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Painting the Maya universe : royal ceramics of the classic period / Dorie Reents-Budet ; with contributions by Joseph W. Ball ... [et al.] ; photographs by Justin Kerr ; forewords by Michael P. Mezzatesta and Linda Schele..

By: Reents-Budet, Dorie.
Contributor(s): Ball, Joseph W | Duke University. Museum of Art.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: Durham : Duke University Press in association with Duke University Museum of Art, 1994Description: xx, 381 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps ; 24 cm.ISBN: 0822314347 ; 082231438X.Subject(s): Maya pottery -- Exhibitions | Maya painting -- Exhibitions | Mayan languages -- Writing -- Exhibitions | Mexico -- Antiquities -- Exhibitions | Central America -- Antiquities -- ExhibitionsDDC classification: 738.0972
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
General Lending MTU Crawford College of Art and Design Library Lending 738.0972 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 00005451
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Lavishly illustrated with nearly 400 color images, Painting the Maya Universe is the most thorough study and brilliant display of Classic Maya ceramic painting yet published. Building on twenty years of research and debate, Dorie Reents-Budet and her collaborators Joseph W. Ball, Ronald L. Bishop, Virginia M. Fields, and Barbara MacLeod bring together many perspectives, including the art historical, archaeological, epigraphical, and ethnohistorical, to examine one of the world's great but overlooked painting traditions. With an emphasis on sixth- to eighth-century pottery featuring both pictorial and hieroglyphic imagery, Painting the Maya Universe presents an extraordinary exploration of the cultural roles and meanings of these Guatemalan, Belizean, and Mexican elite painted ceramics. Maya pottery is discussed both in aesthetic terms and for the important information it reveals about Maya society, artistry, politics, history, religion, and ritual. The range of ceramic painting styles developed during this period is also presented and defined in detail.
Painting the Maya Universe is the first publication to present a definitive translation of the hieroglyphic texts painted on these objects. With many glyphs deciphered here for the first time, this analysis reveals much about how these vessels were perceived and used by the Maya, their owners' names, and, in several cases, the names of the artists who created them. This information is combined with archaeological and other data, including nuclear chemical analyses, to correlate painting styles with specific Maya sites.
Published in conjunction with Duke University Museum of Art and an exhibition touring the United States, Painting the Maya Universe presents an astonishing visual record as well as a monumental scholarly achievement. With photographs by Justin Kerr, the foremost photographer of pre-Columbian art, it includes over 90 unique full-color rollout photographs, each showing the entire surface of an object in a single frame. The book also addresses the questions and controversy regarding the loss of information that occurs when objects are removed from their archaeological context to become part of public and private collections.
Painting the Maya Universe will energize discussion of Maya pottery, hieroglyphic texts, and iconography. Its photographs, a lasting resource on this great painting tradition, will stimulate and delight the eye. It is a breakthrough in art history and Latin American scholarship that will enrich general readers and scholars alike.

Catalog of exhibition held at Duke University Museum of Art, January 15-March 27, 1994 ... [et al.].

Includes bibliographical references (p. 366-373) and index.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Reents-Budet and her collaborators have produced an exemplary study of elite Maya painted pottery of the classic period. Interdisciplinary at heart, Painting the Maya Universe weds art historical insights with linguistic analyses of the hieroglyphic texts and empirical observations from the chemical analysis of pottery samples. Thematically organized, the book discusses the aesthetic and cultural dimensions of painting, the social functions of pottery pieces, the pictorial themes found on ceramic surfaces, the roles and identities of elite pottery painters, and the benefits of responsible collection and preservation practices. In a chapter on calligraphy, Reents-Budet and epigrapher Barbara MacLeod explore the lingusitic content of painted glyphs, focusing on the semantics and sociopolitical contents of the primary standard sequence. The two authors are joined by archaeologist Ronald L. Bishop in a discussion of neutron activation analysis, a technique that allows researchers to analyze ancient pottery and draw conclusions on the subjects of material sources, workshop sites, and production relations. Lavishly illustrated with photographs by Justin Kerr, the book also contains a catalog of a traveling exhibition that grew out of this research. Highly recommended for all levels. C. Hendrickson; Marlboro College

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