Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture
Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture. Since our Western art tradition has put such a prize on naturalism, we tend to think that other civilizations valued it as much as we did and do. I contend that Olmec monumental art illustrates the opposite, and suggest that the Olmecs most apprecia...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Société des américanistes
2012-12-01
|
| Series: | Journal de la Société des Américanistes |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/12294 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832096278658416640 |
|---|---|
| author | Claude-François Baudez |
| author_facet | Claude-François Baudez |
| author_sort | Claude-François Baudez |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture. Since our Western art tradition has put such a prize on naturalism, we tend to think that other civilizations valued it as much as we did and do. I contend that Olmec monumental art illustrates the opposite, and suggest that the Olmecs most appreciated the anthropomorphic statues that incorporated feline features, and disliked the very naturalistic style of the colossal heads. The latter represented the severed heads of opponents who probably were losers in ritual battles. Therefore they could not claim the divine patronage of the jaguar, and had to appear just as « plain », ugly people. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ebe3787169174aa2b6c6157124f4b451 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0037-9174 1957-7842 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2012-12-01 |
| publisher | Société des américanistes |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal de la Société des Américanistes |
| spelling | doaj-art-ebe3787169174aa2b6c6157124f4b4512025-02-05T15:54:22ZengSociété des américanistesJournal de la Société des Américanistes0037-91741957-78422012-12-0198273110.4000/jsa.12294Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculptureClaude-François BaudezBeauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture. Since our Western art tradition has put such a prize on naturalism, we tend to think that other civilizations valued it as much as we did and do. I contend that Olmec monumental art illustrates the opposite, and suggest that the Olmecs most appreciated the anthropomorphic statues that incorporated feline features, and disliked the very naturalistic style of the colossal heads. The latter represented the severed heads of opponents who probably were losers in ritual battles. Therefore they could not claim the divine patronage of the jaguar, and had to appear just as « plain », ugly people.https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/12294colossal headsnaturalismbeauty/uglinessolmec sculpture |
| spellingShingle | Claude-François Baudez Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture Journal de la Société des Américanistes colossal heads naturalism beauty/ugliness olmec sculpture |
| title | Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture |
| title_full | Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture |
| title_fullStr | Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture |
| title_full_unstemmed | Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture |
| title_short | Beauty and ugliness in Olmec monumental sculpture |
| title_sort | beauty and ugliness in olmec monumental sculpture |
| topic | colossal heads naturalism beauty/ugliness olmec sculpture |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/12294 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT claudefrancoisbaudez beautyanduglinessinolmecmonumentalsculpture |