In some Mayan cities, it was a religious obligation for the rulers to overlook some religious ceremonies and fast during a certain time of the year. Rulers were considered not just the political heads but also the religious heads of the society.
The main Preclassic sculptural style from the Maya area is that of Izapa, a large settlement on the Pacific coast where many stelas and (frog-shaped) altars were found showing motifs also present in Olmec art.
Ancient Maya art then went through an extended Post-Classic phase before the upheavals of the sixteenth century destroyed courtly culture and put an end to the Mayan artistic tradition. Many regional styles existed, not always coinciding with the changing boundaries of Maya polities.
Mayan rulers typically wore loincloths and a cape around their shoulders. At special occasions such as ceremonies, the rulers wore elaborate and beautifully-feathered headdresses. Adornments typically used on dresses were feathers, and different kinds of jewelry was born on the arms, wrists and in ears.
The Maya believed that their king was given the right to rule by the gods. They believed that the king worked as an intermediary between the people and the gods. The leaders of the Maya were called the "halach uinic" or "ahaw", meaning "lord" or "ruler".
At the top of Maya society were the kings, or “kuhul ajaw” (holy lords), who claimed to be related to gods and followed a hereditary succession. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and people on earth, and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya culture.
Mayan Art is characterized by stone sculptures, architecture, ceramics, wood carving, and wall painting which are some of its most celebrated forms. Mayan artists were exceptionally skilled at stone sculpture and stonework. Many Mayan buildings feature stone carvings that were frequently based upon their religion.
Mayan Government. The Mayans developed a hierarchical government ruled by kings and priests. They lived in independent city-states consisting of rural communities and large urban ceremonial centers. There were no standing armies, but warfare played an important role in religion, power and prestige.
One of the most famous Maya rulers was K'inich Janaab Pakal, whom we know today as 'Pakal the Great'. He was king of Palenque for 68 years, longer than any other ruler in the Ancient Maya world!
The 72-polity figure doesn't include the smaller, less politically stratified units, however. Because these polities would trade with each other as well as non-Maya polities and were independent from each other, the Maya civilization is seen as an internationally trading civilization.
The earliest Mayan artists were primarily focused on religious themes. At this time, the Mayans depicted such activities as human sacrifice, warfare, daily life, and religious rituals with startling realism. All of the great Mayan cities created great sculptures.
Elite Mayans, the rulers and nobility, commissioned works of art in order to establish their status as elites. Painted vessels, stucco portraits, carved obsidian mirrors and tiny clay figurines all turn up in the tombs of nobles and kings.
They used a variety of materials, such as stone, wood, ceramics, jade, and bone to decorate their buildings and to make objects that were either sacred or served a specific function (such as storing water). Some of the most striking works of art are the Maya's portraits of themselves.
Maya society was rigidly divided between nobles, commoners, serfs, and slaves. The noble class was complex and specialized. Noble status and the occupation in which a noble served were passed on through elite family lineages.
The Maya states were initially governed by simple chiefdoms. By the Classic Period, Maya governance had taken on the form of powerful centralized leaders who legitimized their authority through their political connections and their divine lineages.
Definition. Yax K'uk' Mo' (pronounced `Yash Kook Mo') was the founder and first king of the dynasty that ruled the Maya city of Copan (in modern day Honduras) for 350 years. Known formally by his royal name, K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo', he reigned for eleven years from 426-437 CE.
He was also expected to be a skilled warrior since Mayans often had to wage war, in order to expand or defend their realms. Politically, a Mayan ruler had absolute power, although in some cases he shared it with a council of noblemen who served as advisers to the King. Mayan People.
Mayan rulers typically wore loincloths and a cape around their shoulders. At special occasions such as ceremonies, the rulers wore elaborate and beautifully-feathered headdresses. Adornments typically used on dresses were feathers, and different kinds of jewelry was born on the arms, wrists and in ears.
Since Mayans believed in certain aspects of ancestor worship, the commoners buried their ancestors inside their own houses, right under the floor. This was done with the hope that the deceased ancestor would remain aware of the family and would look out for them in the heavenly realm. The burial practises were different for Mayan rulers. Rulers typically had elaborate tombs built for them inside one of the major temples. Upon their death, they were then placed in the tomb together with a goodly amount of maize, jade and different gifts which the ruler might need on his way through the underworld.
Mayan civilisation comprised of different city-states, each of them with a different ruler of its own. The rule of a city was dynastic and in the ruler were vested military and religious authorities. Religious authority and divine sanction was considered very important for a Mayan ruler.
Most of the monumental architecture built by the Mayans was ordered by the Mayan rulers. When a new dynasty rose to power, it typically legitimised its ascent to throne by having a large pyramid-temple built in the city. Each Mayan city -state had a ruler of its own who had the traditional privileges of a King or an Emperor.
The ceremony typically comprised of the new ruler sitting down on a pillow covered with jaguar pelt. After having seated him on the pillow, the high priest would then place an elaborate headdress on his head. This ceremonial headdress came decorated with different items such as seashells and obsidian artefacts.
Upon their death, they were then placed in the tomb together with a goodly amount of maize, jade and different gifts which the ruler might need on his way through the underworld.
New approaches to Maya art include studies of ancient Maya ceramic workshops, the representation of bodily experience and the senses in Maya art, and of hieroglyphs considered as iconographic units. Meanwhile, the number of monographs devoted to the monumental art of specific courts is growing.
Ancient Maya art. Ancient Mayan art is about the material arts of the Mayan civilization, an eastern and south-eastern Mesoamerican culture shared by a great number of kingdoms in present-day Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. Many regional artistic traditions existed side by side, usually coinciding with the changing boundaries ...
Kubler's 1969 inventory of Maya iconography, containing a site-by-site treatment of 'commemorative' images and a topical treatment of ritual and mythical images (such as the 'triadic sign'), concludes a period of gradual increase of knowledge that was soon to be overshadowed by new developments.
They include delicate fabrics used as wrappings, curtains and canopies furnishing palaces, and garments. Among the dyeing techniques may have been ikat. Daily costume depended on social standing. Noblewomen usually wore long dresses, noblemen girdles and breechcloths, leaving legs and upper body more or less bare, unless jackets or mantles were worn. Both men and women could wear turbans. Costumes worn on ceremonial occasions and during the many festivities were highly expressive and exuberant; animal headdresses were common. The most elaborate costume was the formal apparel of the king, as depicted on the royal stelae, with numerous elements of symbolic meaning.
Although, due to the humid climate of Central America, relatively few Mayan paintings have survived to the present day integrally, important remnants have been found in nearly all major court residences. This is especially the case in substructures, hidden under later architectural additions. Mural paintings may show more or less repetitive motifs, such as the subtly varied flower symbols on walls of House E of the Palenque Palace; scenes of daily life, as in one of the buildings surrounding the central square of Calakmul and in a palace of Chilonche; or ritual scenes involving deities, as in the Post-Classic temple murals of Yucatán's and Belize's east coast ( Tancah, Tulum, Santa Rita).
Its greatest artistic flowering occurred during the seven centuries of the Classic Period (c. 250 to 950 CE). Mayan art forms tend to be more stiffly organized during the Early Classic (250-550 CE) and to become more expressive during the Late Classic phase (550-950 CE).
The nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century publications on Mayan art and archaeology by Stephens, Catherwood, Maudslay, Maler and Charnay for the first time made available reliable drawings and photographs of major Classic Maya monuments.