Art of the Maya Scribe
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.23 (785 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0810919885 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-08-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
& 280 illus. (117 in color), 1 map, folio.. 240 pp
"Gorgeous pictures and illuminating writing" according to Craig Matteson. This is an amazingly beautiful book both visually and because of the way the articles accompanying these glorious pictures illuminate our understanding of the role of the scribe in the Mayan culture and how they worked. The images provided are simply exquisite and well chosen. It is impossible for me to flip to a page and not learn or see something new even after owning this book and looking at it for several years. There is just so much here that even as your eyes become familiar with it, you begin to see more deeply into it.The authors show us how the writing developed, matu. "Brilliant Deciphering of Mayan Calligraphy" according to Chris Matthews. Many calligraphic traditions, such as Egyptian, East Asian, Islamic, and Western European, have been long studied and are generally well understood. However, much less attention has been given to Mayan calligraphy (from the South Americas). This magnificent book seeks to rectify the imbalance with an insightful, well written account of not only the meaning of Mayan calligraphy, but also its remarkable aesthetics.The Mayans seem to have written on everything: seashells, jaguar skins, walls, rocks, wood, pottery, dishes, vases, caves, etc. The book beautifully reproduces and dec. An exceptional look at the world of the Maya artist. Sumptuous, a true visual feast, Michael Coe's foray into the world of the Maya artist reveals the talents and personalities of the Maya scribes. Lushly illustrated by Justin Kerr, the world's foremost photographer of Precolumbian art, this coffeetable-style book looks at what scholars understand about the individuals who created the Maya's sculptural and painted repertoir. Coe brings his knowledge of hieroglyphic writing to bear on this previously little-known subject, revealing the names and titles of Maya artists and other significant facts. Following in the tradition of his
The Classic Maya period lasted from about A.D. Mythical characters appear, but mostly as part of paintings that represent actual historical figures, their places in the rich dreamworld of the Maya as well as where they rank in the pecking order of their cities indicated by fantastic headdresses. Although the Olmecs in Mexico were the first in the hemisphere to have writing, the Maya, according to the authors, were "the only pre-conquest people in the New World to have a writing system sophisticated enough to express anything that was in their language." Maya writing, carved on stones such as jade, traced on pottery or painted on walls, deals almost exclusively with historical events--notably the constant wars waged between the city-states. 900, and its cities included Palenque in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala and Copan in Honduras. The authors mostly manage to keep the discussion accessible to the lay reader, but occasionally they do veer off into territory where only linguists would f