Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture

V

Kinds of Art

Outstanding in pre-Columbian artistic development were architecture, sculpture, painting, and decorative arts such as pottery, metalwork, and textiles.

A

Architecture

The earliest pre-Columbian buildings were constructed from wood, bundled reeds, fiber matting or thatch, and other perishable materials. A permanent, monumental architecture using stone or adobe (sun-dried brick) was developed principally in Mesoamerica and the Central Andean Area.

Pre-Columbian architectural technology was rudimentary. Most structures were built with the post-and-lintel or trabeated (horizontal-beam, archless) system, although the Chavín of Peru and the Maya of Mesoamerica employed the corbeled, or false, arch, in which one stone was extended above another to form an archlike shape. Stone rather than metal tools were used, and human labor rather than machines was used for transporting and building such characteristic structures as pyramids, palaces, tombs, and platform temples (built on earth platforms).

The pre-Columbian pyramid was once regarded as different from its Egyptian counterpart because it was intended not as a burial structure but as the residence of a deity. Recent excavations, however, increasingly indicate that tombs were sometimes incorporated into pyramids. Pictographs in Mesoamerican codices (screen-fold books of paper, produced from fibers or the bark of various plants, or deerskin) illustrate that pyramids were also used for military defense. The Aztec symbol for conquest was a burning pyramid of which the calli, or house of the god (the temple atop the pyramid), had been toppled by the conqueror. In order to make them more monumental or reflect favorably on the current ruler, many Mesoamerican pyramids were periodically rebuilt over a preexisting structure.

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B

Sculpture

The majority of extant pre-Columbian sculptures are clay figurines and effigy pots. Stone sculpture is found primarily in Mesoamerica and only occasionally in the Central Andean and Intermediate areas, regions in which the use of metal was earlier and more extensive. Although metalworking technology was highly sophisticated, carving was done with stone rather than metal tools.

C

Painting

Archaeologists are continually excavating new examples of painted pre-Columbian architectural decoration. Teotihuacán in Mexico had buildings covered on both the interior and exterior with a thick plaster that was painted with either decorative patterns or narrative scenes. At the Mexican sites of Bonampak and Chichén Itzá, the Maya and Maya-Toltec painted their temple interiors with realistic frescoes that depict historical events. Although primarily found in Mesoamerica, architectural painting has been discovered in the Intermediate Area in the geometrically patterned underground tombs at Tierradentro in Colombia and the mythological murals at Panamarca in Peru. Also in Peru, Moche effigy pots of architectural structures indicate that the exteriors of buildings were often boldly painted with symbolic motifs.

The refined drawing abilities of the Maya, Mixtec, and Aztec peoples are demonstrated in their picture or pictographic writing preserved in the codices. Most Post-Classic codices were destroyed during the 16th century by Spanish missionaries who saw them as instruments of evil. Among the few preserved were the Maya codices (now in Dresden, Paris, and Madrid), the Codex Zouche-Nuttall of the Mixtec (now in the British Museum, London), and some Aztec works.

Another type of pre-Columbian painting was the decoration of pottery. Maya, Moche, and Peruvian Nazca ceramics provide many of the finest examples of design and technique.

D

Decorative Arts

Many objects recovered from pre-Columbian sites are associated with burial offerings and are utilitarian or ceremonial rather than decorative in function. Despite the lack of many technological advantages in their manufacture, these objects were equal in design and execution to any of the finest examples of preindustrial art in any part of the world.

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