Customer Reviews

Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period (Duke University Museum of Art)

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I've read much of what has been written about Mayan ceramics and can say with confidence that this is the best book on the subject ever written. The essays in it, by top professionals, discuss the forms and functions of the ceramics, the meaning of their calligraphy, their basic themes and the places particular styles of ceramics come from. Indeed, if you read it carefully and more than once, you too will be able to decipher the principal inscriptions even on pots that are not in the book. There are hundreds of full-color photographs of Mayan ceramic vases and plates in this book. These vases are decorated with pictures of formed the greatest Pre-Columbian civilization. These ceramics depict Mayan textile design, Mayan hair-dressing, Mayan head-dresses, Mayan ceramics (within the ceramic paintings), Mayan concepts of design and of the other worlds below this one. From them we learn of Mayan myth,Mayan ritual, Mayan daily life, and Mayan art. Leaving aside the great monumental art of sculpture and stucco that adorned major structures, leaving aside the structures themselves, and giving credit for a host of varieties of artistic representations ranging from the Tsimshian to the Moche... I think it is an absolute fact that the art that appears on Mayan ceramics is the best that America ever created prior to Columbus and arguably the best... period. This book discusses, describes, depicts and defends that incredible artistic legacy better than any other ever did.

This handsome book covers a wide range of Maya ceramic imagery, and is filled with stunning photographs. The imagery is also broken down by catagory, and is supplimented with explations of glyphs. The accessible text that explores the mythology, culture, iconography, and hieroglyphics on and related to the ceramics. The information is thorough without being overly specialized.

This is one of the finest books about the ancient Maya ever written, period. It's a bit dated now, but no one has come up with anything to replace it, in the couple of decades since it was written. It's a picture book of Mayan ceramic paintings and writings, in full glorious color, with scholarly essays on what the ceramics say and what they mean, and its scholarship is still relevant today. This book groups ceramics by type (vases, plates, bowls, etc.) and subject matter (animals and nature, supernatural, court scenes, etc.) and explores them both broadly and in depth. I've owned a copy of this book for twenty years, and it is in no danger of being unseated from my shelf. There is simply no other collection of ceramic photos anywhere near this quality or depth. The scholarship is intense; you can explore it hit-and-miss or really sink your teeth in for a fuller understanding of what the Maya were up to with their ceramics, how they used these objects in their daily lives and where they were found, in tombs or garbage heaps or ceremonial caches next to temples and palaces. It is very rare that a work of scholarship remains this outstanding for this long. If you're into the Maya Indians and are wondering if you should own a copy of Painting the Maya Universe, wonder no longer: just get it.

As a side note, this book is a little on the fragile side. You have to take care of it well, or it will fall apart (as one copy did on me). Any copy you get these days will be old and probably used, so take good care of it!

As anyone who owns books on the ancient Maya will probably attest, they have a habit of becoming out of date rather rapidly; yesterday's Copan is today's Xukpi and yesterday's King 18-Rabbit is today's Uaxaclajuun Ub'aah K'awiil. Don't get me wrong, I think this is a good thing. Unlike the vast body of scholarship that Egyptologists can only hope to add a sentence to here or a footnote to there, Mayanists are faced with a field where every turn of the spade yields material that is likely to keep them busy for decades. That is the exciting thing about Mayan studies; every year sees yet more exciting discoveries by both "dirt" archeologists and by "armchair" or more correctly "keyboard" scholars. Every new book on the Maya is welcome and if they are as well written and lavishly illustrated as this one, they are doubly welcome.