Pre-Columbian Art

Study Guide

Exam format

One short essay on an “unknown” (a work you have not seen before)

Two longer essays using specific objects to compare the cultures we have studied

You will have access to images and their labels for the essays.

You are responsible for material from class lectures, readings, and discussion. In particular, you should focus your study on the big ideas associated with each culture and its art, and ask yourself, how do specific works on the slidelists address these larger themes/concerns/contexts?

Unknown

The purpose of such an essay is to have you apply your growing knowledge of Mesoamerican cultures in a new setting. The key idea is to discuss that what makes a work “typical” of a particular cultural context, given its style, medium (material), format, content, probable location, and likely use. You would also want to be able to discuss how the work related to the larger ideas or themes we considered with each culture.

Essays

Essays will ask you to compare objects, structures, or monuments from the various cultures we’ve studied. The goal of such comparisons will be to 1) allow you to identify core beliefs, forms, and practices shared across the diverse cultures of Mesoamerica and 2) discuss what makes each culture and its art distinctive to its time and place. I would typically ask you to address the following in your answer:

Cultural/historical context (who, where, social organization, ideology)

Content/subject

Style and form

Medium

Location

Production (how made?)

Audience/use

What makes this typical of the culture/period’s art and its social role?

Possible essay topics:

· Theme of regeneration throughout Mesoamerica, as addressed in the Popol Vuh and depicted in artworks from two different cultures.

· History: what kind of history gets represented, how, and to what end?

· Rulership in Mesoamerica: how do different cultures represent the power and authority of rulers in art, and what does this tell us about the culture?

· Comparison of architectural forms (ie: two pyramids, or two domestic settings) from different cultures

· How should we account for deities who appear in multiple cultural contexts? And what does their transformation in these different contexts tell us? (ie: Quetzalcoatl)

· How does art/architecture represent the ideology of sacrifice in Mesoamerica?