Mesoamerican art or
Meso-American art - Mesoamerica
is a region extending south and east from central Mexico to include
parts of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
In Pre-Columbian times, it was inhabited by various civilizations, including the Mayan and the Olmec.
Examples of art from this region:
Olmec culture (Mexico, Tabasco(?), Middle
Preclassic period, about 900-300 BCE),
Transformation Figure, serpentine
with traces of cinnabar,
height 4 1/4 inches (10.8
cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This figure is apparently part man and part jaguar.
Mexico, Jalisco, El Arenal Brown style, Late Preclassic - Early Classic period, about 100 BCE - 300 CE, Standing Warrior (The "King"),
ceramic with red slip,
yellow, white, and black paint, 37 x 15 inches (94 x 38.1 cm),
Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Mesoamerica, Highland Guatemala, Maya, Lidded Bowl with Jaguar - Old Man, Transformation Figure, Early Classic Period, 200-550 CE, ceramic, diameter 7 7/8 x 4 5/8 inches (19.7 x 11.6 cm), Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory U, Atlanta, GA.
Mexico or Guatemala, Maya peoples, Seated Figure, 6th century CE,
wood, height
14 inches (35.6 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Mexico or Guatemala, Southern Maya Lowlands, Maya, Eccentric flint depicting a crocodile canoe with passengers, c. 600-900 CE, flint, 9 3/4 x 16 1/4 x 3/4 inches (24.8 x 41.3 x 1.9 cm), Dallas Museum of Art.
Mexico, Central Highlands, Teotihuacan peoples,
Standing Figure, 7th-mid 8th century,
greenstone, remnants of
cinnabar, height
16 1/8 inches (41 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.
Mexico, Yucatan Peninsula, Maya peoples,
El
Castillo, pyramid at Chichen Itza, c. 9th century. See
pyramid.
Aztec/Mixtec (Mexico), Double-Headed Serpent, 15th-16th century, mosaic of turquoise, iron pyrites and shell on carved wood, traces of gilding, British Museum, London. The snake was perhaps the single most important animal in Aztec religion. See ancipital.
Also see Chicano art / Chicana art, ethnic, Mexican art, and Pre-Columbian art.
https://inform.quest/_art