Painted Media among the Late Classic Maya

Summary

Although no physical examples of paper books are known from the Late Classic period Maya, scholarly considerations of Maya art have consistently considered this form of painting primary: as the inspiration of—if not the direct source for—representations in other media such as murals, finely slipped pottery, or relief-carved stelae. Due to fundamental differences in scale, form, and content, however, these media more likely played rather distinct social roles. Indeed, existing materials indicate that subject matter could rarely appear in any medium, and artists approached the task of social communication in quite different ways depending on their medium. Through a comparative consideration of the various modes of Late Classic Maya visual expression, this paper will question the presumed primacy of the paper book in Late Classic Maya visual culture and seek to outline how we might deepen our understanding of an object class that is now absent.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Mesoamerican Painting: Social Memory on Virtual Display

Keywords

Spatial Coverage