ICONOGRAPHY

 

A 'MINIATURE STELA' FROM TIKAL, Expedition, Vol. 4, No. 3, 1962.

 

 

BAUDEZ, Claude, MAYA SCULPTURE OF COPAN - THE ICONOGRAPHY, 116 B&W photos, 135 drawings of monuments and stelae, 3 tables, 1 map, Hardcover, 300 p.

 

BENSON, Elizabeth and Gillett Griffin (eds), Maya Iconography , articles by Lee Parsons, David Freidel, Linda Schele, John Justeson, Norman Hammond, Nicholas Hellmuth, David Stuart, Michael Coe, Barbara and Justin Kerr, Francis Robicsek and Donald Hales, John Carlson, Mary Miller, Karl Taube and others, over 500 drawings and photographs. Discusses discoveries in Maya art and hieroglyphic decipherment.

 

BRUCE, Roberto, GRAMATICA DEL LACANDON , INAH, Mexico City, 152 p, includes art and archaeology with photographs and drawings of Lacandon incense burners never before published. This is far more than a grammar, it is a complete ethnography, especially rich in mythology an ideal source for interpreting polychrome Maya vases. A book such as this is essential for iconographers. Long out of print, we have a few new copies available.

 

BRUCE, Roberto, LACANDON TEXTS AND DRAWINGS FROM NAHA,' 1976, 158 p, INAH, lots of illustrations of importance to Maya iconography and religion.

 

CACAXTLA, CACAXTLA: Proyecto de investigacion y conservacion. Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala, 1990. With articles by several archaeologists, Sergio de la V. Vergara Berdejo, Ramon Sanchez Flores, etc. The value of this book for archaeology, iconography, and art history is in the accurate line drawings, especially of the God L as merchant, Frog-Toad, Maize God, and Jaguar-Turtle, murals; 98 pages, photos (color and B+W). These particular mural segments are in no other book on Cacaxtla, and are not in the National Geographic article on Cacaxtla either. We have never seen this book offered elsewhere; it is virtually impossible to find even in the city of Tlaxcala, and was sold- out at Cacaxtla itself about three years ago. 98 p. Hence its value.

 

CARDOS, de Mendez, Amalia, Estudio de la COLECCION DE ESCULTURA MAYA del MUSEO NACIONAL DE ANTROPOLOGIA, INAH. 167 photos, 190 small p.. Not a coffee table book but nonetheless "the" definitive corpus of all Maya sculpture not only on exhibit but also in the warehouses of INAH in Mexico City. A basic reference for the curator, epigrapher, iconographer, or individual who wishes to see the entire scope of Maya sculpture.

 

CLANCY, Flora S. & HARRISON, Peter, VISION & REVISION IN MAYA STUDIES, Hardcover, 25 pages of bibliography, 16 maps, 17 layouts and more than 70 drawings of glyphs, figures and murals, 5 photos, 248 p.

 

FONCERRADA DE MOLINA, Marta, Cacaxtla: La iconografia de los olmeca-xicalanca (Spanish Edition) , 1993, the best book yet published on the iconography of the battle murals and Maya style jambs of Cacaxtla--by far the most profusely illustrated book ever to appear on Cacaxtla. Covers all the hieroglyphs, warfare attire and attributes, costumes, deities, iconography--everything FULLY ILLUSTRATED with complete color "roll-outs" of all the war/sacrifice murals, in addition to 182 informative drawings.191 p.

 

GREENE ROBERTSON, Merle (ed), PRIMERA MESA REDONDA DE PALENQUE, Vol. II, Merle Greene Robertson ed. 143 pages, drawings and description of art, Maya architecture, iconography, decipherment.

 

GREENE, Merle (general editor), SEVENTH PALENQUE ROUND TABLE, vol IX, 1989, articles on Olmec and Maya art and archaeology by ANDREWS, BARDSLEY, BENSON, BRICKER, CHASE, CLANCY, CLOSS, FASH, GOLDSTEIN, GRUBE, HARRISON, JONES, KERR, KURJACK, McGOVERN, REILLY, SCHELE, STUART, TATE, WREN, and more, 295 p.

 

 

GUDERJAN, Thomas, ANCIENT MAYA TRADERS OF AMBERGRIS CAYE, Belize, 41 p., nicely illustrated with drawings and photographs of remarkable polychrome Maya vases - an essential book for anyone attempting to study iconography of Maya vases.

 

HELLMUTH, N., The surface of the underwaterworld: Iconography of the gods of early classic Maya art in Peten, Guatemala . 2 volumes. Hundreds and hundreds of beautiful line drawings. Twelve artists worked for years to produce these drawings. Over a decade of photography around the world went into the photographs from which the drawings were taken. These two volumes are the English original of Hellmuth's Ph.D. dissertation, the fancy edition printed in Graz, Austria.

 

ICHON, Alain & Marie Charlotte Arnauld, LE PROTOCLASSIQUE A LA LAGUNITA EL QUICHE, GUALEMALA. 257 p, filled with photographs and drawings of early Maya pottery art. For anyone working on the development of ceramic art, on iconography, on Maya symbolism, and on the evolution from Preclassic to Protoclassic, this book is a standard reference work. Actually, this is the most important book ever published on Holmul I-style pottery--has ten times more pots than then the original Holmul monograph. Thus long out of print, but we have one copy left.

 

(INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICANISTS) XLI CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE AMERICANISTAS, Mexico 1974, Crammed with information (English, Spanish). Vol. I, 600 p, Vol. II, 679 p, Vol. III, 808 p, covers OLMEC, Maya, Teotihuacan, Aztec, Bilbao (Cotzumalhuapa) art, iconography, archaeology, Tikal, Monte Alban, Belize, articles by HELLMUTH, Hammond on Belize, Merle Greene Robertson on Palenque, and scores of others. Kekchi myths, ballgame goal sculptures, The following reports are all in this volume of the International Congress of Americanists, Geneva.
D. Heydon, "What is the Significance of the Mexica Pyramid"
Hasso Von Winning, Mexican Figurines Attached to Pallets and Cradles"
E. Pasztory, "The Gods of Teotihuacan"
Gordon Ekholm, "The Archaeological Significance of Mirrors in the New World"
Mary King, "A Textile Technique from Oaxaca, Mexico"
Norman Hammond, "Maya Settlement Patterns"
Lee Parsons, "Iconographic Notes on a new Izapan Stela from Abaj Takalik, Guatemala"
Sabloff and Rathje, "Changing pre-Columbian Commercial Patterns on the Island of Cozumel, Mexico"
Arthur Miller, "The Mural Painting at Tancah and in Structure 5 at Tulum: Implications of their Style and Iconography"
A. Digby, "Evidence in Mexican Glyphs and Sculpture for an unrecognized Astronomical Instrument"
F. Hochleitner, "The Correlation between the Mayan and the Julian Calendar" R. Fry, "The Archaeology of Southern Quintana Roo: Ceramics"
Peter Harrison, "The Lintels of Tzibanche, Quintana Roo"

 

MAYER, K. H., Maya Monuments : Sculptures of Unknown Provenance in Europe , This useful reference work provides a full-page photograph and a complete iconographic discussion of all the stelae, lintels, altars, and other monumental sculpture in museums of Switzerland, Germany, and France. Includes sculptures not yet published by Ian Graham.

 

MAYER, Karl Herbert, Maya Monuments : Sculptures of Unknown Provenance in Europe , based on extensive research to find ancient Maya bas relief sculptures which were not already published by Ian Graham or Proskouriakoff. This book is essential reading for Maya art and iconography, and helps the reader learn the various regional Maya styles.

 

MEADE, Joaquin, EL ADOLESCENTE, complete iconography of an important Huastec Maya sculpture, Univ. Autonoma de Tamaulipas, edition limited to 1000 copies, long out of print.

 

MOHOLY-NAGY, H., A TLALOC STELA FROM TIKAL Describes the discovery and iconography of Stela 32 - together with - "TIKAL: PROBLEMS OF A FIELD DIRECTOR" by Edwin SHOOK, diary of how an actual archaeological project operates in the jungle. Interesting reading for anyone who has visited Tikal, Expedition, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1962.

 

MOSER, Christopher, Nuine Writing and Iconography of the Mixteca Baja (Publications in Anthropology : No. 19) 246 p. including 76 plates.

 

NAVARRETE, Carlos and MARTINEZ, Edwardo, CUEVA DE LOS ANDASOLOS, UNACH, 19 pages of illustrations with descriptions of figurines, 40 pages of photographs of figurines and site, (illustrates the most important and exotic Jaguar God of the Underworld incensario ever found in the entire Maya area). This book is an essential reference for iconographers. 130 p.

 

NIEDERBERGER Betton, Christine, Paleopaysages et Archeologie pre-Urbaine du Bassin de Mexico, 2 large volumes. Complete review of Preclassic iconography (figurines and pottery) in general and Olmec iconography in particular (jades and sculpture). I have not seen this title offered in other catalogs; they are probably long out of print. (853 pages of educational information including 237 drawings, 269 photos, plus 209 charts/ maps/tables).

 

PARSONS, L. et al., The Face of Ancient America: The Wally and Brenda Zollman Collection of Precolumbian Art , Foreword by Michael Coe, rollout photographs by Justin Kerr, includes abundant iconographic data from Nicholas Hellmuth and others; "scholarship with outstanding photographs," plenty of color photos of Maya art.

 

PASCUAL SOTO, Arturo, ICONOGRAFIA ARQUEOLOGICA DE EL TAJIN, all the great sculpture of El Tajin, including several reliefs not in Kampen's monograph, so many hundreds of illustrations we lost count, hardcover too, 324 p.

 

Primer Simposio Mundial Sobre Epigrafia Maya dedicado al Dr. Heinrich Berlin y a la Memoria de Tatiana Proskouriakoff 1909-1985 , with articles by Clemency Coggins, Christopher Jones on decipherment of inscriptions at Tikal as well as the only published illustrations of the just discovered incredible early architectural facade masks of Uaxactun much nicer sculpture than the famous E- VII-sub! Includes complete epigraphy and iconography of the remarkable Teotihuacan style portable ballcourt marker recently found at Tikal Early with lots of glyphs. Only 500 copies ever printed.

 

RHODES, Rilley, THE WORLD BEYOND, MAYA TOMB CERAMICS. Essential reading for Maya iconography as this rare publication illustrates outstanding works of Maya art from ancient Guatemala not included in the books of either Coe or of Robicsek. Impressive giant burial urns, unusual Early Classic incensarios "a goddess giving birth," pottery statues of the Sun God, and one of only three known Maya Teotihuacan-related censors from the Peten. The Tiquisate masterpieces are the most exotic of their kind in the world. 50 impressive photographs.

 

ROBICSEK, Francis, The Maya Book of the Dead The Ceramic Codex , hundreds and hundreds of Justin Kerr photographs of Maya vases, deities, iconography, decipherment of hieroglyphs especially Primary Standard Sequence.

 

RUIZ, Sonia Lombardo, et al., Cacaxtla : El Lugar Donde Muere La Lluvia En La Tierra , over 1000 drawings (many in color), 240 photographs (several in color), fold out maps, fold out drawings of the entire mural sequence - the complete battle scene. It took 4 years to find these last copies. Monumental iconographic report on the Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, and Maya style murals of Cacaxtla, the most important find of the 1970's, 554 p., Hardbound.

 

SOTELO SANTOS, Laura Elena, Yaxchilan (Spanish Edition) , 190 thick pages with 57 color photographs of a quality better than in any other publication on Yaxchilan. These particular photographs far exceed those in any book on Yaxchilan printed in the USA or Europe, and are even better than Maler's or Maudslay's photographs in part because they are in color. This particular Mexican photographer was clearly a pro.

 

UNAM, MEMORIAS DEL PRIMER COLOQUIO INTERNACIONAL DE MAYANISTAS, 1985. 56 maps, 242 figs, 1146 p. This is the most comprehensive set of articles on recent discoveries in Maya art, iconography, epigraphy, and archaeology to appear in recent years. Includes Tikal, Tulum, Belize, Cacaxtla, and two new sculptures just discovered at Bonampak.

 

VILLACORTA & VILLACORTA, Codices Mayas Reproducidos Y Desarollado , the three main Maya codices (Paris, Madrid, and Dresden), in handsome line drawings. Most epigraphers use these drawings rather than the color facsimiles, since the details of the gods and glyphs are so much clearer. We have the actual Guatemalan printing, not a fuzzy reprint or fuzzy xerox (where it is hard to see the iconographic details). This book is long out of print, even in Guatemala.

 

Von Winning, Hasso, Two Maya Monuments in Yucatan: The Palace of the Stuccoes at Acanceh and the Temple of the Owls at Chichen Itza (Frederick Webb Hodge Anniversary Publication Fund) , 99 B&W photos, drawings and illustrations, 95 p., $15. No. 6279

WILKERSON, S. Jeffrey, EL TAJIN, 79 pages, filled with color photographs, maps, line drawings of stelae, ballcourt panels. The most complete book available on El Tajin. Considering that El Tajin is crucial for understanding the ballgame, is the home for yokes, hachas, and palmas, and influenced the entire Maya area, this is an essential book for Maya iconography.

 

 

New page format posted November 1, 2009