Unit 5 - Art of Indigenous Americas Flashcards
Chavin de Huantar: Identifiers
Location: Peru
Date: 900-200 BCE
Chavin de Huantar: Form Old Temple
• Built by Chavin people (pre date Inca)
• Old temple: built 900 BCE, inward facing U shape with central court
* obelisks & stone monuments w/ low relief carvings
* maze of passageways, chambers & water conduits
Chavin de Huantar: Form New Temple
• constructed between 500 and 200 BCE
• relief sculptures more block life form
• long staircase led to upper landing
• below- sunken rectangular court
• hidden passageways & platforms allowed priests to miraculously appear before audiences
Chavin de Huantar: Function Lanzon Stela
• to honor a god: likely to ensure good harvest
• Lanzon means ‘great spear’ but likely refers to an agricultural tool, not a weapon
Chavin de Huantar: Function Nose Ornament
- nose ornament: septum piercing, common in the Andes
- upward looking eyes: shows wealth, power, and allegiance to Chavin religion
- formed by hammering and cutting gold
- transforms wearer into supernatural being during ceremonies
Chavin de Huantar: Content
• Lanzon: deity, human & animal features, fangs and talons (jaguar + caiman), eyebrows & hair made up of snakes
• deliberately confusing
• contour rivalry: 2 faces sharing one mouth
Chavin de Huantar: Context
• Andean Highlands of Peru: 10,330 ft. in elevation
• Near 2 mountains that allow passage between desert coast (west) & Amazon jungle (East): 2 rivers join into one, seen as powerful phenomenon
• chavin declined in 200 BCE: site influenced many people 700 years, worshippers & spread artistic style
Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings: Identifiers
Style: Anasazi
Location: Colorado
Date: 450-1300 CE
Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings: Form
• 1.62 miles above sea level
• made of stone, mortar, and plaster
• largest archaeological site in US: over 600 dwellings - 3 to 4 stories high
• logs build into walls to make beams for ceilings - access floors through ladders
• mostly built during 12th century
• climb cliff walls using toe holds
Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings: Function
- pueblo built into sides of a cliff, housed 100 people
- largest: cliff palace: 150 circular rooms, 20 circular rooms
- house organized around Kivas: wood-beamed roof, roof supported by 6 engaged support columns of masonry, shelf-like bench, fire pit/hearth, ventilation shaft, deflector, sipapu
- clans moved together for mutual support and defense
Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings: Content
- mural 30 red against white wall theory:
- geometric shapes represent landscape
- red band at bottom is earth
- white represents sky
- top of red band forms horizontal line that separates sky and earth
- triangle peaks are mountains
- rectangle in sky: clouds, rain, sun, or moon
- dotted lines represent cracks in earth
Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings: Context
- farming done on the plateau above pueblo; everything had to be imported into structure; water seeped through sandstone and collected in trenches near reaer of structure
- low winter sun penetrated pueblo; high summer sun did not enter interior, stayed cool
Anasazi
○ Inhabited from 450 CE-1300 CE
○ Sedentary farmers – beans,
squash, corn
○ Trade amongst many different
groups, extending down into
Modern day Mexico
○ Abandoned in 1300
■ Drought
● Mesa Verde means Green Table
● Rediscovery in 1888
○ Preservation for tourism
■ Mesa Verde National Park
Yaxchilan- Structure 40: Form
- overlooks main plaza
- 3 doors lead to a central room decorated with stucco
- roof remains nearly intact, with a larger roof comb
- ## corbel arch interior
Lanzon Stone: Function
- served as cult figure
- center of pilgrimage however few had access to it
- stone acted as oracle? point of pilgrimage
- importance of acoustics in underground chamber
Relief Sculpture: Content
- shows jaguars in shallow relief
- located on ruins of stairway at Chavin
Nose ornament: Context
- elite men and women wore ornaments as emblems of their ties to religion and eventually buried with them
- chavin religion related to appearance of fire large-scale precious metal objects; new metallurgical process
- technical innovations express whole other nature of religion
Yaxchilan- Structure 40: Identifiers
Style: Mayan
Location: Mexico
Date: 725 CE
Yaxchilan- Structure 40: Form
- 3 doors led to central room decorated with stucco
- overlooks main plaza
- roof remains intact, large roof comb (ornamented stone tops on roofs)
- corbel arch interior
- narrow, not meant to hold many people
- intricate lattice work
- carved lintels on underside of doorways
- painted: remnants of blue and red, very detailed
Yaxchilan- Structure 40: Function
*advertise Bird Jaguar IV power dynastic lineage and thus right to rule
*built by ruler Bird Jaguar IV for his son, who dedicated it to him
Yaxchilan- Lintel 25: Content
- bloodletting: loss of blood + burning incense = hallucinations, desired to gain access to other realm
- Lady Xook kneels before a vision serpent from whose mouth emerges a figure, commemorate husbands rise to throne
- holds a bowl w/ ceremonial items, runs a rope with thorns through her tongue, burns paper on a dish as gift to netherworld
- commemorate accession of Shield Jaguar II to the throne
Lintel 25: Function
- honor and feed the gods
keep order in cosmos - act of rebirth
- intended to relay a message of refoundation of site– long pause in buildings history
- Shield Jaguars building program throughout city may have been a attempt to reinforce his lineage and right to rule
Great Serpent Mound: Identifers
Style: Mississippian
Location: Ohio
Date: 1070 CE
Great Serpent Mound: Form
- southwest ohio
1300 ft. long, 1-3 ft. in height - largest serpent effigy
- not the only one ever made
Great Serpent Mound: Function
- atypical, no artifacts
- burials nearby
- no evidence to suggest Gr. Serpent Mound is for burial
- used to mark seasons, time, when to harvest? Lunar phases? compass or Halley’s comet?
Great Serpent Mound: Content
- head is at east and tail at west
- 7 winding coils
- oval shape?: enlarged eye, hollow egg, frog about to be swallowed, appendages??? no one knows
- head aligns with summer solstice, tail points to winter solstice sunrise
Great Serpent Mound: Context
- many mounds enlarged and changed over the years
- effigy mounds popular in Mississippian culture
associated with snakes and crop fertility - whoever built it: settled people, maize, beans, squash, stratified society, labor force, no written records
Templo Mayor: Identifers
Style: Aztec
Location: Mexico
Date: 1375 - 1520 CE
Templo Mayor Reconstruction Main Temple: Form
- pyramids built one atop the other, final form encases all previous pyramids
- step-like series of setbacks, no smooth surfaced
- covered in stucco
*2 grand staircases leading to twin temples: dedicated to deities, water/rain - agricultural fertility, patron deity of Mexico- warfare, fire , sun
Templo Mayor Reconstruction: Function
- Tlaloc Temple: North, Mountain of Sustenance, or Tonacatepetl, produced high amounts of rain, thereby allowing crops to grow, Tlaloc = god of rain, agriculture
- Huitzilopochtli Temple: South, symbolic of Coatepec, god of sun and war
Templo Mayor Reconstruction: Context
- Tenochtitlan laid out on grid, city seen as center of world 1325
- modern day Mexico City, Island in Texcoco
- Templo Mayor rebuilt 6 times 1325-1519, corresponded with different rulers, destroyed by Spanish in 1520
- destruction of temple and reuse of stones by Spanish asserted political and spiritual dominance over conquered civilization
- 4 major quadrants: Templo Mayor at center, reflects Mexica cosmos (4 parts around navel of universe axis mundi)
- electrical workers discover in 1978
Templo Mayor- Coyolxauhqui: Form
- found at base of stairs
- originally painted, carved in low , circular relief, 11 ft. in diameter
- “bells on her cheeks” - golden bells on her cheeks - how it was named
Templo Mayor: Coyolxauhqui: Function
- portrays moment in myth after Huitzilopochtli vanquished Coyolxauhqui and threw her body down the mountain
Templo Mayor: Coyolxauhqui: Content
- Female deity
- feathers in hair, elaborate earrings, sandals and bracelets
- serpent belt w/ skull attached to back
- monster faces found at joints - connect to other deities- trouble & chaos
- naked, sagging breasts, stretched belly: mother
- decapitated & dismembered
Templo Mayor- Coyolxauhqui: Context
- coyolxauhqui and brother plotted death of their mother, Coatlicue- became pregnant after tucking feathers down bosom
- coyolxauhqui chopped off mother’s head, child Huitzilopochtli, popped out of severed body fully grown, clothed- dismembered Coyolxauhqui, who fell dead at base of shrine
- stone represents dismembered moon goddess, Coyolxauhqui, who is placed at base of twin pyramids of Tenochtitlan
Coyolxauhqui: Context Cont.
- celebrated Huitzilopochtli’s triumph over Coyolxauhqui and 400 brothers
- War captives: painted blue and killed on sacrificial stone, bodies rolled down staircase to fall atop Coyolxauhqui monolith
- reenact myth: for enemies powerful reminder to submit to Mexica authority
Templo Mayor- Calendar Stone: Form + Function
- monolith
- 12 ft. in diameter
- originally painted
- placed on the ground
Function: to mark time using cultural symbols
Templo Mayor- Calendar Stone: Content
- in center - face - Tonatiuh, Sun God: represents origin of cosmos, wearing ear spools, open mouth- tongue represents a sacrificial blade, clawed hands may hold human heart
- record of 5 eras or suns: 5th era called “four movement”
- 2 fire serpents meet at bottom carrying sun across sky, associated with time/solar calendar
Templo Mayor- Calendar Stone: Context
- made by 2 gods agreeing to sacrifice themselves: sun brought into creation by 2 gods sacrificing themselves
- gods killed themselves willingly, that humans need to be feeding through offering: animals, bloodletting, humans
- aztecs felt they needed to fee sun god humans hearts an blood
- tongue at center of stones coming from gods mouth is a representation of sacrificial flint knife used to slash open victims
Templo Mayor- Olmec-style Mask: Form
- made of jadeite
- made over 1000 years prior to Mexica/Aztec
- simplified facial features: pronounced nose, full lips, thin slits for eyes
Templo Mayor- Olmec-style Mask: Function
- burial suggests Mexica found it precious and historically significant
- olmecs known for 20 ton stone heads represented rulers
also knows for making and trading rubber
Templo Mayor- Olmec-style Mask: Context
- offerings buried at Templo Mayor: water (coral, shells, crocodile skeletons, vessels) and sacrifice (human skull masks, sacrificial knives)
- shows aztecs collected and embraced artwork from other cultures, including early Mexican cultures such as Olmec and Teotihuacan, shows aztecs had a wide ranging merchant network that traded historical items
Ruler’s feather headdress: Identifiers
Style: Aztec
Location: Mexico
Date: 1428 - 1520 CE
Ruler’s feather headdress: Form + Function + Content
Form: made up of more than 450 male quetzal tail feathers, males produce only 2 feathers each
* number 400 symbolizes eternity
Function: Ceremonial headdress of ruler
* part of an elaborate costume
Content: pure gold ornaments
Ruler’s feather headdress: Context
- only known Aztec feather headdress in the world
- feathers indicate trading across Aztec Empire
- headdress possibly part of a collection of artifacts given by Motecuhzoma to Cortez for Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire
- replica- Mexico City: original is in Vienna
- amanteca- feather workers taken to create Christian art for Spanish
City of Cusco: Identifiers
Style: Inkan
Location: Peru
Date: 1440
City of Cusco Plan: Form
- in the shape of puma, a royal animal
- modern plaza in place where puma’s belly would be
- head, a fortress; heart, a central square
- capital of empire, 11200 ft. elevation
- 2 section: upper (hana) and lower (hurin), parallel to social division, then divided into 4 sections
- each made of stone to fit
City of Cusco- Saqsa Wayman: Form
*stones much larger than those used in Cusco
* part built by mit’a (labor tax), all able-bodied people of empire owed Inka
* ashlar masonry
* ramparts contain stones weighing up to 70 tons, brought from quarry 2 miles away
City of Cusco- Qorikancha: Function
- “golden house”
- most sacred shrine: worship of sun “inti” : Qorikancha: golden enclosure once was the most important temple in the Inkan world
- in the hurin (lower part of city)
- at center point of empire
City of Cusco- Saqsa Wayman: Function
- fortress that looks down on city of Cusco
- never finished, building interrupted by conquest?
- unsure of function
City of Cusco- Curved Wall and Church: Function
- religious and secular uses
- girls and young women worked as acallas (chosen women) weave cloth for gods and nobles
- young men- educated and raised in Inca culture
City of Cusco- Qorikancha: Content
- fine masonry reserved for most important buildings
- walls covered with sheets of gold
- inside was garden that represented mini world: gold, silver jewels, people, animals, plants
- spacing among stones allows for movement during earthquakes
City of Cusco- Qorikancha: Context
- Spanish conquest: Qorikancha changed into Christian monastery of Santo Domingo, build around and on top of original shrine
- melted down metals of mini garden
- placed at convergence of 4 main highways and connected to 4 districts of empire; temple cemented symbolic importance of religion, uniting divergent cultural practices that were observed in vast territory controlled by Inkas
Silver and Gold Maize Cobs: Identifiers
Style: Incan
Location: Peru
Date: 1440 - 1553 CE
Silver and Gold Maize Cobs: Form
- repousse technique
- hollow and delicate
- lifesize
- individual kernels shows corn ready to be harvested but still in husk
Silver and Gold Maize Cobs: Function
- garden - offering to ensure successful harvest
- full-sized metal sculptures placed alongside actual plants in Qorikancha garden
- part of compact version of cosmos controlled by Inca State
- symbolizes natural world is a possession of Inca, divine right to rule across Andes
- vast range of ecosystems encompassed by empire
- plants and animals in golden garden could not have grown and survived at every level of empire only at specific altitudes
- maize = one of the most important foods, principal food source in the Andes
Silver and Gold Maize Cobs: Content
- gardens in courtyards of important temples
- mini llamas, corn, flowers, etc.
- Inca art favored abstract, geometric + naturalistic small scale metal objects
Silver and Gold Maize Cobs: Context
- spanish desired gold and silver
- after defeat of Inca in 1530s Spanish raided and looted objects & sent them back to Spain
- maize was celebrated by having sculptures fashioned out of sheet metal
- black maize was common in Peru; oxidized silver reflects that
Machu Picchu: Identifiers
Style: Incan
Location: Peru
Date: 1450-1540
Machu Picchu: Form
- overlooks Urubamba River
- 3 days walk from Cusco 8000 ft. high
- system of stone channel drains: rain and spring water, channelled into stone fountains, one outside of the door of emperor’s compound
Machu Picchu: Content
*each stone individually carved to fit
* earthquake proof
* thatched roof
* 200 buildings, mostly houses, temples, palaces, and baths and observatory in trapezoidal shape
* entryways and windows trapezoidal
* people farmed on terraces
Machu Picchu: Function
- royal estate/retreat for first Inca emperor Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui: hosts feasts, perform religious ceremonies, administer affairs of empire, marked land for family after death
- housing for elite, retainers, maint. staff, religious shrines, fountains, terraces 15th century Inka rulers
- peaceful center, remote, prob not sued for administrative purposes in Inkan world
Machu Picchu: Context
- discovery 1911 yale professor hiram binham iii
- covered by jungle but known to locals, he excavated it
- emperor would only reside and site for part of year like beach houe
- show of imperial power
NE- high status residences
SW- emperor’s compound
Machu Picchu Observatory: Form
- 2 parts: upper curve stone enclosure w/ windows and niches
- june winter solstice- white granite boulder
- first morning rise of constellation Pleiades
- cave beneath with niches: refer to place of underworld
- highest point at Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu Observatory: Function
- used to chart sun’s movements; aka Temple of the Sun
- left windows: sun shines through on morning of winter solstice
*right windows: sun shines through on morning of summer solstice - devoted to sun god
- adjacent to royal residence
- ruler claimed to be both descendant of sun and sun itself: divine right to rule, obligation of royal family- perform rituals that maintained relationships w/ supernatural forces that drove existence
- emperor and family involved in religious function of empire
Machu Picchu Intihuatana Stone
- hitching post of sun: aligns with sun at spring and autumn equinoxes, when sun stands directly over pillar creates no shadow
- Incan ceremonies held in concert with this event
- carved boulder once found throughout Inca empire, only remaining
- inca believed stone held the sun
All-T’oqapu Tunic: Identifers
Style: Incan
Location: Peru
Date: 1450-1540 CE
All-T’oqapu Tunic: Form
- spun finely, 100 thread/cm
*single piece of cloth
*slit in the middle for head, folded in half and sides sewn for arms
*use animal wool for bright colors, easier to dye (alpaca) - cochineal red and indigo blue: very high status and prized, high level of skill
All-T’oqapu Tunic: Function
- royal gifts: to be worn by royal household, burned as a precious sacrifice to sun god Inti
- wearing elaborate garment indicates status of individual
- may have been worn by Inkan ruler
All-T’oqapu Tunic: Content
- black and white checkerboard: tunic pattern worn by Inca army, shows Sapa Inca military might
- T’oqapu are square geometric designs
- some designs related to various people, places or roles
All-T’oqapu Tunic: Context
- Textiles: very important before Inca came to power
- more valuable than gold or gems
- many different patterns
- fibers collected as part of tax system
- acallas- chosen women performed religious rituals
*Qompi- finest cloth - Inca preference for abstract designs, standardization of designs, expression of unity and order
Bandolier Bag: Identifers
Style: Delaware Tribe
Location: Lenape
Date: 1850 CE
Bandolier Bag: Form
- heavily beaded pouch with slit on top
- held at hip level with strap across chest Crossbody
- constructed of trade cloth cotton, wool, velvet, or leather
- colorful beads, silk ribbons, red wool fringe
- made by women
- animal hide
- porcupine quills
*trade w/ europeans influenced
Bandolier Bag: Function
- made for men and women; objects of prestige
- compliment to ceremonial outfits, status symbol
- more than 1 bag at a time
- still worn today
Bandolier Bag: Content
- abstract, symmetrical
- white beads acted as contour lines, contrasting colors- celestial meaning maybe cardinal directions
Bandolier Bag: Context
- beadwork not done in Americans before European contact
- beads and silk ribbons imported from Europe
- bags contained Native American and European motifs
Transformation Mask: Identifiers
Style: Kwakwaka’wakw
Location: Canada
Date: 1875 CE
Transformation Mask: Form
- brightly painted
- metal tools changed form
- bilaterally symmetrical
- red cedar wood
- months/years to make
- birdlike exterior face; when opened, reveals a second human face on interior
Transformation Mask: Function
- display social status/rank
- family symbols
- ancestral entities + supernatural forces embody masks when worn by dancers
- worn by native people of Pacific Northwest, centered on Vancouver Island
- worn overhead as part of a complete body costume
Transformation Mask: Content
- trickster supernaturals: knowledge to disobey conventions
- thunderbird- can cause thunder w/ wings and lighting from eyes, can become human
- during ritual performance, wearer open and closes mask using strings, mask reveals face of ancestor
Transformation Mask: Context
- modern day Canada
- could be used at potlatch, often used in winter initiation rites ceremonies
- Kwakwaka’wakw: 4 clans; killer whale, raven, eagle, wolf, clans divided into groups- numayn- share common ancestor
Transformation Mask: Context Cont.
- colonization caused mask to change- metal tools
- potlatches banned 1885-1950
- considered immoral by Christian missionaries
- canadian govt. though this hindered economic development b/c people stopped working during celebration
- masks confiscated- destroyed or in private collections
Hide Painting of Sun Dance: Identifers
Style: Eastern Shoshone
Artist: Cotsiogo
Location: Wyoming
Date: 1900 CE
Hide Painting of Sun Dance: Form
- elks, deer, buffalo hides
- natural pigments red ocher, chalk, paints, dyes
- geometric and figural motifs
- free hand painting and stenciling
*either wall hanging or robe
Hide Painting of Sun Dance: Function
*remember the past
* appeal to European/American tourists
* generate revenue and financial support for struggling tribe
Hide Painting of Sun Dance: Content Dances
*Sun dance- sacred: men dance around a buffalo head, buffalos were sacred: took place near village, central pole- divine connection, honor creator Deity/ensure abundance
*participants: seeking spiritual insight, did not eat or drink
* wolf dance- non-religious: fast paced, faced past not present, drum beat
Hide Painting of Sun Dance: Content
- women rest near fire and more men on horses hunt buffaloes
- warriors on horses shown returning to camp, celebrated with Wolf Dance
- 2 tipis represent the camp
- feathered war bonnets made of eagle feathers
- warriors hunting with bows and arrows white riding, inreality Shoshone men had used rifles for some time
Hide Painting of Sun Dance: Context
- long-standing tradition in Great Basin and Great Plains 1800s
- Cotsiogo member of Eastern Shoshone tribe: Wind River reservation: Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868
- tribe used to move with seasons
- 1883- Sun Dance banned under federal law, outlawed until 1935
Black on Black Ceramic Vessel: Identifiers
Style: Puebloan
Artist: Maria & Julian Martinez
Location: New Mexico
Date: 1950 CE
Black on Black Ceramic Vessel: Form
- clay
- hand made no on wheel or kiln
- thinner than functional pottery
Black on Black Ceramic Vessel: Function
*Decorative
*serves as a record of Native pottery techniques
*links modern Pueblo people to ancestral through pottery techniques and materials
Black on Black Ceramic Vessel: Content
*she and husband julian pioneered style of applying black matte design over polished black
*design based on pottery sherds found at dig site- Bandelier Natl Monument
*natural phenomenon rain clouds, bird feather, rows of corn, flows of rivers
* design are exaggerated due to the round shapes of pot
*Art Deco- bold geometric forms and colors
Black on Black Ceramic Vessel: Context
*Mari Martinez 1887-1980 lived 20 miles north of Sante Fe New Mexico
* one of the best known Native potters of the 20th century
*before arrival of railroad 1880s, pots used for food storage, cooking, ceremonies
*1910s- selling to non-Native audience
*communal activity
* signature at bottom
