Can art be innocent?

A captivating exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum examines the complex art of the ancient Maya, in which beauty and brutality are surreal intertwined.
Beauty is complicated. Beautiful sunsets can be the result of air pollution. The blizzards of the kind that hit Buffalo were visual poetry for Monet. And that jewel-like magenta-winged insect I admired so much in the garden last fall? He turns out to be a herbicidal terrorist.
As Monet's snowstorms suggest, the idea and ideal of beauty in art have their own disadvantages. The majestic Elgin Marbles, emblems of democracy, crowned a Greek temple built by a slave culture. Much of the Tudor luxury that recently enchanted crowds at the Metropolitan Museum was created to make a ruthless colonial power look fabulous.
While strolling through The Met's permanent collection galleries are always hard to ignore. They are integrated into the world art encountered from all sides. And they infiltrate the fantastically beautiful exhibition "Life of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art".
The simple act of having this show is a gift. We haven't seen a Mesoamerican survey on this scale - over 100 objects - for years. And it performs a valuable dual function. It features the museum's pre-Columbian collections, otherwise out of view during the renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. And it expands and deepens perspectives on Maya art through the addition of stellar loans from other institutions in the United States, Central America, and Europe.
ImageOn this limestone throne returned from the Usumacinta River region (Guatemala or Mexico, 600-909 AD), a bearded lord and his companion observe seated between them a small supernatural creature, a messenger of the celestial god Itzamnaaj. Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New York Times
The Maya originated as a civilization around 1500 BC. in an area covering all or part of present-day Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. They developed a rigidly vertical society based on classes living in rival city-states and ruled by rulers who sought guidance from and identified closely with a pantheon of nature-based deities.
< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0 "> Culturally, the Mayas invented a hieroglyphic writing system, still poorly deciphered. And in their elite art - which is the art that survives - they came up with distinctive architectural and graphic styles, which they used both secular and religious during the so-called classical period (250-900 AD) on which the exhibition focuses. .
Three objects that introduce the exhibition, all dating from around the 8th century, suggest the formal and expressive range of what lies ahead. One is a ceramic box, painted with an enveloping narrative depicting a supernatural summit presided over by a cigar-smoking, cat-eared chief deity.
ImageA square ceramic box with a wrap-around narrative by Lo' Took' Akan (?) Xok, a Maya artist, name still tentative, active in the 8th century). Naranjo or vicinity, northern Petén, Guatemala, AD 755–80.

World Jan 19, 2023 0 49 Add to Reading List

A captivating exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum examines the complex art of the ancient Maya, in which beauty and brutality are surreal intertwined.

Beauty is complicated. Beautiful sunsets can be the result of air pollution. The blizzards of the kind that hit Buffalo were visual poetry for Monet. And that jewel-like magenta-winged insect I admired so much in the garden last fall? He turns out to be a herbicidal terrorist.

As Monet's snowstorms suggest, the idea and ideal of beauty in art have their own disadvantages. The majestic Elgin Marbles, emblems of democracy, crowned a Greek temple built by a slave culture. Much of the Tudor luxury that recently enchanted crowds at the Metropolitan Museum was created to make a ruthless colonial power look fabulous.

While strolling through The Met's permanent collection galleries are always hard to ignore. They are integrated into the world art encountered from all sides. And they infiltrate the fantastically beautiful exhibition "Life of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art".

The simple act of having this show is a gift. We haven't seen a Mesoamerican survey on this scale - over 100 objects - for years. And it performs a valuable dual function. It features the museum's pre-Columbian collections, otherwise out of view during the renovation of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. And it expands and deepens perspectives on Maya art through the addition of stellar loans from other institutions in the United States, Central America, and Europe.

ImageOn this limestone throne returned from the Usumacinta River region (Guatemala or Mexico, 600-909 AD), a bearded lord and his companion observe seated between them a small supernatural creature, a messenger of the celestial god Itzamnaaj. Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

The Maya originated as a civilization around 1500 BC. in an area covering all or part of present-day Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. They developed a rigidly vertical society based on classes living in rival city-states and ruled by rulers who sought guidance from and identified closely with a pantheon of nature-based deities.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0 "> Culturally, the Mayas invented a hieroglyphic writing system, still poorly deciphered. And in their elite art - which is the art that survives - they came up with distinctive architectural and graphic styles, which they used both secular and religious during the so-called classical period (250-900 AD) on which the exhibition focuses. .

Three objects that introduce the exhibition, all dating from around the 8th century, suggest the formal and expressive range of what lies ahead. One is a ceramic box, painted with an enveloping narrative depicting a supernatural summit presided over by a cigar-smoking, cat-eared chief deity.

ImageA square ceramic box with a wrap-around narrative by Lo' Took' Akan (?) Xok, a Maya artist, name still tentative, active in the 8th century). Naranjo or vicinity, northern Petén, Guatemala, AD 755–80.