Mesoamerican Art
The Birth of Mesoamerican and Andean Artistry
By Erica Seidman
The Olmec and Chavin peoples were important to the development of Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations because they provided the foundations of cultural influence in which their predecessors derived from. In particular, the two artistic styles that became prevalent throughout pre-Columbian civilizations can be credited to the time when the Olmec and Chavin peoples lived whom marked the beginning of artistic production in Mesoamerican and Andean artistic styles. These art styles were reproduced in settings that were clearly important in each of their cultures and are consistently seen in a variety of media and contexts where nature and religion served as the backbone of their cultural and artistic expression. Particularly looking at the content and form of the Olmec and Chavin artistic styles as integrated into the different media at the ceremonial centers of San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Chavin de Huantar, this essay will compare and contrast how Mesoamerican and Andean religion and topography during the reign of the Olmec and Chavin peoples were central to the birth of strict stylistic code where their subject matters are seemingly thematic in nature and carried on throughout Mesoamerican and Andean cultures.
Considered the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica, the Olmec peoples believed in a connection between the terrestrial and celestial spheres. The Olmec world consisted of three environments: the A-physical realm, a human environment, and a world that controlled the other two, a spiritual realm. The fertile Gulf lands provided an agricultural surplus, in particular the growth of maize, which was believed to be controlled by the Olmec Maize God and represented in art as a were-jaguar. The different media found at San Lorenzo and La Venta, captured the environment of the Mexican states as well as were artistically expressed with a consistent subject matter in the form of deities, ancestors, animals,
By Erica Seidman
The Olmec and Chavin peoples were important to the development of Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations because they provided the foundations of cultural influence in which their predecessors derived from. In particular, the two artistic styles that became prevalent throughout pre-Columbian civilizations can be credited to the time when the Olmec and Chavin peoples lived whom marked the beginning of artistic production in Mesoamerican and Andean artistic styles. These art styles were reproduced in settings that were clearly important in each of their cultures and are consistently seen in a variety of media and contexts where nature and religion served as the backbone of their cultural and artistic expression. Particularly looking at the content and form of the Olmec and Chavin artistic styles as integrated into the different media at the ceremonial centers of San Lorenzo, La Venta, and Chavin de Huantar, this essay will compare and contrast how Mesoamerican and Andean religion and topography during the reign of the Olmec and Chavin peoples were central to the birth of strict stylistic code where their subject matters are seemingly thematic in nature and carried on throughout Mesoamerican and Andean cultures.
Considered the “mother culture” of Mesoamerica, the Olmec peoples believed in a connection between the terrestrial and celestial spheres. The Olmec world consisted of three environments: the A-physical realm, a human environment, and a world that controlled the other two, a spiritual realm. The fertile Gulf lands provided an agricultural surplus, in particular the growth of maize, which was believed to be controlled by the Olmec Maize God and represented in art as a were-jaguar. The different media found at San Lorenzo and La Venta, captured the environment of the Mexican states as well as were artistically expressed with a consistent subject matter in the form of deities, ancestors, animals,
Bibliography: Willey, Gordon. “The Early Great Styles and the Rise of Pre-Columbian Civilizations.” American Anthropologist 64, no. 1 (28 Oct 2009): 1-14.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1962.64.1.02a00010/pdf (accessed March 21, 2012). Footnote: 3.Gordon Willey, “The Early Great Styles and the Rise of Pre-Columbian Civilizations,” American Anthropologist 64, no. 1 (28 Oct 2009): 1-14, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1962.64.1.02a00010/pdf (accessed March 21, 2012).