Overview
This important new book documents the splendid artistic legacy of the Aztecs, an extraordinary people who, in the space of only 200 years from 1325 to 1521, created one of the most impressive civilizations in the world.Published to accompany one of the greatest exhibitions of Aztec culture ever seen, this comprehensive volume with over 500 superb colorplates presents works of turquoise, gold, and jade, polychrome ceramics, illustrated codices and manuscripts, and monumental stone and wood sculptures. Nine authoritative essays written by a team of renowned scholars from Mexico, Britain, and the United States explore the Aztecs' view of the cosmos and their place within it, their religious beliefs, rulers, philosophy and literature, techniques of warfare, and day-to-day life. This book will stand as the definitive book on the Aztecs for years to come.
About the Author:
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma is Coordinator of the Proyecto Templo Mayor. Felipe Solis Olguin is Director of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City.
Synopsis
This important new book documents the splendid artistic legacy of the Aztecs, an extraordinary people who, in the space of only 200 years from 1325 to 1521, created one of the most impressive civilizations in the world.Published to accompany one of the greatest exhibitions of Aztec culture ever seen, this comprehensive volume with over 500 superb colorplates presents works of turquoise, gold, and jade, polychrome ceramics, illustrated codices and manuscripts, and monumental stone and wood sculptures. Nine authoritative essays written by a team of renowned scholars from Mexico, Britain, and the United States explore the Aztecs' view of the cosmos and their place within it, their religious beliefs, rulers, philosophy and literature, techniques of warfare, and day-to-day life. This book will stand as the definitive book on the Aztecs for years to come.
About the Author:
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma is Coordinator of the Proyecto Templo Mayor. Felipe Solis Olguin is Director of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City.
Library Journal
At a moment when the exhibition catalog has too frequently eschewed its broader educational role and become overwhelmed by the narrow preoccupations of the specialist, it is an unalloyed pleasure to peruse a volume that is so intelligently shaped to the needs of an interested public. Not only does this work provide lavish and comprehensive visual documentation for the Royal Academy of Art's splendid show of Aztec art, but it also proffers a catalog of its more than 350 works (shown in 500 color photographs) that is informed by the requisite scholarship and yet articulated with a restraint that should engage the intellect and taste of nonspecialized readers. The organizers have also wisely prefaced the volume with a suite of introductory essays embracing these splendid objects within a context that goes beyond the artistic and archaeological to include needed social, historical, literary, and religious perspectives. Although not a comprehensive accounting of the Aztec artistic achievement, this book is required for collections involved with New World art and archaeology.-Robert Cahn, Fashion Inst. of Technology, New York Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.