Description
Book SynopsisThe first systematic study of how the ancient Maya peoples perceived and used color.
Trade Review"What excites me most about this study is what it means to the future of scholarship on Maya art. Insight into the aesthetic, symbolic, and material framework of what is perhaps the most complex visual system of the ancient world has taken a decisive step forward in this book. Because of its tie to language through the writing system, codified nature, continuity with modern cultures, and elaboration on thousands of objects, Maya art has an analytic potential unparalleled in the ancient Americas that we are just beginning to investigate. I therefore welcome this book which attempts to bring color into the equation of what constitutes the Maya aesthetic system." --Andrea Stone, Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Table of Contents
- Prologue
- Chapter One. Seeing Color
- Sensing Color
- Theorizing Color in the West
- Comparative Theories of Color
- Colorizing Mesoamerica
- A Book on Maya Color
- Chapter Two. Naming Color
- Simplex Terms
- Complex Terms
- Organization of Colors
- Maya Color Terms
- Red
- White
- Black
- Yellow
- Yax
- Maya Terminology
- Chapter Three. Making Color
- Prime Colorants
- Feathers
- Flowers
- Shells
- Spondylus
- Mother-of-Pearl and Pearl
- Stones
- Jade
- Nonjade Greenstones
- Obsidian
- Turquoise
- Reflective Stones: Pyrite, Hematite, and Mica
- Translucent Stones
- Manufactured Colorants
- Dyes
- Pigments and Paints
- Blacks
- Whites
- Reds, Yellows, and Browns
- Blues and Greens
- Ceramics: A Special Case
- Making Maya Color
- Chapter Four. Using Color
- Approaches and Limitations
- The Preclassic and Early Classic: Colors of the Earth
- Red, Black, and White
- The Late Preclassic: New Colors
- The Early Classic: Tradition and Retrenchment
- Color Use in the Preclassic and Early Classic
- The Late Early Classic and the Rise of Maya Blue
- Experiments in Ceramics
- The Invention of Maya Blue
- Architectural Color
- The Conservative Colors of Death
- Color Use in the Late Early Classic
- The Late Classic: Naturalism and Its Dissenters
- The Naturalistic Revolution
- Color and Dimension
- Rejections of Polychromy
- Color Use in the Late Classic
- The Terminal Classic: Rupture and Reinventions
- The Postclassic: The Colors of the Gods
- Early Postclassic: Five Basic Colors
- Late Postclassic: The "International Style"
- The "Blue-and-Black Style"
- Color Contrasts
- Color Use in the Postclassic
- Using Color
- Epilogue: A History of Maya Color
- Appendix: Dyes and Organic Colorants of the Maya and Aztecs
- Bibliography
- Index
