0134484592 ch27

Copyright © 2018, 2014, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Art History
Sixth Edition
Chapter 27
Art of the Americas after
1300

Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
27.a Identify the visual hallmarks of post-1300 art of the Americas in its
distinct cultures for formal, technical, and expressive qualities.
27.b Interpret the meaning of post-1300 works of art of the Americas in
its distinct cultures based on their themes, subjects, and symbols.
27.c Relate the art of the Americas after 1300 to its distinct cultural,
economic, and political contexts.

Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
27.d Apply the vocabulary and concepts relevant to the art of the
Americas after 1300.
27.e Interpret a work of art of the Americas after 1300 using the art
historical methods of observation, comparison, and inductive reasoning.
27.f Select visual and textual evidence in various media to support an
argument or an interpretation of a work of art of the Americas after 1300.

Julia Jumbo TWO GREY HILLS TAPESTRY WEAVING
Navajo, c. 1960. Handspun wool, 36" × 24-1/2" (91.2 × 62.1 cm).
Photo: Addison Doty. [Fig. 27-01]

The Aztec Empire
• The Mexica people migrated from a northwestern region to the Basin
of Mexico, settling on an island in Lake Texcoco.
• The term Aztec derives from the word Aztlan, and refers to all those
living in Central Mexico who came from Aztlan.
• Religion was based on a complex pantheon.

THE AMERICAS AFTER 1300
Diverse cultures inhabited the Americas, each shaping a distinct artistic tradition.
[Map 27-01]

A CLOSER LOOK: Calendar Stone
Mexico. Aztec, c. 1500. Diameter 11'6-3/4" (3.6 m).
Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. © Jejim/Shutterstock. [Fig. 27-2]

Tenochtitlan (1 of 2)
• Most Aztec books were destroyed in the wake of the Spanish invasion,
but the work of the scribes appears in manuscripts created after the
conquest such as the Codex Mendoza.

THE FOUNDING OF TENOCHTITLAN
Page from Codex Mendoza. Mexico. Aztec, 1545.
Ink and color on paper, 12-3/8" × 8-7/16" (31.5 × 21.5 cm).
Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, England. MS. Arch Selden. A.1, fol. 2r.
The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford. [Fig. 27-03]

Tenochtitlan (2 of 2)
• At the center of their capital at Tenochtitlan, the Templo Mayor rose
130 feet within a walled, sacred precinct.
– Sacrificial victims climbed the stairs to the summit of the temple of
Huitzilopochtli, where priests cut out their still-beating hearts.
– The other temple was dedicated to Tlaloc.

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID (TEMPLO MAYOR) OF
TENOCHTITLAN, c. 1500.
Hernan Canellas/National Geographic Creative. [Fig. 27-04]

Sculpture
• The statue of The Goddess Coatlicue may allude to the moment of the
god Huitzilopochtli's birth.
– Human hands, hearts, and a skull hang from her body as serpents
symbolizing gushing blood emerge from where she was
beheaded.
– It was originally painted, which must have enhanced its ferocity.

THE GODDESS COATLICUE
Mexico. Aztec, c. 1500. Basalt, height 8'6" (2.65 m).
Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. Werner Forman Archive. [Fig. 27-05]

Featherwork and Manuscripts (1 of 2)
• The Feather Headdress of Monteczuma was said to have been given
to Cortés.
• Very few fragile works of feather survive.
– Long iridescent green feathers are rare tail feathers of the quetzal
bird; each male only has two such plumes.
– Feathers were gathered, reinforced with reed tubes, then layered
together.

FEATHER HEADDRESS OF MOCTEZUMA
Mexico. Aztec, before 1519. Quetzal, blue cotinga, and other feathers and gold on a fiber
frame, 45-5/8" × 68-7/8" (116 × 175 cm). Weltmuseum, Vienna.
Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 27-06]

Featherwork and Manuscripts (2 of 2)
• Manuscripts
– Books took the form of a screen-fold that allowed different pages
of the book to be juxtaposed.
– A rare manuscript preserved Mesoamerican cosmology.
 Each of the 260 dots refers to a day in their calendar, and they
were linked to 20 day signs throughout the image.

A VIEW OF THE WORLD
Page from Codex Fejervary-Mayer. Mexico. Aztec or Mixtec, c. 1400–1519. Paint on
animal hide, each page 6-7/8" × 6-7/8" (17.5 × 17.5 cm), total length 13'3" (4.04 m).
National Museums, Liverpool, England. © akg-images/De Agostini Picture Lib.
[Fig. 27-07]

The Inca Empire
• The capital at Cuzco was in the center of 2,600 miles of territory by
1500 CE.
– Religion, bureaucracy, and labor taxation united the empire's
peoples.
– More than 23,000 miles of roads connected the farthest reaches of
the empire to the capital.

Cusco
• The urban plan of this city was rumored to have been constructed in
the shape of a puma.
• It served as both the symbolic and political center of the Inca Empire.
• Architecture conveyed powerful aesthetic impact and featured fine
masonry that can be seen to this day.

INCA MASONRY, DETAIL OF A WALL AT MACHU PICCHU
Peru. Inca, 1450–1530.
© Galyna Andrushko/Shutterstock. [Fig. 27-08]

Elements of Architecture: Inca Masonry
• Stonework was created with heavy stone hammers and without mortar.
• Faces of each stone might be beveled for a "pillowed" shape or they
might be smoothed into a continuous wall of stones.
• So refined was this stonework that it has survived earthquakes that
destroyed later structures.

ELEMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE: Inca masonry

Machu Picchu
• Machu Picchu is an example of refined, enduring stonework.
• It was the ruler's summer home and rests 9,000 feet above sea level.
• The entire complex was designed with sensitivity to its surrounding
landscape.

MACHU PICCHU
Peru. Inca, 1450–1530.
© Ocphoto/Shutterstock. [Fig. 27-09]

Textiles and Metalwork (1 of 2)
• Cloths of cotton and camelid were a primary form of wealth.
– Patterns and colors on garments carried symbolic messages, such
as the checkerboard on the shown Tunic.

TUNIC
Peru. Inca, c. 1500. Camelid fiber and cotton, 35-7/8" × 30" (91 × 76.5 cm).
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections, Pre-Columbian Collection,
Washington, DC. Justin Kerr/Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine Photograph and Fieldwork
Archives, Washington, DC. [Fig. 27-10]

Textiles and Metalwork (2 of 2)
• Metalwork
– The Inca valued objects of gold and silver because they
symbolized the "sweat" of the sun and the "tears" of the moon.
– Spanish exploration led to the destruction of nearly all works,
leaving only small burial offerings such as the Llama.

LLAMA
From Bolivia or Peru, found near Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. Inca, 15th century. Cast silver
with gold and cinnabar, 9" × 8-1/2" × 1-3/4" (22.9 × 21.6 × 4.4 cm).
American Museum of Natural History, New York. Courtesy Dept. of Library Services,
American Museum of Natural History. Photo: John Bigelow Taylor, NY. [Fig. 27-11]

The Aftermath of the Spanish Conquest
• Native American populations declined as much as 90 percent following
contact with Europe.
– This was due to the exploitation of the conquerors as well as the
spread of smallpox.
• European missionaries worked to spread Christianity.

North America
• The United States displaced nearly all Native Americans from their
ancestral homelands in a forced migration known as the Trail of Tears.
• Native American cultures created small, portable, fragile, and
impermanent works of art.
– These were collected as anthropological artifacts prior to
recognition as art.

NORTH AMERICAN CULTURAL AREAS
The varied geographic regions of North America supported diverse cultures adapted to
their distinct environments. [Map 27-02]

The Eastern Woodlands (1 of 5)
• Most tribes lived in stable villages and combined hunting, gathering,
and agriculture for their livelihood.
– The Iroquois, Huron, and Illinois formed powerful nations by the
sixteenth century.
• Trade with seventeenth-century settlers gave Woodlands people
access to new and useful tools.

• Wampum
– Belts and strings of purple and white shell beads were called
wampum.
– These were exchanged to keep records and conclude treaties.
– Few survive, but the one on the next slide commemorates a treaty
of Pennsylvania land being ceded by the Delawares in 1682.

WAMPUM BELT, TRADITIONALLY CALLED WILLIAM PENN'S TREATY WITH THE
DELAWARE
1680s. Shell beads, 17-3/8" × 6-1/8" (44 × 15.5 cm).
Royal Ontario Museum, Canada. With permission of the Royal Ontario Museum © ROM.
[Fig. 27-12]

The Eastern Woodands (3 of 5)
• Quillwork
– Woodlands art focused on personal adornment and quillwork.
– The Baby Carrier is richly adorned with quillwork symbols of
protection and well-being, containing a thunderbird.

BABY CARRIER
Upper Missouri River area. Eastern Sioux, 19th century.
Wooden board, buckskin, porcupine quill, length 31" (78.8 cm).
Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, DC.
Catalogue No. 73311, Department of Anthropoogy, Smithsonian Institution. [Fig. 27-13]

• Beadwork and basketry
– Decorative beadwork did not become commonplace until after
European contact.
 In the nineteenth century, it largely replaced quillwork.
– A bandolier bag from Kansas features curvilinear plant motifs and
has a shape inspired from European military uniforms.

BANDOLIER BAG
Kansas. Delaware people, c. 1860.
Wool fabric, cotton fabric and thread, silk ribbon, and glass beads, 22" × 17" (56 × 43
cm); bag without strap, 8-5/8" × 7-3/4" (22 × 19.7 cm).
The Detroit Institute of Arts. Founders Society Purchase (81.216). Bridgeman Images.
[Fig. 27-14]

• Beadwork and basketry
– Three principal basket-making techniques include coiling, twining,
and plaiting.
– The basket shown here was made by a Pomo woman in
California.
 It features a spiral surface with clam shell and feathers woven
into it.
– Such baskets were treasured and even cremated with their
owners at death.

FEATHERED BASKET
California. Pomo culture, c. 1877. Willow, bulrush, fern, feather, shells, glass beads.
Height 5-1/2" (14 cm), diameter 12" (36.5 cm).
The Philbrook Museum of Art, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma. Gift of Clark Field (1948.39.37)
[Fig. 27-15]

The Great Plains (1 of 3)
• On the Great Plains, both agricultural and nomadic lifestyles
developed.
• European settlers put increasing pressure on the Native Americans
and forced them to move westward.
– Resulting interaction of Eastern Woodlands artists with one
another and with Plains artists led to a new hybrid style.

• Portable Architecture
– Nomadic Plains women designed tipi dwellings made of buffalo
hides covering a framework that could be easily transported.
 Women and men both decorated buffalo hides, although they
were primarily the responsibility and property of women.

BLACKFOOT WOMEN RAISING A TIPI
Photographed c. 1900.
Montana Historical Society Research Center. [Fig. 27-16]

• Plains Indian Painting
– The earliest known painted buffalo-hide robe illustrates a battle by
the Mandan against the Sioux, with figures that stand out against
the light-colored background.
– The transcontinental railway, finished in 1869, brought increasing
numbers of settlers that destroyed the Native American way of life
on the Plains.

BATTLE SCENE, HIDE PAINTING
North Dakota. Mandan, 1797–1800. Tanned buffalo hide, dyed porcupine quills, and
black, red, green, yellow, and brown pigment, 7'10" × 8'6" (2.44 × 2.65 m).
Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. Gift
of the heirs of David Kimball. © President and Fellows of Harvard College, Peabody
Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University PM#99-12-10/53121
[Fig. 27-17]

The Northwest Coast (1 of 5)
• The First Nations of the Northwest Coast included the Tlingit, Haida,
and Kwakwaka'wakw people.
• This region featured unusually abundant resources, especially
centered around fish.

• Animal Imagery
– The animal from which a family derived its name was used in
totemic emblems or crests.
– Chief Shakes of Wrangell was the owner of the Tlingit screen
illustrated on the next slide.
 The grizzly bear was the family crest featured.

GRIZZLY BEAR HOUSE-PARTITION SCREEN
From the house of Chief Shakes of Wrangell, Canada. Tlingit people, c. 1840.
Cedar, paint, and human hair, 15' × 8' (4.57 × 2.74 m).
Denver Art Museum Collection. Native Arts acquisition funds (1951.315). [Fig. 27-18]

• Textiles
– Textiles of the Chilkat Tlingit had great prestige.
 Men drew patterns on boards, and women wove them into
blankets.
 The popular design shown here is the diving whale; precise
identifications and meanings have not been established.
 Ovoid and formline shapes are characteristic of Northwest
painting.

CHILKAT BLANKET
Southeast Alaska. Tlingit people, c. 1850. Mountain-goat wool, yellow cedar bark, linen
thread, approx. 55" × 72" (130 × 183 cm).
Thaw Collection, Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York. Photo: John Bigelow
Taylor. [Fig. 27-19]

• Masks
– Many Native American cultures staged ritual dance ceremonies to
call upon guardian spirits.
– Some of the most elaborate belonged to the Hamatsa society.
 However, isolated as "art" in museums, they lose some of the
vivacity they would have had in performance.

• Masks
– The Kwakwaka'wakw people dance "people-eating" bird masks in
a ritual to initiate new members into the prestigious Hamatsa
society.
 Among the finest wooden masks are those by Willie Seaweed,
a chief.
– Edward S. Curtis spent 30 years documenting such rituals.

Attributed to Willie Seaweed KWAKWAKA'WAKW BIRD MASK
Alert Bay, Vancouver Island, Canada. Prior to 1951.
Cedar wood, cedar bark, feathers, and fiber, 10" × 72" × 15" (25.4 × 183 × 38.1 cm).
Collection of the Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada. (A6120). Courtesy of the
UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, Canada [Fig. 27-20]

The Southwest (1 of 6)
• Ancestral Puebloans built apartmentlike villages and cliff dwellings
throughout the Four Corners region of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona,
and Utah.
• The Navajo developed a sedentary way of life based on agriculture
and shepherding.
• Both groups have maintained their ancestral homelands to modern
day.

• The Pueblos
– Some villages consist of multi-storied adobe dwellings such as the
Taos Pueblo.
 It was continually occupied and modified for over 500 years
and provided flexible communal dwellings.
 Ladders provided access to upper rooms.
 Roof terraces were centers of community and ceremony.

TAOS PUEBLO
Taos, New Mexico. Photographed 1947.
© 1979 Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas.
Bequest of the artist (P1979.208.698). [Fig. 27-21]

• Ceramics
– The contemporary Pueblo people still make fine ceramics.
 Maria Montoya Martinez of the San Ildefonso Pueblo created a
unique blackware style noted for its elegant forms and subtle
textures.

Maria Montoya Martinez and Julian Martinez BLACK-ON-BLACK STORAGE JAR
New Mexico. c. 1942. Ceramic, height 18-3/4" (47.6 cm), diameter 22-1/2" (57.1 cm).
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology, Museum of New Mexico,
Santa Fe. Gift of Henry Dendhal. Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of
Anthropology, Santa Fe. [Fig. 27-22]

• The Santa Fe Indian School
– Anglo-American art teachers collaborated to create a stereotypical
"Indian" style in several media.
– Koshares of Taos by Pablita Velarde illustrates a winter solstice
ceremony during which clowns (koshares) take over the plaza
from the Katsinas.

Pablita Velarde KOSHARES OF TAOS
New Mexico. 1940s. Watercolor on paper, 13-7/8" × 22-3/8" (35.3 × 56.9 cm).
Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Museum Purchase (1947.37). © Margarete
Bagshaw, Golden Dawn Gallery, Santa Fe, NM. Photograph © 2017. The Philbrook
Museum of Art, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma. [Fig. 27-23]

• The Navajos
– Some Navajo arts developed only after contact with Europeans,
including weaving, blanket making, and turquoise jewelry.
– Sand painting is reserved exclusively for men and is completed
during a series of chants by shaman-singers.

• The Navajos
– Hosteen Klah broke with traditional prohibitions and incorporated
sand-painting images into weaving, simultaneously exploring the
gender system of the Navajo.
 Whirling Log Ceremony depicts part of the creation myth.

Hosteen Klah WHIRLING LOG CEREMONY
Sand painting; tapestry by Mrs. Sam Manuelito. Navajo, c. 1925.
Wool, 5'5" × 5'10" (1.69 × 1.82 m).
Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona. [Fig. 27-24]

A New Beginning (1 of 3)
• The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) supports Native American
students across the continent.
– It encourages indigenous ideals without creating an official "style."
• Jaune Quick-to-See Smith borrowed from da Vinci's Vitruvian Man to
create The Red Mean, putting her silhouette inside an X signifying
nuclear radiation.

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith THE RED MEAN: SELF-PORTRAIT
1992. Acrylic, newspaper collage, and mixed media on canvas, 90" × 60"
(228.6 × 154.4 cm). Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts. Part gift
from Janet Wright Ketcham, class of 1953, and part purchase from the Janet Wright
Ketcham, class of 1953, Acquisition Fund. (SC 1993:10a.b.). © Jaune Quick-to-See
Smith (Salish member of Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation Mt ). Courtesy of the
Artist and Catherine Louisa Gallery, MT. Photo: Petegorsky/Gipe [Fig. 27-25]

• Canadian Haida artist Bill Reid revived the art of carving totem poles
and dugout canoes and later applied them to large-scale bronze
sculptures.
– The Spirit of Haida Gwaii was a metaphor for Canada's
multicultural society, depicting a boatload of figures from the
natural and mythic worlds struggling forward.

Bill Reid THE SPIRIT OF HAIDA GWAII
Haida, 1991. Bronze, approx. 13' × 20' (4 × 6 m).
Canadian Embassy, Washington, DC. © Chris Cheadle/Alamy Stock Photo. [Fig. 27-26]

• The National Museum of the American Indian
– The establishment this museum in 2004 in Washington, D.C. has
helped to legitimize early cultural art.
– It is surrounded by boulders, water, and plantings that recall
various landscapes of North America.

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN
The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Opened September, 2004. Architectural
design: GBQC in association with Douglas Cardinal (Blackfoot). Architectural consultants:
Johnpaul Jones (Cherokee-Choctaw) and Ramona Sakiestewa (Hopi). Landscape
consultant: Donna House (Navajo-Oneida), ethno-botanist. J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Photos. [Fig. 27-27]

Think About It (1 of 2)
• Distinguish characteristic styles and techniques developed by two
Native American cultures—one in the north, and one in the south—and
discuss how they are demonstrated in one specific work from each
culture.
• Explain how symbols and themes are used in Figure 27–7 to articulate
the Aztec worldview.

Think About It (2 of 2)
• Choose a work of art in this chapter that is best understood in
connection with its use in religious or political ritual. Discuss its
meaning in relation to its ceremonial context. How could such works be
displayed in museums in such a way that viewers would be able to
understand this critical aspect of their meaning?
• Evaluate the ways in which two Native North American works from this
chapter show influences from European culture.

0134484592 ch27

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