Description
Book SynopsisAn examination of how ancient Mesoamerican sculpture was experienced by its original audiences.
Trade ReviewUnique, insightful, nicely theorized, and important, Unseen Art will stand alone among studies of Mesoamerican art produced in the last hundred years. This book will be a service to art historians and archaeologists studying ancient Mesoamerica but other parts of the world as well.
-- Cecelia Klein
In
Unseen Art, Claudia Brittenham looks deeply into the images and sacred things left by the peoples of Mesoamerica. She explores what it meant to 'see' beyond the sense of sight, whether in relation to concealed Olmec pavements; Maya lintels that offered, at best, partial glimpses; or the 'radical invisibility' of Aztec carvings—not a few with hidden surfaces that were never meant to be viewed. With insight and élan, Claudia Brittenham teaches us new ways of understanding Mesoamerican images. In so doing, she shows that the esoteric path to knowledge both privileges sight and, at times, transcends it. -- Stephen Houston
Ultimately,
Unseen Art brings to the forefront questions about the power of looking that are vital not just for scholars of Indigenous art of the Americas, but for all of art history. The interventions presented here ask us to consider the meaning of looking; the role of the body in relation to works of art; and connections between visibility and power that resonate in the present as well as in the past. * caa.reviews *
Table of Contents
- List of Tables and Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction. Seeing and Knowing
- Chapter 1. Making: Building Community at La Venta
- Chapter 2. Vision: Seeing Maya Lintels
- Chapter 3. Power: Carving the Undersides of Aztec Sculpture
- Conclusion. The Language of Zuyua
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
