Overview

Color is an integral part of human experience, so common as to be overlooked or treated as unimportant. Yet color is both unavoidable and varied. Each culture classifies, understands, and uses it in different and often surprising ways, posing particular challenges to those who study color from long-ago times and places far distant. Veiled Brightness reconstructs what color meant to the ancient Maya, a set of linked peoples and societies who flourished in and around the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and Central America. By using insights from archaeology, linguistics, art history, and conservation, the book charts over two millennia of color use in a region celebrated for its aesthetic refinement and high degree of craftsmanship. The authors open with a survey of approaches to color perception, looking at Aristotelian color theory, recent discoveries in neurophysiology, and anthropological research on color. Maya color terminology receives new attention here, clarifying not just basic color terms, but also the extensional or associated meanings that enriched ancient Maya perception of color. The materials and technologies of Maya color production are assembled in one place as never before, providing an invaluable reference for future research. From these investigations, the authors demonstrate that Maya use of color changed over time, through a sequence of historical and artistic developments that drove the elaboration of new pigments and coloristic effects. These findings open fresh avenues for investigation of ancient Maya aesthetics and worldview and provide a model for how to study the meaning and making of color in other ancient civilizations.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stephen D. Houston ,  Claudia Brittenham ,  Cassandra Mesick ,  Alexandre Tokovinine
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Imprint:   University of Texas Press
Dimensions:   Width: 21.00cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 27.90cm
Weight:   1.107kg
ISBN:  

9780292719002

ISBN 10:   0292719000
Pages:   162
Publication Date:   01 July 2009
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

"Prologue Chapter One. Seeing Color Sensing Color Theorizing Color in the West Comparative Theories of Color Colorizing Mesoamerica A Book on Maya Color Chapter Two. Naming Color Simplex Terms Complex Terms Organization of Colors Maya Color Terms Red White Black Yellow Yax Maya Terminology Chapter Three. Making Color Prime Colorants Feathers Flowers Shells Spondylus Mother-of-Pearl and Pearl Stones Jade Nonjade Greenstones Obsidian Turquoise Reflective Stones: Pyrite, Hematite, and Mica Translucent Stones Manufactured Colorants Dyes Pigments and Paints Blacks Whites Reds, Yellows, and Browns Blues and Greens Ceramics: A Special Case Making Maya Color Chapter Four. Using Color Approaches and Limitations The Preclassic and Early Classic: Colors of the Earth Red, Black, and White The Late Preclassic: New Colors The Early Classic: Tradition and Retrenchment Color Use in the Preclassic and Early Classic The Late Early Classic and the Rise of Maya Blue Experiments in Ceramics The Invention of Maya Blue Architectural Color The Conservative Colors of Death Color Use in the Late Early Classic The Late Classic: Naturalism and Its Dissenters The Naturalistic Revolution Color and Dimension Rejections of Polychromy Color Use in the Late Classic The Terminal Classic: Rupture and Reinventions The Postclassic: The Colors of the Gods Early Postclassic: Five Basic Colors Late Postclassic: The ""International Style"" The ""Blue-and-Black Style"" Color Contrasts Color Use in the Postclassic Using Color Epilogue: A History of Maya Color Appendix: Dyes and Organic Colorants of the Maya and Aztecs Bibliography Index"

Reviews

"""What excites me most about this study is what it means to the future of scholarship on Maya art. Insight into the aesthetic, symbolic, and material framework of what is perhaps the most complex visual system of the ancient world has taken a decisive step forward in this book. Because of its tie to language through the writing system, codified nature, continuity with modern cultures, and elaboration on thousands of objects, Maya art has an analytic potential unparalleled in the ancient Americas that we are just beginning to investigate. I therefore welcome this book which attempts to bring color into the equation of what constitutes the Maya aesthetic system."" --Andrea Stone, Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee"

What excites me most about this study is what it means to the future of scholarship on Maya art. Insight into the aesthetic, symbolic, and material framework of what is perhaps the most complex visual system of the ancient world has taken a decisive step forward in this book. Because of its tie to language through the writing system, codified nature, continuity with modern cultures, and elaboration on thousands of objects, Maya art has an analytic potential unparalleled in the ancient Americas that we are just beginning to investigate. I therefore welcome this book which attempts to bring color into the equation of what constitutes the Maya aesthetic system. --Andrea Stone, Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Author Information

Stephen Houston serves as Paul Dupee Family Professor of Social Science at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Claudia Brittenham holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University and is now a member of the Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan. Cassandra Mesick is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at Brown University. Alexandre Tokovinine is Research Associate, Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. Christina Warinner is preparing her doctoral dissertation in anthropology at Harvard University.

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