Ancient Amercian Art

The great number of civilizations that developed on the American continents before the arrival of Europeans depends on the vast extension of the territory. The purpose of this book is certainly not to mention all of them, nor to provide a definitive study of any of them. Instead, the purpose is to provide an overview of the great variety of styles, materials and techniques employed in the arts of the different areas, from prehistory to the sixteenth century, by presenting some of the...
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The great number of civilizations that developed on the American continents before the arrival of Europeans depends on the vast extension of the territory. The purpose of this book is certainly not to mention all of them, nor to provide a definitive study of any of them. Instead, the purpose is to provide an overview of the great variety of styles, materials and techniques employed in the arts of the different areas, from prehistory to the sixteenth century, by presenting some of the most significant works that were produced. Although the selection dedicates more images to the most famous of the pre-Columbian cultures located in Mesoamerica and the Andes, it also takes in numerous other cultures among all of those that occupied the Americas. The Spanish and Portuguese conquests and later those of the English, French and Dutch, led to an abrupt change in the lives of the populations that touched and, in many cases, to a more or less sudden interruption of their culture and artistic production. It is only thanks to archaeological research and those few materials that were saved from the destructive fury of the conquerors - in some cases because they were sent to European sovereigns as gifts - that today it is possible to admire the splendour of these works of art and to perceive, if only from a distance, the artistic sensibility of the men who made them.