Product Description

The most recent archaeological discoveries and a host of dramatic illustrations illuminate royal life at the court of the ancient Maya.

Maya artistic expression during the second half of the first millennium reached the highest peaks of opulence and cultural refinement in the New World. Living in a tropical rain forest, supported by a society of astonishing wealth and complexity, the ancient Maya kings and queens commissioned extraordinary works of art and architecture in order to memorialize themselves and to ensure their place in history.

Seated on thrones of jaguar pelt, rulers contemplated the social, religious, and political affairs of their kingdom while a coterie of dwarves, hunchbacks, scribes, singers, actors, fan bearers, and drummers catered to their every need. Supplicants of lordly favor brought lavish gifts and tribute, cloth and shells, beads and cacao. From one generation to another, nobles began to take on additional titles, providing an ever more refined notion of courtly rights and responsibilities, rankings and rituals.

Published to accompany a touring exhibition, this groundbreaking book gathers together the latest research into Maya civilization and hundreds of illustrations to illuminate their achievements. Nowhere is this more spectacularly revealed than at Palenque, but the courtly world becomes more tangible to us too from works found at Tonina, Yaxchilan, Bonampak, and Copan, among other places. Ceramic censers, stucco heads, jade masks, terra-cotta figurines, incised wood boxes, great carved limestone lintels—the range of objects is astounding, and they have been drawn together from major collections in the Americas, Europe, and Australia. 328 illustrations, 233 in color.

With contributions by: Guillermo Bernal Romero • Michael D. Coe • Martha Cuevas García • Beatriz de la Fuente • Héctor L. Escobedo • Roberto García Moll • Arnoldo González Cruz • Stephen D. Houston • Roberto López Bravo • Diana Magaloni • Julia C. Miller • Alfonso Morales • Merle Greene Robertson • David Stuart • Teresa Uriarte

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #647621 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

About the Author
Mary Miller is Professor of the History of Art at Yale University; her many books include The Art of Mesoamerica. Simon Martin is Research Specialist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the co-author of Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens. Kathleen Berrin is Curator in Charge of Art of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Achievement!
Mary Ellen Miller and Simon Martin build upon their previous triumphs with this excellent volume.
Mary Ellen collaborated with the legendary Linda Schele to co-curate The Blood of Kings exhibition and produce an exquisite catalogue in 1986. The exhibition was one of the seminal events in allowing the public, avocationals and their fellow scholars to witness the grandeur and magnificence of ancient Maya culture and science. Their groundbreaking research into concepts of Maya kingship, history, daily life, and Linda's work on the decipherment of the ancient Maya hieroglyphic writing system were brought together in that excellent catalogue.
In 2000, Simon (who has published extensively on Maya epigraphy and culture) co-authored Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens with Nikolai Grube. This work is one of the most readable, detailed and well organized volumes on Maya history to date.
These authors' continuation of building strength of their presentation through multidisciplinary collaboration makes their current volume, Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya, a huge success.
The pages show their individual and shared strengths and skills as art historian, artist, epigrapher, as well as writing with a thorough grasp of their entire subject matter. Each, having collaborated with many colleagues in the vanguard of Maya studies, brings the comprehensive sum of the latest knowledge into this work.
One suspects that many comparisons will rightly be made to The Blood of Kings, and doing so seems a great compliment to this current work and the authors. Just as the 1986 exhibition and catalogue presented many very famous art objects and placed them into historical and cultural context in Maya history, the collection presented here may surpass the former one in terms of the variety and most of all the timeliness in which many objects are exhibited. Some of the highlighted objects of the current collection have only been excavated in the past decade. In particular, the exquisite platform tablet from Palenque Temple 21 has only come to light during INAH excavations in the past 5 years. It's presence in this collection is indeed remarkable. Additionally, the many beautiful pieces from Tonina have only been placed in that site's new regional museum and been available to the public in the past 5 years as well.
The value of this volume is greatly increased by the addition of detailed descriptions of the art objects, their context, and especially translations of the hieroglyphic writing, where present. The advances made in the writing system's decipherment in the past 20 years make the objects even more accessible to both students of Maya history and culture, and non-Mayanists as well. The beauty and quality of the photographic images and line drawings are especially impressive.
Anyone who has taken an interest in large art exhibitions of objects housed in such world-wide institutions has to stand in awe of this collection coming together. Those of use familiar with the art of Mesoamerica and the Maya world have looked forward to an exhibition of this type and scope in the U.S. for many years. It is a great tribute to the talents (and undoubtedly the great diplomacy) of Mary Ellen, Simon and the other curators to bring these objects into one great show. The catalogue that they have produced is not only a visual joy to linger over, but will be a valuable reference work for many years.
Having been elated with this catalogue, I cannot wait to travel to either (or both) Washington DC and San Francisco to view the collection first hand.

Mayan Art -- expected and not
I have had the great luck of being near San Francisco and thus being able to go to the Palace of the Legion of Honor and its show on Art of the Mayan Court. To say this show was staggering is something of an understatement. I have seen art shows on Magritte, Degas, Dali, Tutankhamen, the Celts, various Chinese exhibits and the like and I can say that this was probably my second favourite show, right after Treasures of Early Irish Art where I was able to see the Book of Kells, the Ardagh Chalice and the Tara Brooch.

Here was able to see works rather less known, but of such fascination and splendour that I have trouble trying to describe them. Luckily, this book exists.

The book not only has marvelous colour photos of the items from the exhibit, including many detail plates, but also in situ photos, especially of Palanque, the primary focus of the exhibit. On top of this the text of this book is incredibly helpful for those of us (most!) who know little or nothing of the various Mayan courts, their art, their mythology, and their history. No, this is not a complete history, though there are many excellent books on that topic that have been written since the decoding of the Mayan language (especially since the great leap in understanding since the early 1980s). Instead, this book provides basic understanding of the art and the context in which it was created.

This is a beautiful book, lovely to hold, well-bound, and full of great wonder. To leaf through it is to glimpse through the smoking mirror of Mayan folklore, receiving prophetic statements not always clearly stated, but intriguing nonetheless. To read the book is to glimpse behind that mirror and begin, somewhat, to understand a lost yet awesome culture.

Look, read, enjoy.

Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya
Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya. Authors: Simon Martin, Kathleen Berrin, Mary Miller. 304 pages. 2004.

I picked this book up at the library while I was looking for architecture books, furniture books, and books on the decorative arts. This book is large and heavy better suited to a coffee table than a backpack or book bag. Being essentially an exhibit book/catalog it is filled with beautiful photographs and drawings.

The content of this book focuses on the high art and style of the Mayan elite. What may surprise most readers who envision a Mayan Kingdom is the total lack of centralized power in Mayan society. The Mayan civilization was not centralized like the Inca or confederated like the Aztec; rather it was a hodge-podge of competing city states. While joined by language and culture and beset with no unified political structure the Mayan were also diverse in terms of their spiritual or religious make-up.

This book does a fair job of introducing the reader to some of the complexities of Mayan thought, history, and life. There is a tendency though to rapidly muddy the waters to such a degree that one needs a good deal of background in Mayan or Meso-American societies in order to really appreciate the scope and grandeur of what is being discussed. This becomes magnified in the later sections of the book where subject matter experts cover nuanced particularities with in their fields.

Happily for the average reader the actual art work can be enjoyed with little distraction. Most of the explanations have enough generality in them to explain what you are looking at and why it is significant. The art work covered in the text spans the gamut fro the large stele, panels, and lintels to small pieces of worked jade and vases. The book and the art work are broken down into groupings to aid in understanding. Each grouping has an introduction to the theme of the group, more in depth information and than very in depth information. In some cases, notably on calendars and faith the lead in information felt like teasers.

The accompanying artwork is well documented and explained with out being ponderous. The Mayan achievements in decorative arts are astounding especially when viewing the jade work. The blending of realism and myth with in a piece of art makes it difficult though for many people to understand what they are looking at. This blending or smudging of the lines is part and parcel of Mayan belief. The areas between men and god are often blended. With notions of idealized men or gods and myth all combining together it can often be a real challenge to really understand what is being depicted. This does not however take away from the craftsmanship, the beauty or effect of the artwork.