THE ARTS IN MEXICO.
(BY Aruvin Kumaar a/l Sookumaran 161420013)
- The art of Mexico is well famously known for its local traditions which has been copied from indigenous and also from Spanish colonial crafts.
- Since the Spanish conquest of the Mexican Aztec Empire, Mexican art has been an ongoing and complex interaction between the traditions of Europe and native perspectives.
1)
Church
Construction.
- After the conquest,the very first efforts of the Spainards were to build churches in which they needed plenty of labors for basic construction.
- Many indigenious people were brought in to carry out the construction of the churches. Indigenious craftsmen were tought on European building designs and techniques. However, the Spanish didn’t have many trained engineers nor architechs. Therefore, they had to rely on indigenous craftsmen and sculptors to build their churches and other Christian structures.
·
The first monasteries built in and around Mexico
was in Mexico City such as the monasteries on the slopes of
Popocatepetl.
·
It had
some important elements in to it such as the Renaissance and the Gothics .
· These buildings were not very fancily decorated
as building efforts were mainly focused on the buildings of fortresses and high
walls for protection from wards of attacks from various enemies.
·
Today, colonial era structures are still
preserved in Mexico City and other parts of Mexico. It still exists around all
over the country mainly in the central highlands around Mexico City which is
the capital city of Mexico.
Picture No.(1): An atrium cross in Acolman
which was from the early period of Spanish colonisation.
·
2)
Feather Work
- · Mexican Feather work is also called plumeria and was an important artistic and decorative technique in the pre-Hispanic and colonial periods in what is now Mexico. It became a very special and prized work in Europe.
- · Was considered a highly valued skill of prehispanic central Mexico that continued into the early colonial era. Spaniards were fascinated by this form of art, and indigenous feather workers produced religious images in this medium, mainly small "paintings", as well as religious vestments.
- · However, in the early 17th Century the popularity of feather work began to decline due to the death of the masters of the work and due to the disappearance of birds which provides fine feathers for the work and also due to the depreciation of the indigenous handiwork.
Pic.no (2): The Mass of St. Gregory, feathers on wood
panel, the oldest dated feather work with a Christian subject which is dated 1539.
3). Indigenous Writing.
Picture No.(3): An example of Indigenous Writing Script.
- · Indians continued production the of written manuscripts in the early colonial era, especially in the Nahua area of central Mexico.
- · An important type of manuscript from the early period were pictorial and textual histories of the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs from the indigenous viewpoint.
4) Architecture.
- · The presence of man in the Mexican territory has left important archaeological finds for the explanation of the habitat of early man and modern man.
- The Mayan civilizations have achieved great stylistic development and proportion in human and urban scale, the form evolved from simplicity to complexity artistics in the north it manifests architecture of adobe and stone.
- · One example shown is Monte Albán was for long the seat of the dominant power in the region of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca in the 19th century.
- It is also to said that Monte Alban is to be a multiethnic population city.
- Throughout its height of popularity, the city has maintained good relationships with other major Prehispanic Cities.
- Archaeologists found many sites such as the ball game arena( Ball game : a kind of sport which was popular during the Mayan civilizations where oponents between 2 to 4 in each team use their heads, hips, n legs to score the ball in a small hoop.), and ancient Mayan temples.
Picture no.(4): a wide side pyramid platform of the Monte Alban
Side complex.
