Reading Maya Art
Andrea Stone and Marc Zender
Thames & Hudson
248pp, 535 line and black and white illustrations
Hardback, £19.95
Ancient Mayan art is difficult to interpret, as there is a rather diffuse line between art and their distinctive writing system. During the transition between the Late Pre-Classic and Early Classic periods in about AD 200, Maya writing took on calculiform or pebble-like shapes. When sculpted the shapes could be rendered in three dimensions. Both text and image can interact, as some logographs appear as abstract as the result of scribal standardisation over time. The result is that logographs can be embedded into pictorial art, although syllabographs seem to have been set apart.
The Maya also used visual metaphors that are totally different from what they represent. For example, water can be represented by a flowering plant (a water lily) and rain could be represented by a shell. In both of these cases the artistic conventions can come together in a way that can be easily understood. A good example is presented by the so-called Resurrection Plate, which shows the birth of maize from the earth: 'The earth, itself, is represented as a turtle carapace, aptly symbolising the earth as a flat plate surrounded by the primordial sea. The water on which the turtle floats is shown under the turtle's belly as a water lily, with flower to the left and pad to the right. Below this is a dotted water scroll – a shell like device also signifying water – and the aforementioned water stacks symbol for rain' (p23). There can be other metaphorical allusions that are more difficult to understand. The Resurrection Plate also has a maize plant emerging from the back of the turtle. The seed of the plant is represented as a scull. The emergence of plants from bones is a common one in Maya art; a number of Mayan languages can metaphorically refer to seeds as bones. A smoking torch represents sprouting maize. The bundle of sticks and smoke may, with an artistic eye, be similar to a stalk and sprouting leaves. There may also be a mythological background that would make this symbol more meaningful.
The book is arranged to make it a good read from cover to cover, as well as to facilitate easy reference. The format of the majority of the book presents drawings of particular glyphs (on the upper right corner of the page). The other side shows the glyph in action, in several cases marked in a separate colour. Many glyphs are cross-referenced, as the themes are interlinked. A pithy text draws readers into a deeper appreciation of the background.
