characterized by their odd designs

• Tiwanaku (100 CE-1000 CE)• Known for its large ceremonial temple centers• made by with different materials and carved with repeating patterns and

designs• Reliefs colorfully painted, might have been lined with precious materials (ex:

gold, turquoise)

• Wari (500CE-800 CE) • Characterized by abstract art and designs• Often painted or weaved in continuous patterns with slight variations• Figures unrecognizable

• Mayan temples had rigid, clean-cut edges and walls rather than curved rounded figures like in Greek temples.

• Mayan temples were made to honor powerful leaders as well as respected gods.

• Ex: Temple I in Tikal, Guatemala, was a massive shrine dedicated to the ruler Hasaw Chan K’awiil, who died in 732 BCE

MAYAN CULTURE

Right: Aerial view of the Castillo, Maya, Chichén Itzá, Mexico, ca 800-900

MAYAN CULTURE

• Large steles in honor of great rulers• ex: Stele D in Copan of the Honduras• Less proportional• Those of power covered in very elaborate clothing

• Mayan paintings• very bright, defining colors in contrast to cooler backgrounds• Humans depicted fairly realistically, powerful ones wore complex

garments• Gods and goddesses portrayed with detailed patterned robes and

masks

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This was found at Teotihuacan, Mexico. It is pigments over clay and plaster. It most likely depicts a goddess, since it is wearing a jade mask and a large feathered headdress

NORTH AMERICAN CULTURES

• Ancestral Puebloans, or Anasazi, emerged around 200 AD but it reached its peak around 1000 AD• Their culture and masterful building skills are revealed by ruins of

pueblos (urban settlements)• A good example is the Cliff Palace in the Mesa Verde in

southwestern Colorado. Its location allowed for a warm winter and a cool summer

• Kivas are circular semi-subterranian structures. These were once roofed, and people entered their home through a hole in the flat roof

• These people slowly evolved into the modern Puebloan people of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah

NORTH AMERICAN CULTURES

• The Adena were the first great mound builders of north America

• The Mississippian culture, which emerged around 80AD, surpassed them in size and complexity of mounds• The grandest was the Monk’s Mound, which is 100 feet tall and

thought to have at one point been an observatory, due to its alignment with the sun

• The Mississippians also constructed effigy mounds, or mounds built in the form of animals or birds

CERAMIC TRADITIONS OF AMERICAN CULTURES• West Mexico• Highly burnished red-orange• Small-scale clay narrative scenes

• Jiana• small-scale freestanding figures in the round• Remarkably lifelike• Wider range of human types of activities than on regular Mayan

stele• Painted with “Maya blue”-combination of clay and vegetable dye

• Nasca• Vases usually have round bottoms, double spouts• Subjects vary greatly

CERAMIC TRADITIONS OF AMERICAN CULTURES• Moche• Illustrated architecture, metallurgy, weaving, the brewing of chichi,

sexual acts, human deformities and diseases• Predominantly flat-bottomed, stirrup-spouted jars• Decorated with a bichrome-two colored slip• Early ones made by hand, later made by molds

• Mimbres• Renowned for its black-on-white painted bowls• Range from lively an complex geometric patterns to abstract

pictures of humans, animals, and composite mythological beings• Made out of coils of clay• Mimbres potters may have been women

• The Eskimoan people migrated to North America by the Bering Strait.• They carved human and animal figures at a small

scale. It reflects their nomadic lifestyle.

ESKIMOAN AND EARLY NATIVE AMERICAN WOODLANDS ARTISTS

OLMEC AND PRE-CLASSIC WEST MEXICO

• The Olmec culture has often been called the “mother culture” of Mesoameric because many distinctive Mesoamerican religious, social and artistic traditions can be traced to it.

• Most of the people were farmers who scattered in hinterland villages, which provided the sustenance for the non-farming people, which constituted a hereditary caste of rulers, priests, functionaries, and artisans, who lived in precinct(area within walls) that served ceremonial, administrative, and residential function.

• West Mexico(the west coast area of Mexico) is known for clay sculpture.

o most of what’s known about them derived from grave robbers’ items

o ceramic figures are usually red-orange

TEOTIHUACAN

• a city northeast of modern mexico city that is 9 miles squared and had pyramid and cemetery

• construction adopted the patterns of alternation of sloping(talud) and vertical(tablero) rubble layer

• murals abounded walls of building and streets, mostly depicted deities, ritual activities, and procession of priests, warriors, and even animals.

o pigments on smooth lime-plaster surface coated with clay

• murals had characteristics of human sacrifice essential to agricultural renewal

COMPARATIVE ART ANALYSIS

B R I D G E - S P O U T E D V E S S E L W I T H F L Y I N G F I G U R E S

A C H I L L E S A N D A J A X P L A Y I N G A D I S C G A M E

COMPARATIVE ART ANALYSIS CONTINUED

B R I D G E - S P O U T E D V E S S E L W I T H F L Y I N G F I G U R E S

• Mostly warm color

• Mostly focused on head of figure

• Mouth of jar is two spouts

• Shape is round and thicker at bottom

A C H I L L E S A N D A J A X P L A Y I N G A D I C E G A M E A M P H O R A

• Has two handles

• Mouth is round opening on top

• Has a base

• More contrasted color, strong emphasis on subject

• Adopted black –figure scheme

• Both used to contain liquid• Both have subject matter on mythological creatures or

entities• In both, figures induce tension or un-naturalness onto the

subject