Ancient Mexico. Pre-Columbian Art Galleries

Gallery 6. Art, Form, Expression


Art was present in all forms of life in Mesoamerica. From the earliest times, dance was associated to ritual, rhetoric to politics, singing to festivities, sculpture and painting to sacred spaces. The painters, the songwriters, the ceramists, were all important and respected characters in every city in Mesoamerica. Artistic traditions were linked from one region to another and from one stage to another, to form a Mesoamerican tradition where figures, themes, formulas, and favorite calligraphic lines can be distinguished.

Jade, jaguars, caves, quetzal feathers, the ruler seated on the threshold of another world ... are objects and themes of Mesoamerican art that appear in the Olmec stage and prevails until the time of the Spanish Conquest.

Unlike what happens in our time, in those days the arts were linked to each other, and it was impossible to isolate them: the sculpture was intended for a porch or patio which was decorated with paintings in the yard should be a rich clay brazier; the scents of flowers and copal should fill that space while a drum or a song were heard, while at the same time, young warriors danced in a circle in front of the door.

We can separate artistic genres to study them, but it must be understood that in Mesoamerica, art is a dimension that strengthens human reality, which consolidates the senses and provides symbolic messages of great importance. 

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Ancient Mexico. Pre-Columbian Art Galleries

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