Artwork: Mayan Procession Scene

Artist: Unknown

Created: 790 CE

Medium: Fresco (detail)

Location: Temple of Frescoes, Bonampak, Mexico

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“The Maya are generally considered to have been the most advanced of all the pre-Columbian civilizations.

The culture’s beginnings have been traced back to 2000 BCE, and the civilization’s classic period is placed between 300 and 900 CE. The Mayan Procession Scene fresco is at Bonampak, a classic period satellite center subordinate to the one at Yaxchilan, in Chiapas, modern-day Mexico. The work is in a three-room building called The Temple of Frescoes (also wrongly known as The Temple of Murals) which was discovered in 1946 by Giles Healy, an American film-maker. The frescoes were painted by using a dry fresco technique, which means that they were painted on dry plaster. The fresco shown here comes from the first room and depicts masked men and musicians accompanying a grand procession. The purpose of the festivities was the presentations of the heir of the ruler of Bonampak, Chaan Muan. There is a baroque quality to this work that is also evident in other Mayan works of art — brilliantly colored murals, polychrome ceramics, and intricately detailed stonework. This is a vibrant and graphically rendered painting—the empty top zone emphasizes the frenzied activity below. Little is known about the Maya and their beliefs, but the paintings at Bonampak establish them as superb masters of artistic techniques that, in some instances, rival those of the European Renaissance. A full-scale reproduction of the Bonampak temple can be found at the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City.” (OR)

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