Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mesoamerica in the 15th and 16th centuries CE. With military conquest and trade
expansion the art of the Aztecs also spread, helping the Aztecs achieve a cultural
and political hegemony over their subjects and creating for posterity a tangible
record of the artistic imagination and great talent of the artists from this last great
Mesoamerican civilization.
INFLUENCES
Common threads run through the history of Mesoamerican art.
The Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Zapotec civilizations, amongst others, perpetuated
an artistic tradition which displayed a love of monumental stone sculpture,
imposing architecture, highly decorated pottery, geometric stamps for fabric and
body art, and breathtaking metalwork which were all used to represent people,
animals, plants, gods and features of religious ceremony, especially those rites and
deities connected to fertility and agriculture.