Periods, Cultures, Styles > Mesoamerican

Mesoamerican

Designates the styles of the Pre-Columbian region comprising present-day central and central-southern Mexico, the Yucatán Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador, and parts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Dates

before 7000 B.C.E.–1500 C.E.

Places

North America > Mexico, Central America > Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua

Basics Works of Art Artists Periods, Cultures, Styles Curated Guides

Basics to get you started

Olmec Jade

The Mesoamerican Calendar

The Maya, an introduction

More on the Aztecs (Mexica)

Painting Aztec History

Serpents in Mexica culture

Defining “Pre-Columbian” and “Mesoamerica”

Mesoamerica, an introduction

Mesoamerican art in context: an excerpt from an origin story (Popol Vuh)

Glossary for pre-Columbian art

Late pre-classic Mesoamerica, an introduction

Periods in Mesoamerican history

The Bug That Had the World Seeing Red

Teresita Fernández on Precolumbian gold

Olmec masks and masquerade, an introduction

Works of Art

Tlatilco Figurines

c. 1200–600 B.C.E.

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Artists

Chakalte’, Relief with Enthroned Ruler, late 8th century (Classic Maya), limestone and paint, 88.9 x 87.6 x 7 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Chakalte’, Relief with Enthroned Ruler, late 8th century (Classic Maya), limestone and paint, 88.9 x 87.6 x 7 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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Periods, Cultures, Styles

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Maya civilization

Life-Death Figure (front, detail), c. 900–1250, Huastec (found between San Vicente Tancauyalab & Tamuin, San Luis Potosi, Northern Veracruz, Mexico), sandstone with traces of pigment, 158.4 x 66 x 29.2 cm (Brooklyn Museum; photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Huastec civilization

10. Tlatilco female figurine

Tlatilco

San Lorenzo Colossal Head 6, before 900 B.C.E. (Olmec), basalt, 1.67 x 1.41 x 1.26 m (Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City)

Olmec

Ancestor figure, Zapotec, c. 200 B.C.E.–800 C.E., pottery, from Oaxaca, Mexico, 35 x 27 cm (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Zapotec civilization

Pyramid of the Moon seen from the Avenue of the Dead with Cerro Gordo in the distance, Teotihuacan, Mexico (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Teotihuacan

Classic Veracruz

Mixteca-Puebla pottery vessel, c. 1300–1521, from Cholula, Puebla, Mexico, 12.8 cm high (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Mixteca-Puebla

Effigy jar, c. 1200–1450, clay and paint, Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico, 23 x 18 cm; and jar with parrot design, c. 1150–1450, coiled and hand built, painted clay, attributed to Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico, 20 x 24 cm (National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution)

Paquimé (Casas Grandes)

Gold pendant depicting a ruler, Mixtec, lost wax-casting, gold, 9 x 4.6 cm, from Tehuantepec, Mexico (© Trustees of the British Museum)

Mixtec civilization

The Sun Stone (or Calendar Stone), Aztec, reign of Moctezuma II (1502-20), discovered in 1790 at the southeastern edge of the Plaza Mayor (Zocalo) in Mexico City, stone (unfinished), 358 cm diameter x 98 cm depth (Museo Nacional de Antropología)

Mexica (Aztec)

Curated Guides to Mesoamerican

All Textbook Chapters Syllabi

Mesoamerica 200–900 C.E.

Textbook Chapter - Reframing Art History

Mesoamerica and the Caribbean, 900–16th century

Textbook Chapter - Reframing Art History

Early Modern Art Syllabus (c. 1400–1800)

Syllabus