art history indigenous americas

Chauvin de Hauntar

• Andes, Peru

• Religious temple for coastal people, pilgrimage center

• Jaguar symbols symbolize power

• Contains animal/human Lanzon stone

• Nose ornaments symbolize status

Yaxchilan Structure

• Chiapas, Mexico

• Build by Bird Jaguar IV

• Mayan temple

• Three doors lead to central room

• Lintel contains Lady Xoc holding bloodletting tools

Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings

• Montezuma County, Colorado

• Small village built into a cliff

• Anasazi of American Southwest

• Plaza in front with a kiva (community meetings)

Great Serpent Mound

• Southern Ohio

• Eastern Native Americans built earthworks

• Astrological phenomena

• Snakes = crop fertility

Templo Mayor

• Aztec empire

• Tenochtitlan

• Two temples each with a staircase dedicated to the gods

  • Sun and rain gods

• Reflects their developed civilization and understanding of the cosmos

Coyolxauhqui Monolith

• Tenochtitlan, base of Templo Mayor

• Volcanic stone (tufa)

• She wears bells as earrings

• Depicts importance of Huitzilopochtli in Aztec religion

  • Aztecs threw dismembered bodies of those they 

sacrificed down the stairs of the temple

Calendar Stone

• Tenochtitlan, top of Temple Mayor

• Blade used for sacrifice was held at the center

• Aztecs believed they had to feet Huitzilopochtli human hearts and blood

• They developed a sun-based calendar

Olmec Stone

• Tenochtitlan

• Jade-like stone

• Buried as a religious offering

• Olmecs lived prior to the Aztecs

• Indicative of Aztec trade networks since they had it

Ruler's feather headdress

• Tenochtitlan

• Made from Blue Cotinga feathers

• 400 feathers = eternal power

• Power and authority

• Taken to Europe by Cortez

Frontispiece of the Codex Mendoza

• New Spain

• Pigment on paper

• Depicts daily life in Aztec Tenochtitlan but in a European style (blending of cultures)

• Served as a cover to a history of the Aztecs

• Gift to Charles V King of Spain

City of Cusco

• Peru

• Capital city of the Inca Empire

• Shaped like a puma to symbolize power and structure/order of the empire

• Divided city into four quarters

Qorikancha

• Cusco, Peru

• Remains of main Inka temple (of the sun)

• Spanish conquered destroyed it and built the Santo Domingo church

• Ashlar masonry (no mortar between stones)

• Was an observatory for Inkans, Catholic convent for Spanish

Walls of Saqsa Waman

• Puma head in Cusco

• Advanced construction using ashlar masonry

• Fortress where the military stayed

Inka cobbs

• Peru

• Gold and silver alloy, sheet metal repoussé

• Maize was their principal food source

• Part of an artistic garden

Machu Picchu

• Peru

• Granite palaces and temples

• Retreat for the Inka royal family (not administrative)

• Ashlar masonry and thick bases suitable for earthquakes

• Compare to Versailles

• Fleeting society, didn’t write anything down, conquered

• Observatory and Intihuatana stone aligned with sun at equinoxes

• All-T’oqapu Tunic

  • Camelid fiber and cotton

  • Comprised of small shaped called t’oqapu

    • Symbols for events

  • Elaborate garment to indicate status

  • Made by women, worn by men

  • Symbol for their structured/orderly society

  
  

  Bandolier bag

  • Lenape peoples

  • Beadwork on leather

  • Made by women, worn for men

  • Diagonally crossing strap with a trade cloth (pouch)

  • Beadwork wasn’t practiced before Columbus (Europeans traded beads to the natives for gold)

  
  

  Transformation mask

  • Kwakiutl peoples, Pacific Northwest

  • Wood, paint, string

  • Bird exterior with human face inside

  • Masks worn and opened during a ritual at firelight

  • Society was well off

  
  

  Painted elk hide

  • Cotsiogo

  • Eastern Shoshone tribe, Wyoming

  • Painting of the Sun Dance

  • Nostalgic narrative showing what used to be

    • Bison hunted before extinct, sense of loss

  • Warriors deeds are celebrated on the hide

  • Painted during the time they were put in reservations and their dance was outlawed

  
  

  Black on black vessel

  • Pueblo region, New Mexico

  • Polished vessel with shiny and matte finishes

  • Coil shaping, NOT potter’s wheel

  • Southerwstern natives used pottery for storage

    • Utilitarian, not artistic

  • Martinez brought a resurgence of pueblo pottery which was dying out