The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art [Paperback]

Linda Schele (Author), Mary Ellen Miller (Author), Justin Kerr (Photographer), Michael D. Coe (Preface), Emily J. Sano (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 1992

"[A] work as remarkable for its text as for the photographs and drawings that illustrate it."—Octavio Paz, The New York Review of Books

A comprehensive guide to the Maya which reveals kingship rites, ritual warfare, with a vast array of color plates and drawings. 122 color plates, 300 drawings and 50 black-and-white illustrations

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lavishly produced (with 122 color plates, 300 drawings and 50 black-and-white illustrations), this book, designed to accompany a traveling exhibition, is narrowly focused on the opulent lifestyle and ideology of the Maya ruling elite. Maya history is presented mainly in terms of the sumptuary art, dynastic succession and peculiar (sadomasochistic) courtly rituals of these aristocrats. Schele and Miller see as the keys to this civilization an underworld myth (the Popol Vuh) and grisly blood-letting and -taking ceremonies conducted in royal precincts, parade grounds, ball courts and battlefields, which are pictured on relief carvings and paintings. This interpretation is based on a new phonetic reading of Maya hieroglyphics that has gained ground since the 1960s, to which Schele has contributed heavily. She has come up with eyecatching decipherments of glyphs on monuments that identify the names, dates and some major eventsbirth, death, marriage, accession, the capture of enemiesin the lives of individual Maya kings. Much of this intriguing explication is clearly laid out in the text, captions and notes.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Though Maya script, symbolism, and mythology are not yet fully understood, research from the last 25 years is showing that the Maya, once seen as "simple" peaceful people, are now thought to have lived in rival city-states waging war to capture prisoners who were often sacrificed to enhance the power of rulers. This exhibition catalog is organized along eight themes that recur in Maya art. The 123 spectacular color plates, along with black-and-white photographs and 200 drawings, are intimately bound to the text: they are the pictorial representations of the sacred objects and places that imbued Maya political and religious life with meaning. The authors have built on important recent research to shed new light on the Maya code and symbolism; this is an important contribution to our understanding of the Classic Maya. Winfred Lambrecht, Anthropology Dept., Brown Univ.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: George Braziller, Inc. (April 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807612782
• ISBN-13: 978-0807612781
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 9.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Byzantine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading for the Maya Enthusiast, November 5, 2001

By 

Thomas F. Ogara (Jacksonville, FL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (Paperback)

Mary Ellen Miller and the late Linda Schele put this book together in 1986. The field of Mayan studies is a fast-moving arena, and Mayanists already know a lot more now than they did when this book came out, but in my opinion this book is still the place to start if you want to begin learning about the Maya.

For one thing, the photography of the artwork is fantastic - the book is worth acquiring for that alone. Secondly, the commentary is by the greatest names in the field, including an introduction by Michael Coe. Thirdly, the book never strays from academic discipline, unlike a great deal of New Agey-type material written about the Maya. In fact, the book studiously avoids making any observations that cannot be substantiated - perhaps a reaction in the field of Mayan studies against the sometimes too pat assumptions that Eric Thompson made when he dominated the subject. Fourthly, it covers all the major cultural features of the Maya, providing abundant commentary on each piece of art portrayed. Last but not least, it tackles the thorny subject of Maya iconography. This is a field about which we already know a great deal more about now than we knew in 1986, but in fact if the book were written today there is probably very little that would actually be changed.

The book was printed in Japan, for some reason. No harm in that - the Japanese have a tradition, and a reputation, of producing quality bindings and excellent photographic reproductions, both of which are evident in this edition and which add to the quality of the book. I can't recommend it too highly to anyone interested in the Maya.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great articles and fabulous photographs and drawings, March 13, 2004

By 

Craig Matteson (Saline, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (Paperback)

It is nearly twenty years since this book was published in 1986 as part of an exhibition at the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas during the Texas Sesquicentennial. This book was and remains a triumph. We still mourn the loss of Linda Schele and are grateful the Mary Ellen Miller continues her work and teaching at Yale.

The book makes clear the Mayan Kings were not Emperors. They were rulers of city-states that competed with one another. They also had a spiritual role in the life of those they ruled. This book discusses how one became a Mayan King, life in the court, the role of bloodletting and visions (hallucinations?), warfare and human sacrifice, the all-important ballgame, the Mayan concept of afterlife and Xibalba, and the Mayan view of the cosmos. All fascinating topics and the articles are written quite well. I find them to be a captivating read.

The selection of images for the book is fabulous. This book can make a wonderful coffee table book, they are that beautiful. However, the articles are far superior to most books you find on coffee tables. I remember seeing Maya Blue (the shade that the Mayans painted on a great many of the monuments and sculptures) for the first time in this book. Having seen it in person since then I can tell you the shade is captured very faithfully in the photographs in this book.

Much has been written since 1986 and new discoveries and new examinations of existing discoveries deepen our understanding of the Maya. But this book still stands strong and valuable. It is not too technical for the general reader and still has value for the student. I am glad to have my copy on a shelf of favorite books.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the Ooze of LIfe, April 25, 2000

By 

sharon mcmullen orlet - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Blood of Kings: Dynasty and Ritual in Maya Art (Paperback)

The Blood of Kings by Linda Schele and MAry Ellen Miller was written on the occasion of the Kimbell Art Mesuem's exhibition of Maya Art in 1986. The hope was to draw attention to the rich legacy of Maya art along with a book that would give texture to these artistic recordings of the singificant ritual events in the lives of the Maya. What better way, since art has been our keyhole to understanding the magnificance of there thought, language, science and culture? Schele and Miller do an incredble job of focusing on these artifacts to bring us inside the current understanding of what th experts perceive the maya ritual and life to be about-- including the deciperment of the syllables of the maya language.

The book begins with a history of the road to understanding the Maya culture, complete with its meadering and diversions. This "age" delights in knowing that the Maya are filled with blood, both their own in bloodletting and those of captives that they sacrifice, unlike previous interpretations of a more peaceful existence. Blood, the ooze of life, was offered to eh gods in hopres that they would continue to give their ooze of sap, rain and other life-sustaining things. The book is based on 8 sections of art and interpretation: person, accession rites, courtly life, bloodletting, captives, the ballgame, and death, and the kingship of the Maya Cosmos. Of note as weel is the colors on p.158 where one can get an interpration of what the colors might have been in the Classic period.

In this book Coe prefaces the book commenting on the profound understandng that the world of the Maya is filled with notions of death. But the myth of the Mayas is that the hero twins went to the underworld and by trickery defeated death and those rose to take their place in the Mayan night sky. Perhaps these indiscernible Maya have continued to trick us as well in our attempts to traverse the road of their culture-- and their greatest preoccupation, enscribed on their ceramics and reliefs ---is not death, but life, in all its oozing forms.