Olmec Art Themes

Throughout the humanities course, I have been intrigued by a vast amount of information on different cultures. However, there was a particular section that truly caught my attention, and has piqued an interest in me that has caused me to do my own research aside from this paper. The culture of the Mayas, and the Aztecs has been extremely fundamental in understanding my ancestry, being that I am Mexican American. I took an interest in their beautiful architecture, their ritualistic and sacrificial religious practices, as well as their history and how they began. Throughout this paper I will outline the similarities and differences of these two cultures, as well as articulate an understanding of the humanity disciplines outlined above.

In addition to sacrifices, religion even influenced the indigeneous peoples' geographic location. Most of us are familiar with the image that is on the Mexican flag; it is an eagle standing on a cactus, eating a snake. Huitzilopotchli, who was the leader of his people was told to leave Aztlan and travel south until he found a symbol to settle down. As he was traveling, he found an eagle on a cactus eating a snake and decided that that was the sign he was looking for; so he settled down. That now-famous image became the central symbol on the Mexican flag. This was symbolic to them because the eagle represented the sky or heaven, the cactus represented the underworld, and the snake represented the ground. In addition, the bird eating the snake on the cactus also represented duality, the coexistence of natural elements, as it fused together the bird which represented the sky, and the snake which represented the ground. Duality was important because it represented the stability and equality of everything(Covarrubias 2012). The stone of the fifth sun, also known as the “Aztec Calendar”, is a widely known symbol. However, what is not widely known is that the stone of the fifth sun is actually a religious reminder created by the Mechica/Aztecs. The four squares represent earth, fire, wind and water; and also represent the four previous suns. The two faces in the stone of the fifth sun appear

The Olmecs were farmers, traders, artists… innovators. The Olmec culture first emerged in the Isthmus region of Tehuantepec. The site of San Lorenzo, which sits on the Coatzacoalcos River, sheds the most light on this mysterious culture. During this time period, The Initail Formative, food surplus sparked an increase in population and career specialization. With the increase of specialization and sedentism came the environment for complex culture.

The Olmec’s lived along muddy riverbanks and the Gulf of Mexico around 1500 B.C. Rigorous agricultural practices characterized the Olmec civilization, enabling them to provide food and resources for their families and generate income by selling their food to others around them. They also used the land to their advantage, using the mud to create elaborate earthen pyramids. Along with the cultivation of land, trade contributed to the success of the Olmec’s. They had many widespread trade routes extending into the surrounding areas. Their trade routes further helped to expand agriculture and grow the economy within this society due to the selling of agricultural products along these routes. To grow spiritually, the Olmec’s created religious rituals and a system of hieroglyphics that allowed the peoples to communicate effectively while also uniting the Olmec people as a whole. The Olmec’s’ use of their surrounding geography, combined with the economic growth brought about from extended trade routes and the societal unity brought about from the implementation of religious rituals allowed the Olmec’s to thrive during their time.

Native American culture was a great influence on newly introduced western art when settlers first came to North America. Not only did Native Americans have their own style of art, sculpture, basket weaving, and other fine arts. Their artistic styles helped influence some European art and gave them a different outlook on not only art itself, but a brand new culture that they have not seen before. This paper will talk about the different styles of Native American art and compare it to European art styles and artist, as well as going into detail about how their culture influenced artistic styles.

Various pieces of art found thousands of years ago depict characters based on certain events and legends. I will be analyzing two works of art: The Sound Box of the Great Lyre, a wooden music box (33 x 11 cm) found in present-day Iraq c. 2600-2500 BCE, and Lapith Fighting a Centaur, a high metope relief (1.42 m) on the side of the Parthenon in Ancient Greece c. 447-432 BCE. The former represents a bull with a low relief under its head, depicting animals mimicking the lifestyle of humans. The latter exemplifies a nude man struggling against a mythical creature that is half-man half-horse2. Although these works are from across the world with completely different cultures, they both have similar

In the Aztec religion there was not only god, there were many sun-gods over many ages. In the Aztec religion there were five ages, or five suns. Each of these sages had a different Aztec sun god and each age ended in disaster. Tezcatlipoca (smoking mirror) was the first god to be a sun. Tezcatlipoca was the god of the night and was an enemy of Quetzalcoatl which is another god (Ancient Aztec Religion). After Tezcatlipoca was knocked by Quetzalcoatl from his exalted position, in revenge Tezcatlipoca took the form of a jaguar and destroyed the world (Aztec-History). Aztecs believe that the world was created and then destroyed with wind, and then two floods (Ancient Aztec Religion). Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent) became the next sun, but the rivalry continued, and the paw of the jaguar knocked him from the sky. The reign of the second sun god came to an end. A strong wind arose and there was great destruction on the earth. The gods next chose Tlaloc (god of rain) to be the sun. Quetzalcoatl wasn't happy and made the fire rain down, causing destruction on the earth and the end of the age. The next god of the Aztec sun goddess was Tlaloc's sister named Chalchiuhtlicue (lady of the jade skirts). Chalchiuhtlicue was chosen by Quetzacoatl to rule the sky. Chalchiuhtlicue was the goddess of water, lakes and streams. Once again the fighting of the gods caused the destruction of the world, which was again destroyed by floods. No other god wanted the job

The artwork fuses on the interest to the abstraction of the Tarascan symbology by painting a pre Columbian totem that emerged from the background of flat planes. The painting which is oil on canvas and forty by thirty carefully blends the colors that show a perfect depiction of the Jean trying to link to his distant past by borrowing designs and ideas from the ancient cultures that existed in Mexico.

They were fearful of natural disasters, and tried to keep their gods pleased to prevent the end of the world. Similar to the Mayans, the Aztecs performed blood sacrifices for the war god of the sun, Huitzilopochtli. They believed that he was fighting the darkness, and needed blood sacrifices to rise up in the afterlife and fight with him. The Aztecs held strong value in oratory skills, and tales of their gods were taught and passed down. They also built sculptures of all different sizes depicting their gods. In terms of technical skill, the Aztecs built steep-sided pyramids similar to the Mayans. They had many temples for their gods. Like the Mayans, the Aztecs built a large calendar on which they recorded important dates - particularly religious

Obtaining the knowledge that was passed down to them from earlier Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztecs carved the calendar stone in 1479 (Smith 253). At the time, the Aztecs lived in a very civilized world filled with amazing architecture, an impressively complex government system, and they also employed intricate systems of writing and calendric systems (Taube 7). The Calendar Stone was made by basalt stone. For the Aztecs, everything was pictorial in nature around this era. The calendar stone depicted different pictograms or Codex Magliabechianoand, which was primarily written on religious documents (Aztec-History). Art was centered around religion in this era. So the pictograms of the gods on the calendar stone would correlate with that

Because Schreffler is arguing that Díaz, López de Gómara, Solís and González created a misconstrued view of Aztec painting, imagery is a vital component of this essay. The visuals strengthen his argument by giving viewers a clear sense of the difference between typical Aztec panting and the painting that the accounts describe. For example, Schreffler includes two images of paintings done by the

The selfless act the gods committed led to one of the major reasons for human sacrifices which was that since the gods gave up their own life for the creation of the new world, that the Aztecs had to somehow respect and honor their action. They did this by creating an eighteen month calendar, which dedicated each month to a certain god. The Aztecs used scared and solar calendars to tell time and when all the possible combinations had been used, usually every fifty-two years, the Aztecs would go through a twelve-day period before the cycle started again (Benson 506).

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles offers a surface level depiction of Mesoamerican civilization and culture. It excludes essential information and instead gives a shallow representation that offers implications of a barbaric civilization.

The roles of women are useful to historians because they provide an insight into the life experiences, cultures, thoughts, and every day life of a historical period. Similarly this essay will examine the roles of women, which provide insight into the Aztec civilization’s many strengths. The Aztec child bearer/warrior, priestess and sexual being will be analyzed to display that gender relations were complementary that produced equality. The midwife and weaver reveal that the Aztec’s specialization proved successful through fields like medicine and the market. Finally the Aztec daughter and mother will be examined to show that the Aztec’s had a strong socialization system established through education and the family. For these reasons

The Sacred Realm is a theme of art that involves the concept of aspects that cannot be seen but can only be brought to existence through faith by viewing a piece of art work. This faith is usually in form of a sacred realm. It’s vital to understand that this theme cannot be viewed by the naked eye. For instance, the religious images in the visual art are employed to bring about the opinions and beliefs of the individuals who are in faith of the specific religion and this is reached by provision of abstract ideas with images thru the work of art. Therefore, the Sacred Realm theme of art explains in a virtual way the reason and purpose behind the existence of certain aspects of nature such as religion