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Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya demonstrates the visual magnificence of ancient Maya art with over 130 masterworks drawn from some 30 public and private lenders in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Chile, the United States, Switzerland, England, and Australia. The exhibition will present stone sculptures, ceramics, masks, and other precious works commissioned by ancient Maya kings and queens.
The remarkable sculpture of the ancient Maya is unprecedented in its aesthetic excellence and majesty. In a period of just 150 years from AD 650–800, Maya kings and nobles, while living in the tropical rain forests of southern Mexico and adjacent Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize, transformed Maya art, achieving a peak of dramatic expression and naturalism unmatched in the ancient New World. Supported by a society of astonishing depth and complexity, the ancient Maya kings and queens commissioned great works of art and architecture to memorialize themselves and insure their place in history.
Using examples from the ancient Maya cities of Palenque, Toniná, Yaxchilán, and Bonampak, among others, Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya will examine political and religious power in the royal court, which served as the central force in the life of each city. The 7th and 8th centuries, in particular, exemplified the peak of opulence and refinement in these sophisticated palace cultures, along with increasingly refined notions of courtly rights and responsibilities, rankings, and rituals.
The exhibition is organized around several key themes: The hierarchy and interactions of kings, queens, and courtiers; idealized representations of the divine court and their parallels in reality; the roles of royal women; warfare, warriors, and captives; and political dynamics, expressed intentionally or coincidentally in works of art.
Works on display include the stucco Portrait Head of Pakal (650-680) from Palenque, an intricate jade, obsidian, and shell mask from Calakmul (650-800) and a magnificent carved limestone disk from Chinkultik bearing the likeness of a Maya ballplayer (610-630). The exhibition also focuses on the primacy of word and image in the court, and the status of scribes and artists. Relevant images of paintings from the most recent documentation of the Bonampak murals, the Bonampak Documentation Project, will also be featured.
A special focus of the exhibition will be the city of Palenque. Because of its extensive ancient and now-deciphered texts, new archaeological discoveries, and the remarkable preservation of its architecture, Palenque provides the single richest example of an ancient Maya court known to the 21st century. The exhibition includes important new archaeological discoveries from Palenque never before seen in the United States and will include works from the reign of every major Palenque ruler, from King Pakal (ruled 612-681) to King Kuk (acceded to office, 764).
Other Venues
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 4 April–25 July 2004 Credit Line
Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
The exhibition is made possible by Televisa as part of its commitment to promote Mexico's cultural heritage.
The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.
The presentation in San Francisco is supported, in part, by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts, Federal agencies, Wells Fargo Foundation, and the Mexico Tourism Board. Media sponsors: KDTV Univision 14 and Telefutura KFSF 66.
With special thanks to  for their generous loans to
this exhibition.
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