Mexican Art

Fülszöveg

MEXICAN ART MEXICO, of all the modern nations in the American continent, has behind her the richest continuous artistic heritage, reaching far back over a period of twenty centuries. The fusion of an old and highly developed native culture with the civilisation of western Europe has produced the Mexican art that is very much alive today. For 1500 years before the Spanish conquerors arrived, many brilliant cultures flourished in what is now Mexico. Of these, the well-known Aztecs were only the inheritors of the highly gifted Olmecs, Toltecs and many others, while, in the south-east, the sophisticated Mayas built and then abandoned their astonishing cities like Palenque and Chichén Itzá. The colonial period brought into being a distinctive Mexican style - above all, in the fantastically exuberant development of European Baroque and Rococo art combined with native decorative traditions which is called 'UltraBaroque\ This is seen in such great church fa9ades as that of the cathedral of... Tovább

Fülszöveg

MEXICAN ART MEXICO, of all the modern nations in the American continent, has behind her the richest continuous artistic heritage, reaching far back over a period of twenty centuries. The fusion of an old and highly developed native culture with the civilisation of western Europe has produced the Mexican art that is very much alive today. For 1500 years before the Spanish conquerors arrived, many brilliant cultures flourished in what is now Mexico. Of these, the well-known Aztecs were only the inheritors of the highly gifted Olmecs, Toltecs and many others, while, in the south-east, the sophisticated Mayas built and then abandoned their astonishing cities like Palenque and Chichén Itzá. The colonial period brought into being a distinctive Mexican style - above all, in the fantastically exuberant development of European Baroque and Rococo art combined with native decorative traditions which is called 'UltraBaroque\ This is seen in such great church fa9ades as that of the cathedral of Zacatecas, and in altars and chapels which, as at Santa Maria Tonantzintla, glitter like jewelled caves. The Mexican revolution of 1910 marked Mexico's decisive entry into the twentieth century and has produced the impressive flowering of a highly individual national art - the murai painting movement dominated by the trio of world-famous masters Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros. The 59 full-colour plates cover the art and architecture of nearly 2000 years, including ancient Mexican pottery, jade, gold, wallpainting, sculpture, as well as pyramids and palaces, followed by the friaries, churches, shrines and oil-paintings of the colonial period and finally, magnificent reproductions of modern murals. A special group of plates reproduces the colourful and imaginative popular art in Mexico. The author, Professor Justino Fernández, is the Director of the Institute of Aesthetic Research at the National University of Mexico. All the colour photographs have been specially taken for this book by Senor Constantino Reyes. Vissza