History of Art 211

  The Fenton Vase , 600-800 C.E., Maya, Late Classic period, polychrome ceramic, 17.2 cm diameter, Nebaj, Guatemala © Trustees of the British Museum     For my second blog post of this final week I am going to be discussing the Fenton Vase and compare it to my first post of this week. The Fenton Vase shows us a scene of a Maya ruler sitting criss crossed on a bench. He is wearing a gigantic head dress to symbolize that he is very important. The Maya ruler is pointing towards a gift basket full of tamales. The crossword looking box to the left of the Maya ruler contains glyphs. These glyphs list his name as well as all the other titles that are attributed to him. Referring back to professor Z’s YouTube video, the Maya written language (glyphs) is extremely difficult to read and understand. This is because there are many different meanings and words that pertain to different glyphs. For example, there are about nine glyphs that make the sound u. The Maya language was always...

             Marriage between Lord 8 Deer and Lady 13 Serpent in the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, c. 1450 CE, Mixtec (or Ñudzavui), Late Postclassic period, deerskin, folio 27 ( The British Museum )            For my first blog post of week 13 I decided to focus on something that I haven’t done before. In Mesoamerica there were many different cultures and inside each culture they each had different ways to communicate their beliefs. The two groups that really stood out to me during this time period were the Nahua and the Mixtec. Obviously, these are two completely different cultures but there was something that they shared. They shared a form of writing called “Rebus Writing” which means, “writing with pictures.” You may also hear this form of writing called “” writing without words” or “writing with signs” ….   It is also called pictographic, ideographic, or picture writing.” According to ...

  Machu Picchu, Peru, c. 1450–1540 (photo: Sarahh Scher, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)     For my first blog post of week 12, I decided to go with the beautiful Machu Picchu. Many people describe this estate as “mysterious” because of the location and the different architectural feats. These individuals aren’t wrong, but we do know a lot about Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was built for the great Inkan Emperor, Pachacuti Inka Yupanqui, during the 15 th  century. This beautiful place over looks the Urubamba River which is now modern day Peru. This place was intended for the emperor and his family to host various events such as feasts, ceremonies, and to administer the affairs of the empire. This site was perfect for the empire because it provided sight lines to many of the other Andes mountain tops and valleys. This was important for the emperor because it gave him an advantage over his enemies because they could always prepare for an attack. According to Smart History, “The site con...

  Ndop Portrait of King Mishe miShyaang maMbul , c. 1760-80, wood and camwood powder, 19-1/2 x 7-5/8 x 8-5/8″ (Brooklyn Museum) The second blog post that I am going to be talking about is about a portrait, of king Mishe miShyaang maMbul, carved out of wood. Artists in all different cultures create these remarkable pieces to honor these leaders. King Mishe was well known for his great generosity and his numerous loyal subjects. The king’s people even dedicated a “praise song” for him in his honor. The specific piece above is the idealized portrait-statue that he named an ndop. This specific ndop was purchased by the Brooklyn museum in 1961. At first, the ndop was founded in 1909 by colonial minister in which then was known as Belgian Congo. So why do we know who Alexander the great was but not King Mishe? This is because the Kuba peoples and their descendents didn’t use typical written records like other colonies. These individuals believed that oral narrative was the primary way fo...

  Aerial view of Great Zimbabwe’s Great Enclosure and adjacent ruins, looking southeast (photo:  Janice Bell , CC BY-SA 4.0)          For my first blog post of this week I am going to be focusing on the architectural landscapes of the Great Zimbabwe people in the sub-Saharan area. Aside from ancient Egypt, the stone complexes here are the largest in Africa built before the modern era. There aren’t a ton of ruins that have survived, but the ones that did are located about 4 hours from the capitol Harare. The ruins were inhabited by the Shona people until about 1450, the ruins were originally constructed between the 11 th  and 15 th  centuries. Great Zimbabwe was more than just one singular architectural landscape, in fact it is believed that there were about seven little states in the local region.       The really interesting piece is the fact that Great Zimbabwe can be categorized into just about three different areas. Th...