Ancient

American Art
Olmec Art. Mayan Art. Toltec Art. Aztec Art.

Isabel Teotico 1AD-7

 OLMEC
CiVILIZATIO
N
1500 BCE – 400 BCE
Olmec - a Pre-Columbian civilization in
south-central Mexico.

*Flourished during Mesoamerica’s

Formative period.

*Laid many of the foundations for the

civilizations that followed. 

*Olmec first practiced ritual

bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican
ballgame.
*Most familiar aspect of the Olmecs is
their artwork, particularly the colossal
heads. 

*Olmec artworks are considered among

ancient America's most striking and
beautiful, and among the world's
masterpieces.
OLMEC ART

*Colossal heads. 

*Olmec artworks considered among

ancient America's most striking and
beautiful, and among the world's
masterpieces.

*Olmec culture was first defined as an

art style.
*Used a large number of media: jade,
clay, basalt, and greenstone, etc;

*Reveals fantastic anthropomorphic

creatures.

*Highly stylized, using an iconography

reflective of a religious meaning.

*Motifs include downturned mouths

and a cleft head, both of which are seen
in representations of were-jaguars
*Adept at animal portrayals.
Stone monuments - Most recognizable
feature of Olmec culture.

Four classes of monuments:

Colossal heads - theorized to

be ballplayers >Accepted as portraits of
rulers, perhaps dressed as ballplayers;
made from basalt

Rectangular "altars" (more likely

thrones)
Free-standing in-the-round sculpture,
such as the twins from.

Stelae - introduced later than the

colossal heads, altars, or free-standing
sculptures. Moved from simple
representation of figures toward
representations of historical events.
OLMEC CULTURE

Bloodletting and sacrifice speculations

•No explicit representation of

Olmec bloodletting in the archaeological
record, there is nonetheless a strong case
that the Olmecs ritually practiced it.

•Instituted human sacrifice is significantly

more speculative.

 
•No Olmec or Olmec-influenced
sacrificial artifacts have yet been
discovered and there is no Olmec or
Olmec-influenced artwork that
unambiguously shows sacrificial victims.

Writing

•First civilization in the Western

Hemisphere to develop a writing system.
Dating to 650 BCE and 900 BCE 
Mesoamerican ballgame

•Olmec "rubber people" in

the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs are
strong candidates for originating
the Mesoamerican ballgame so
prevalent among later cultures of the
region and used for recreational and
religious purposes.
 "The Wrestler"
an Olmec era statuette
1200 – 800 BCE.
 Colossal Heads
Left: Monument 6, San Lorenzo
Tenochtitlan
Right:Monument 1, one of the four
Olmec colossal heads at La Venta. This
one is nearly 3 metres (9 ft) tall.
 Animal Portrayal
Left:Fish Vessel, 12th–9th century BCE.
Height: 6.5 inches (16.5 cm).
Right:Bird Vessel, 12th–9th century BCE
HollowBaby
white ware figurine
probably produced in
southern Puebla.
"Olmec-style" face mask
in jade
Altar 5 from La Venta. The inert were-jaguar baby held by
the central figure is seen by some as an indication of child
sacrifice. In contrast, its sides show bas-reliefs of humans
holding quite lively were-jaguar babies.
Las Limas Monument 1,
considered an important
realisation of Olmec
mythology. The youth
holds a were-jaguar infant,
while four iconic
supernaturals are incised
on the youth's shoulders
and knees
The jade Kunz Axe, first
described by George Kunz in
1890. Although shaped like an
axe head, with an edge along
the bottom, it is unlikely that
this artifact was used except in
ritual settings. At a height of 11
in (28 cm), it is one of the
largest jade objects ever found
in Mesoamerica.
 MAYAN
CIVILIZATION
1500 B.C. to 250 A.D.
MAYA CIVILIZATION

•Noted for the only known fully

developed written language, its art, architecture,
and mathematical and astronomical systems.

•Established during the Pre-Classic period (c.

2000 BC to 250 AD)
•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.

•Shares many features with other

Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high
degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that
characterized the region.
•Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and
the calendar did not originate with the Maya;
fully developed them.

•Outside influences are found in Maya art and

architecture, result from trade and cultural
exchange rather than direct external conquest.
MAYA ART

•Most sophisticated and beautiful of the

ancient New World.

•Carvings and the reliefs made of stucco

Showing a grace and accurate observation of
the human form

•Hints of the advanced painting of the classic

Maya;

 
•Mostly what has survived
are funerary pottery and other Maya ceramics,

•Ancient murals that survived by chance. A

beautiful turquoise blue color that has
survived through the centuries due to its
unique chemical characteristics is known as
Maya Blue or Azul maya

•The use of Maya Blue survived until the 16th

century when the technique was lost. 
•Maya architecture spans many thousands of
years

•Most dramatic and easily recognizable as

Maya are the stepped pyramids

•Cave sites that are important to the Maya.

•Built flat limestone plains/ used Limestones

•Required abundant manpower.

•Remaining materials seem to have been

readily available.
Ceremonial platforms - limestone platforms;
less than four meters; accented by carved
figures

Palaces - highly decorated; close to the center

of a city

E-Groups - complexes are oriented and aligned

according to specific astronomical events;
observatories; accompanied
by iconographic reliefs 
Pyramids and temples - religious temples sat
atop the towering Maya pyramids; extensive
use of pyramids as tombs; contain burials.

Observatories - keen astronomers and had

mapped out the phases of celestial objects;
doorways and other features aligning to
celestial events; Round temples

Ball courts - were constructed throughout the

Maya realm and often on a grand scale
WRITING SYSTEM

Combination of phonetic symbols
and logograms.

10,000 individual texts have so far been

recovered inscribed on stone monuments,
lintels, stelae and ceramic pottery.

The Maya also produced texts painted on a

form of paper 
Writing was done with brushes made with
animal hair and quills. Codex-style writing
was done in black ink with red highlights;
land of red and black.
Left: Temple of the Cross atPalenque; there is
an intricate roof comb and corbeled arch
Right: The ruins of Palenque
 <Ballcourt at Tikal,
Guatemala

North Acropolis,
Tikal, Guatemala>
Right: Maya mask. Stucco frieze
from Placeres, Campeche.
Left: A stucco relief
from Palenque depicting Upakal
K'inich
 TOLTEC
CIVILIZATION
 800-1000 CE
TOLTEC CIVILIZATION

•Dominated (ca 800-1000 CE).

• Aztec culture saw the Toltecs as their

intellectual and cultural predecessors
and Nahuatl language the word
"Toltec" came to take on the meaning
"artisan".
•"Toltecatl" (Toltec) was originally used
by the Nahua which means a nomadic
hunter-gatherer Mixteca-Puebla style of
iconography; The existence any
meaning of the Mixteca-Puebla art style
has also been questioned.

•Toltec art is characterized by walls

covered with snakes and skulls, images
of a reclining Chac-mool (red jaguar),
and the colossal statues of the Atlantes,
men carved from great columns
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 feastin
g on human hearts.
Depiction of an anthropomorphic bird-snake deity,
probably Quetzalcoatl at the Temple of Tlahuizcal
pantecuhtli at Tula, Hidalgo
View of the Columns of the Burned Palace at
Tula Hidalgo, the second Ballcourt is in the
background
 AZTEC
CIVILIZATION
14th, 15th and 16th centuries
AZTEC CIVILIZATION

•Ethnic groups of Mexico

•Aztec culture had rich and

complex mythological and religious
traditions; remarkable architectural and
artistic accomplishments.
AZTEC ART

•Song and poetry were highly

regarded; presentations and poetry
contests at Aztec festivals.

•Dramatic presentations that

included players, musicians and
acrobats.
•Remarkable amount of this poetry
survives, having been collected
during the era of the conquest.

•"Poetry" was in xochitl in cuicatl a

dual term meaning "the flower and
the song" and was divided into
different genres.
City-building and architecture

•City plan was based on a

symmetrical layout that was divided
into four city sections called campans.

•City was interlaced with canals

which were useful for transportation
The Aztec Pyramid at St. Cecilia Acatitlan, Mexico
State.
Aztec jade mask
depicting the god Xipe
Totec.
Large ceramic statue of an
Aztec Eagle Warrior
Aztec cosmogram in
the pre-Hispanic
Codex Fejérváry-
Mayer - the fire god
Xiuhtecuhtli is in the
center.
Up: Jaguar warrior, from
the Codex
Magliabechiano

Down: Aztec feather

headdress, often described
as the crown
of Moctezuma II its actual
owner is unknown, but the
feathers must have been
brought from tropical
rainforest areas far away
from the Aztec capital.
The Aztec Sun Stone, also known as the Aztec Calendar Stone,
The Aztec goddess
of Coatlicue, mother of
earth
Human sacrifice as
shown in the Codex
Magliabechian
A painting from Codex
Mendoza showing elder
Aztecs being given
intoxicants
This ornament features a turquoise mosaic on a carved wooden
base, with red and white shells used for the mouths. Probably worn
across the chest, this ornament measures 20 by 43 cm (8 by 17in).
It was likely created by Mixtec artisans from an Aztec tributary
state. 1400–1521, from the British Museum
Turquoise mask.
Mixtec-Aztec. 1400–
1521
A painting of Tlaloc, as
shown on page 20R
of Codex Rios