Customer Reviews

Ancient Mexican Designs CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The book includes 3 well-known designs: the Aztec Calendar Stone, the "Tablet of the Slaves" from the Mayan Palenque ruins, and the king's sarcophagus also from Palenque. The book also includes designs from other Ancient Mexican cultures: Mixtec, Zapotec, and Olmec. Yet, it primarily concentrates on Aztec and Mayan images. Each image is numbered, so that it can be easily found on the accompanying CD-ROM.

The book delivers exactly what it promised, so normally I would give it 5 stars. However, the images are not well-organized by culture or chronology; they are simply scattered throughout the book. Nor is the cultural heritage for all images specifically noted. For these reasons, I have downgraded my rating to a 4.

it was a pleasure to see imagery from MANY different realms of art sources - especially those done in stone. It was also an eye-opening experience for me to see images placed in Ancient Mexico culture art category, when I once thought were Native American art but REALLY is Mexican art (especially as I have the Southwest & Native American Dover Design books to use as comparison). The variety in image sizes was also nice since it gave me the opportunity to easily capture an image or two from the large sketch in the book derived from a huge wall painting in Mexico. An all-around classic cultural art book.

I use a Mac and had no trouble accessing the CD as others have indicated. I don't know how often I will use it in a Spanish classroom but it's good to have just in case. I really like being able to access the designs off the CD.

The cd did not work (and I tried it on several computers), and the images in the book are not as clear as I would have expected. It was a good idea, but the quality of the product leaves much to be desired.