Cult of beauty - Minerva

Ancient Mexico
Olmec
Art of the
Murray Eiland reviews the monumental sculptures of the Olmec, one of the earliest
and most enigmatic civilisations of the pre-Columbian Americas
Massive stone heads – to
date 17 are known –
from the Olmec culture
(1800–400 BC) of
south-central Mexico are iconic artworks
of antiquity (Figs 2, 4). Colossal
heads are known only from the heartland
of this culture, although the
Olmec style has a much broader distribution
– for example, ceramics in
the Olmec style were made in a wide
area throughout Mexico (Fig 6), and
regions outside of the heartland had
their own elites. Art historians have
been more successful in defining the
style than archaeologists have in delineating
the culture. The monumental
heads, which were made of hard stone
such as basalt and andesite, without the
use of metal tools, are not realistic portraits
in the ‘Roman’ sense, but no two
are exactly alike. Symbols used on the
heads may have served to identify different
rulers via their name-insignia or
lineage. The largest heads may weigh
up to 50,000kg, and in most cases
they were moved from the natural
source of stone a great distance away.
Olmec sculpture represents a tradition 2
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that had a wide impact on the ancient
Mesoamerican cultures that came
afterwards, as well as making a profound
impression upon Western art of
the 20 th century, particularly sculpture.
With clean simple lines, somewhat disorienting
otherworldly expressions,
and a range of strange looking adornments,
Olmec art has even inspired
some to suggest an extra-terrestrial
connection. The beginnings of an art
style that fuses animal and human
characteristics – as is prevalent in later
Mesoamerican art – is clear (Fig 9). It
is a style of art that is comprehensible
on its own terms. Some scholars, basing
their theories upon the facial characteristics
of some sculptures, suggest
an early connection with Africa. There
is of course no evidence, either genetic
or of ancient maritime connections,
to suggest such a relationship. A more
detailed understanding of the past
shows that this culture had similarities
with later New World civilisations that
made contact with the first European
expeditions. For instance, it has been
suggested that the Olmec jaguar might
have become the Aztec rain god Tlaloc.
Fig 1. Part of an
andesite ensemble,
Loma del Zapote-El
Azuzul, 1200–900
BC, Museo de
Antropologia de
Xalapa. The man is
kneeling reverently
to the feline figure
(Fig 3) and holding a
ceremonial staff.
H. 100cm.
Fig 2. Basalt colossal
head, Tenochtitlan,
1200–900 BC. Museo
de Antropologia de
Xalapa. H. 186cm.
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The Olmec left no histories, although
archaeology offers a glimpse of what
was lost (Figs 4). Their culture flourished
some two millennia before the
Aztec Empire (c. AD 1427–1519). This
makes interpretation of their culture
uncertain. The name ‘Olmec’ is not
the name they gave themselves. It was
instead the Aztec (Nahuatl) term for
the people who lived in the area during
the 15th–16th centuries. It refers to
the extraction of latex from the rubber
tree (Castilla elastica). The sap would
be mixed with other substances and
treated to create rubber.
The emergence of Olmec culture
is roughly contemporary with the
Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt.
The majority of Olmec lived in small
villages, many located near water, the
larger of which supported a temple. In
about 1400 BC, in the area around San
Lorenzo Tenochtitlán on the southeast
coast of the modern Mexican
state of Veracruz, the Olmec had what
could be considered a cultural capital.
The origins of Olmec civilisation was
similar in some respects to complex
cultures in other regions, such as the
Minerva May/June 2011