Arts of the World; Comparative Art Studies (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920. Excerpt: ... tural ornament among the Mayas. Snakes coil around and leer at you from many Maya monuments. There is never anything beautiful about these snakes, as there is for instance in some Japanese representations of snakes: they are always stupid, venomous reptiles, ready to strike and to bite. There is no doubt that the serpent character is well observed and well expressed. But there are so many snakes in Maya art, that it almost seems as if the whole population were brooding over visions of delirium tremens. Some pottery figures from Guatemala are probably Mayan. They have helmets, shields and corslets, and were evidently suggested by Spanish soldiers in armor. They are hideous and this would tend to prove that the ugliness of Maya art is not wholly due to bad religious ideals, but largely to a lack of artistic feeling in the makers. Maya art is clearly a phase of Amerind art. It is not related to Egyptian art despite the monoliths on which are big faces with goatees. It has no relation to Australasian art, to African art, nor to East Asiatic art. If there is any Old World art Maya art is in touch with, it is South Asiatic art. For Maya decorations of skulls and snakes resemble some of the Hindu sculptures due to Brahmanism and therefore it might be that some of the Maya subjects are reminiscences of religious ideas imported into the New World from Southern Asia. But whether Brahmanism was related to the religion of the Maya or not, in Hindustan and in Mexico religion is responsible for many artistic atrocities. ZAPOTECAN ART. From the districts of Oaxaca, Mitla, etc., southwestern Mexico, comes some art which is local, individual and neither Aztec nor Mayan. The date Harvard U. P. M. when it began is unknown but chipped stone, polished stone and copper implem...