The ancient Mesoamerican city of Izapa in Chiapas, Mexico, is
renowned for its extensive collection of elaborate stone stelae and
altars, which were carved during the Late Preclassic period (300
BC-AD 250). Many of these monuments depict kings garbed in the
costume and persona of a bird, a well-known avian deity who had
great significance for the Maya and other cultures in adjacent
regions. This Izapan style of carving and kingly representation
appears at numerous sites across the Pacific slope and piedmont of
Mexico and Guatemala, making it possible to trace political and
economic corridors of communication during the Late Preclassic
period.
In this book, Julia Guernsey offers a masterful art historical
analysis of the Izapan style monuments and their integral role in
developing and communicating the institution of divine kingship.
She looks specifically at how rulers expressed political authority
by erecting monuments that recorded their performance of rituals in
which they communicated with the supernatural realm in the persona
of the avian deity. She also considers how rulers used the
monuments to structure their built environment and create spaces
for ritual and politically charged performances. Setting her
discussion in a broader context, Guernsey also considers how the
Izapan style monuments helped to motivate and structure some of the
dramatic, pan-regional developments of the Late Preclassic period,
including the forging of a codified language of divine kingship.
This pioneering investigation, which links monumental art to the
matrices of political, economic, and supernatural exchange, offers
an important new understanding of a region, time period, and group
of monuments that played a key role in the history of Mesoamerica
and continue to intrigue scholars within the field of Mesoamerican
studies.
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