Mayan Art Megathread

So much good stuff in this book! Too many to put on this thread, but suffice to say I will be pulling from it in the future for more modelling ideas. This book is one of THE definitive visual and informative works on the Mayan city of Bonampak. Even though it was quite expensive, it was definitely worth it for me!

Spoiler

One of the coolest things about the book is how they used infrared technology to see the actual painter's work, and use that information to "reconstruct' how much of the murals may have looked when they were first painted.


So much cool stuff!

The book also looks great on my coffee table currently.

It is great to be back!!! Going to start doing actually hobby work today!

I have only been able to focus on fluff the last few months (which has been fun) but I am looking forward to finally doing all those bases I have been neglecting

 

Nine months! Was your wife pregnant, and you just didn't wan't too deal with all the hassle?

 

no definitely not (it might happen someday, but we are planning around it right now ).

I was deployed to the other side of the world for nine months, very glad to be back home! The book was my return present, along with a lot of fantastic food that I was missing (like bacon and GOOD cheeseburgers).

 

...nice!

 

Did a little more research on this stela today from Bonampak.

Spoiler: bonampak stela 2

Beautiful work, known as Bonampak Stela 2, depicting Yajaw Chan Muwaan with his consort and his mother preparing to perform a bloodletting ritual. His consort's name is Lady Rabbit, and this stela is unique simply because it shows more women than men in the same stone carving, a rarity in Mayan carvings.

 

Yaxchilan Stela 11

Carved stela depicting ruler Bird Jaguar IV, standing over three pisoners, with a Chac mask (Chac-Xib-Chac) in front of his face. Wonderfully carved glyphs crown the top of the fractured stela.

Spoiler: stela 11 line drawing

 

Some modern Mayan paintings, mostly from National Geographic:

Ballcourt:


Sealing a tomb, note the scarlet macaws in the upper left-hand corner:


Looks like they are preparing sacrifices? I really like the temple in the background on this one (the giant thing in red), and the priest in the center (the one who looks like he has a giant back-rack of green feathers).

 

Carved stelae, from the Mayan city of Sayaxche:



Note the "shield" device with a face in the lower right-hand corner.

 

Looks like it would fit seamlessly with our army.

 

Stelae, apparently from the vicinity of Calakmul.

 

Found something interesting going through my restored copy of the Aztec Codex Borgia the other day:



Proof that the ancient Mexicans were pokemon masters.

 

That's hilarious!

 

So in part of my recent vacation my wife and I took a cruise down to the coast of Mexico, and I was able to see some more ruins! We went to Cozumel and saw the ruins of the shrine of the moon-goddess Ix Chel at San Gervasio, and went to the ancient city of Uxmal on the Yucatan peninsula.

It was a great experience, here are some of the pics from the shrine at San Gervasio:

Spoiler: San Gervasio- Cozumel

The ruins were very small compared to any of the ones we have seen before, barely recognizable for what they used to be.



The shrine was well known throughout the Mayan world. Unlike the mainlaind, the island of Cozumel never had a great city or grand temples built upon it, but was considered a holy site of prime importance. All Mayans who had means had to make a pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime, very similar to Mecca.






Mayan sacbe road (white-road). They used to be paved over with white stones, and shown brightly during the moonlight (coincidentally the same time that the Mayans used to visit the shrine of the Moon Goddess).


There was also a Lizardmen siting at the ruins!

 

Pics from Uxmal, huge Mayan city, biggest one I have gotten to see (so far!)

Pyramid of the Dwarf (also known as the Pyramid of the Magician or the Pyramid of the Sorcerer), supposedly having been built in one night.

Spoiler: Uxmal

Many great pictures. Much of the city's original stucco and relief carvings still exist. Many intact Chac masks (Chac the Rain God) are still intact too they are the ones with the snake/gonzo noses.



View of the Pyramid of the Magician and the snake-entrance at the top through an arch. We weren't allowed to walk up that particular pyramid, but we could walk up some of the others!



Upper courtyard buildings:



Stone stela in the courtyard, badly worn by rain and time:



Chac masks in the courtyard:



The ballcourt (with on the rings in its original location). Palace of the King is in the background.









Amazing stuff! Lots of art project ideas for the future.

 

Looks like you got some great pictures! Nice to get a vacation like that!

 

It was! Got to cross two more Mayan sites off my bucket list.

 

Beautiful stela from the Cleveland Art Museum, second half from a Mayan temple in El Peru (also known as Waka').



The stela is about 8 feet in size (higher because its mounted on the wall) and is beautifully carved with both relief and glyphs set back into the stone.

Spoiler

Glyphs in the lower right corner of the piece:



Many glyphs dotted the structure, often set in the background. They were hard to see unless you were looking for them, I didn't notice them until my wife pointed them out.

The stela is the second half of another piece I saw down in Texas. The one in Texas is the King, this one is the Queen.

According to the description, the queen is depicted in royal garments here because she was in fact of a higher birth-status that her husband. El Peru was a minor Mayan site, and odds are her husband was the military governor of the city, but his authority was ultimately derived from the power and prestige of her original family (basically, the King married into his office).

 

Very kool.

Ps. I hear the Pyramid of the Sorcerer is quite haunted.

 

I think it was this episode...
http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/expedition-unknown/episodes/mayan-apocalypse
unless it was one of the Destination Truth episodes...