AP Art History - Indigenous Americas

155 - Yaxchilán. Chiapas, Mexico. Maya. 725 C.E. Limestone (architectural complex).

• Palace complex built over time

• Yaxchilan

  • Built at the end of period warfare, Bird-Jaguar trying to reestablish power

  • Key features

    • Stairwell, leading up

    • Stone masonry

    • 3 entry doors

    • Roof comb on top (meant to be scary, originally with reliefs)

    • Only one dark room --> royal ritual site (blood-letting)

    • Feature statues of ritual ball-game players

  • Rulers would ascend to the structure and make offerings in it

• Glyph/Lintel

  • Only visible when you enter the temple (have to look up from doorway)

  • Depicts

    • Serpents

    • War god (crown, spear) exiting a serpent's mouth

    • Seen by Lady Xook (she's having a vision after ritual bloodletting, as seen by thorned rope, bowl, and paper she's going to burn as an offering to the gods)

    • War god is embodying the power of her husband/ancestor Shield-Jaguar

  • Mayan beauty standard

    • Prominent nose

    • Setback forehead

  • Include glyphs that explain the story

    • Written in mirror image (reversed)

    • Flipped to represent that the message is from beyond

157 - Templo Mayor (Main Temple). Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City, Mexico). Mexica (Aztec). 1375–1520 C.E. Stone (temple); volcanic stone (The Coyolxauhqui Stone); jadeite (Olmec-style mask); basalt (Calendar Stone).

• Tenochtitlan site

  • Established in 1325 on an island

  • Divided in 4 quadrants based on center of universe (axis mundi)

  • Center of Mexica capital (sacred precinct)

  • Focal point, taller than other buildings

  • Represents Aztec warfare

  • Expanded in 1325-1519

  • Spanish easily took over because Aztecs had no allies

• Double temple to 2 gods (Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli)

  • "burnt water", earth and fire

  • Balance the universe together

  • Prisoners of war used in sacrifices that sustain the gods

  • Tlaloc = god of water/rain

    • Painted with blue stripes

    • Symbolizes summer solstice/rain season

    • Plaster and fresco

  • Huitzilopochtli = god of fire/sun (patron of Mexica, associated with warfare)

    • Steps were painted bright red

    • Symbolizes winter solstice/dry season

    • South side of temple

  • Function

    • Religious ceremonies --> rulers worship/sacrifice to the gods

    • Reenactments of myths, associated with Coatepec

    • Represent Aztec tradition of war/conquest (sacrifices/gods)

• Coyolxauhiqui Stone

  • Depicts dismembered goddess aka (woman of the gold bells)

    • Fancy clothes/jewelry

    • Nudity = humiliation/defeat

    • Body implies past pregnancy

    • Represents chaos/disorder

    • Ear spools

    • Carrying a skull

  • Serpents = fertility/harvest

  • H's mom became pregnant and her daughter got mad, planned to kill her with her 400 brothers, H saved his mom and beheaded his sister and threw her down a mountain

  • Function: placed in H's temple as a sacrificial stone, people died on it and were rolled to reenact the myth

• Calendar Stone

  • Central image: angry face, open mouth, ear spool (elites)

  • Iconography

    • 20 surrounding symbols = days of the calendar

    • Outer glyphs = years/eras

    • Rays of sun pointing to cardinal directions (universal quadrants)

  • Symmetrical

  • 2 serpents = regeneration cycle

  • Apocalypse was near

  • Sacrifices --> Bring sun into creation

• Olmec mask

  • Function

    • Tribute

    • Transform people into spirits (shamanic)

  • 2000-3000 years old

  • Aztecs valued ancient relics from earlier societies

  • Olmecs were older and further --> trade networks

158 - Ruler’s feather headdress (probably of Motecuhzoma II). Mexica (Aztec). 1428–1520 C.E. Feathers (quetzal and cotinga) and gold.

• Context

  • Hundreds were made

  • Sent to Spain --> only preserved headdress

• Quetzal bird feathers

  • Costa Rica --> extensive trade routes

  • Only 2 on each male --> expensive

  • Feathers = sun

  • Yellow and green

  • Feathers are later used in liturgical art

• Religious importance

  • Person who wears it becomes sacred --> form of tribute

  • Used in sacrifices rituals

• Aztecs painted human in religious art (figural tradition)

154 - Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. Montezuma County, Colorado. Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi). 450–1300 C.E. Sandstone

• Mesas = elevated, flat plateaus

• Part of a series of prehistoric settlements

  • Stone, plaster, and adobe to fill in stone walls

  • This is work is the most intact

  • Houses had roofs

  • Used by Anasazi (ancestors to Puebloans)

• Protected

  • Only accessible by ladders

  • Crops are far from the civilization

  • Provides natural shade

• Water is relatively accessible (filters through stone, can clean it)

  • Most often have to carry it over

• Key features

  • Plaza

  • Buildings, up to 3 stories

  • Communal housing

  • Kidas = social gathering place, also used as ritual sites

    • Central fire pit

    • Holed roof, vent, deflector (blocks fire from being snuffed)

    • Banquette = seating

    • Sipapu =represents ancestral passage of spirits between worlds 

• Abandoned by 1300s

  • Climate change --> drought

  • Warfare --> no longer safe

  • Isolated --> no resources

166 - Black-on-black ceramic vessel. Maria Martínez and Julian Martínez, Tewa, Puebloan, San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. c. mid-20th century C.E. Blackware ceramic

• Traditional Puebloan pottery

  • Culturally important but dying out

  • Easier to buy, labor-intensive

  • Usually white on black with common designs

  • Ceremonial/domestic function, practical

• Black on black

  • Blackware ceramic, pigment, volcanic ash

  • Coil technique, not wheel

  • Designs based on natural events

  • Inspired by archeological Puebloan pottery, studied pots/designs, used profits as income for tribe

• Style

  • Fire + powdered manure --> blackens pot

  • Soft, not watertight --> decorative, not practical

  • Burnishing --> shiny black surface

  • Guano --> matte design

• Maria often worked with traditional potters

  • Functional pottery --> status symbols outside of culture

  • Respond to commercialization of ceramics

• Bought by people outside of community (art dealers, white people, etc.) --> income

  • Fits in with Art Deco aesthetic, popular at the time

  • Functionality, traditional --> economical, aesthetic

156 - Great Serpent Mound. Adams County, southern Ohio. Mississippian (Eastern Woodlands). c. 1070 C.E.

• Serpent (head, tail, egg)

• Mound, several feet tall

• Near a river

• Facts

  • Bends line up with celestial events

  • Head aligns with summer solstice 

  • Labor-intensive, large-scale --> important

  • Can walk on it

  • Not a burial mound

• Theories

  • Serpent swallowing an egg

  • Made when Hailey's comet has passed, egg = sun

  • Form of serpent worship --> serpents = fertility/sun

  • Celestial importance --> ritual use

  • Meteor hit the area --> lizard-shaped concavity

• No oral tradition that connects back to creators

• Spiral = sacred symbol, spirituality

• Made of natural materials

  • Influenced earth-works (Spiral Jetty)

165 - Painted elk hide. Attributed to Cotsiogo (Cadzi Cody), Eastern Shoshone, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming. c. 1890–1900 C.E. Painted elk hide.

• Depicts stereotypical Indigenous iconography (teepees, sun bird, horseback, buffalo, dances)

  • Created when buffalo herds were almost wiped out

  • Wolf dance --> subversive, not accepted

  • Sun dance --> banned by government (assimilation, brought back Indigenous spirituality that led to military resistance), hidden in plain sight, form of rebellion

• Style

  • Geometrically shaped

  • Stamp/stenciled on with pigment (form of trade goods)

  • Easily reproduced

• Tribe was displaced (1860s)

  • People were forced to move west --> changed their culture

  • Work functions as a memory of 19th century change

• Elk hide mediums are practical --> used as decoration for tourists/galleries

  • Income for tribe

  • Designed to hang on the wall

• Example of how Indigenous art adapts to colonial tradition

163 - Bandolier bag. Lenape (Delaware tribe, Eastern Woodlands). c. 1850 C.E. Beadwork on leather.

• Depicts

  • Bright colors

  • Realistic floral design (pattern unique to each region)

  • Fringe/ribbons (feather/yarn)

  • Cross-body

  • Leather

• European importance: originally utilitarian, carried ammunition

• Indigenous importance: objects of adornment

  • Part of a full costume

  • Unique patterns reflect regional identity/accomplishments/status

  • Carry outfits when travelling --> people know if you're friend/foe

  • Reflects ident

• Trade

  • Dyed porcupine quills (dimmer) --> trade --> glass beads (brighter)

  • Leather

  • Fringe

  • Ribbons

• European goods --> turned into something Indigenous that has cultural importance reflects identity

  • Untraditional items became traditional

164 - Transformation mask. Kwakwaka’wakw, Northwest coast of Canada. Late 19th century C.E. Wood, paint, and string.

• Northwest style

  • Rounded rectangle

  • Lines that grow/taper --> "form line style"

  • 2-3 colors

  • 3 pronged/curved triangles --> trigons

  • Human/animal imagery

• Performed at a potlatch --> celebrates host's status

  • Major communal event with giving, performances, and hang out

  • Worn with red cedar cloak and transformation mask

  • Dancer pulls string --> opens/transforms mask

  • Ancestor's spirit enters the clan

  • Save all year to give at potlatch --> gain status (anti-capitalist, banned by US gov)

• Masks

  • Family crests --> rank

  • Passed down generations

  • Most have been taken/destroyed, still trying to recover them

• Clan symbols (Killer Whale, Raven, Eagle, Wolf)

153 - Chavin de Hunatan. Northern highlands, Peru. Chavin. 900-200 BCE. Stone (architectural complex); granite (Lanzon and sculpture); hammered gold alloy (jewelry).

• Subterranean temple

  • Exterior courts (gatherings, possible rituals)

  • Religious area (underwent expansion)

    • Unlit corridors, lit with torches/lamps when used

    • Only religious initiates would pass through

    • Only initiates understood the importance of the Stele/relief

  • Air shafts, extend to courtyard

• Priests would get high and speak to the Oracle in the other room (Lanson Stele)

  • Would've been painted, seen in flickering light --> mysterious

  • Hands (one up one down)

  • Feet turned inwards

  • Fangs and claws

  • Man/serpent/jaguar --> spiritual importance/power

    • Serpents (fertility)

    • Jaguar (apex predator --> power)

• Sacred site, between 2 rivers --> accessible because religious importance

• Initiates may receive nose rings

  • Marks initiation, religious power

  • Wear back at home

  • Double serpents

  • Gold alloy --> metaphor for spirituality, 2 powerful substances are amplified together

• Serpent relief

  • Contour rivalry (more than one object is interlocked, something can be an eye and a body at the same time)

  • Only fully understand with religious context

  • On outside of temple

159 - City of Cusco, including Qorikancha (Inka main temple), Santo Domingo (Spanish)

• Spanish explorers say it's shaped like a panther (apex predator) --> unreliable

• Inca Empire

  • Pachacuti Emperor, seen descendent of the sun

  • Would conquer regions and tax people with manual labor (ex. Stone masonry)

  • Force people to integrate to Incan society --> had to wear clothes that reflect your culture

  • Sea coast made dyes

  • Lowlands/low highlands grew maize

  • Mountains raised llamas/wool

  • Charged noble families with maintaining/making offerings to religious sites (Cuque system)

• Cusco

  • All Incan nobles were forced to live there (Versailles) --> centralized empire

  • Split into regions separated by ethnic group

    • Upper region (powerful, usually Incan)

    • Lower region (less powerful)

  • Between 2 river --> accessible

• Santo Domingo

  • Building destroyed by Spanish --> convent building

  • Only foundation is original

  • Covered in gold (symbolize sun)

    • Sun disk = Inti (sun god) reflected gold everywhere

  • Temples to sun (central god), moon, rainbow, thunder

  • Stones embody spirits --> spiritual power, don't change them

  • Garden = natural and mineral world brought together --> spiritual power

160 - Maize cobs. Inka. C 1440-1533 CE. Sheet metal/repousse, metal alloys.

• Depicts corn ready to be harvested

  • Color accurate (realistic)

• Incan metalwork

  • Spanish exported a lot of silver and gold

  • Alloy (silver + gold = spiritual power)

• Used in a sacred site (put the metal in organic material --> makes it more powerful)

  • Silver = moon

  • Gold = sun

  • Both are worshipped

  • Sacred object

• Colonials --> gold/silver = economically precious

• Inca --> gold/silver = religious importance

162 - All-T’oqapu tunic. Inka. 1450–1540 C.E. Camelid fiber and cotton.

• Each square (t'oqapu) = group in Incan Empire

  • Checkerboard = army

  • Separately woven --> joined together

  • Represents unity

• Worn by royal

  • Red dye = royal color (needs lots of insects to make)

  • Only king commands the army (represented on the tunic)

• People brought to Cusco (cloistered in a convent, similar to nun)

  • Weaved tunic, made from camelid fiber on a loom tool

  • Brewed corn beer (used in religious rites)

  • Chosen based on skill and importance

  • Some were married off, some were sacrificed

  • Great honor