Art and Writing in the Maya Cities, AD 600–800
A Poetics of Line

Examines ancient Mayan visual culture during a time of transition in aesthetic and written values.

Adam Herring (Author)

9780521842464, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 June 2005

340 pages, 120 b/w illus. 16 colour illus.
26.2 x 18.3 x 3 cm, 1.032 kg

"Adam Herring has written an engaging, informative, and generally readable book that provides an intriging new perpective on late classic lowland Maya art (A.D. 600 -800). The book presents a welcome and long overdue redirection in contemporary studies of classic Maya art...a wonderful new examination of classic Maya art and its appreciation, and one well worth reading by any with an interest in the Maya or art history."
Joseph W. Ball, American Historical Review

Art and Writing in the Maya Cities, AD 600–800 examines an important aspect of the visual cultures of the ancient Maya in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. During a critical period of cultural evolution, artistic production changed significantly, as calligraphy became an increasingly important formal element in Maya aesthetics and was used extensively in monumental building, sculptural programs and small-scale utilitarian objects. Adam Herring's study analyzes art works, visual programs, and cultural sites of memory, providing an anthropologically-informed description of ancient Maya culture, vision, and artistic practice. An inquiry into the contexts and perceptions of the ancient Maya city, his book melds epigraphic and iconographic methodologies with the critical tradition of art-historical interpretation.

1. Yuknoom's stare, the beholder's share
2. Gesture and speech
3. In the realm of the senses
4. Piedras Negras: capital city, canted landscape
Epilogue: signatures of sociability.

Subject Areas: Other graphic art forms [AFJ], History of art: ancient & classical art,BCE to c 500 CE [ACG]