The Met in New York opens an exhibition on the Mayan gods

Nearly a hundred works from the collection of ancient American art of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) from New York, including pieces on loan from the Mexican government, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), are featured in the first major exhibition in a decade that the New York venue dedicates to the aesthetic refinement of the Mayan civilization.

“The Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Mayan Art”, organized by the Met and the Kimbell Art Museumwill open to the public on November 21, 2022 and will remain until April 2, 2023, before traveling to Fort Worth, Texas, where it will be exhibited from May 7 to September 3 of next year.

The great exhibition addresses the concepts of regeneration and resilience embodied in the ancient Mayan divinities, who were represented in all stages of their lives: childhood, fullness and old age, and even in their rebirth, reported the INAH.

It also exhibits little-known works from the Met and others unpublished for the American public, from Europe and Latin America, 19 of them belonging to the collections of the museums National of Anthropology (Mexico City); Soconusco Archaeological Site, from the “Alberto Ruz L’huillier” Site of Palenque, and that of Toniná (Chiapas); as well as the regional Anthropology “Carlos Pellicer Cámara” (Villahermosa), Palacio Cantón (Mérida) and Amparo (Puebla).

Stelae, stuccoed glyphs, censers, panels, anthropomorphic sculptures, tombstones, codex-type vessels, plates, and masks are among the pieces loaned by Mexico. The Estela de Izapa stands out, which was restored by specialists from the national coordination of Museums and Exhibitions, and from the Conservation of Cultural Heritage of the INAH, with financing from the Met.

“Life of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art” focuses on the mastery of the Classic Maya period (AD 250–900), visible in various cultural elements found in the ancient cities of the tropical forests of Guatemala, Honduras y Mexico.

The exhibition is divided into seven sections: “Creations”, which presents the mythological episodes related to the origin of the world; “Day” and “Night”, where the balance between the main gods of both periods is explored; “Rain”, which highlights the power of the deities Chahk, of rain, and K’awiil, of fertility and abundance.

A fourth section dedicated to “Corn” offers a chronicle of the life, death and rebirth of the god linked to this staple crop, told through a collection of works of art; “Knowledge” delves into the work of scribes and, finally, “Patron Gods” includes a series of pieces showing kings and queens adopting various attributes of the gods.

Likewise, recent advances in the study of Mayan hieroglyphic writing stand out, which have made it possible to identify the names of artists from the Classic period and, for the first time, some of them are included in the cedulario; This is the case of Calakmul Stela 51, which portrays the ruler Yuknoom Took’ K’awiil (ca. 731 AD), and is the authorship of Sak[…] Yuk[…] Took’ y Sak […] Yib’ah Tzak B’ahlam.

The exhibition was initially conceived by James Doyle, who served as the MET’s assistant curator of Art of Ancient America. In organizing it, the MET’s curator of ancient American art, Joanne Pillsbury; the INAH researcher and associate curator at this same venue, Laura Filloy Nadal, and the assistant professor of anthropology at Yale University, Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos. On behalf of the Kimbell Museum of Art, its organization has been in charge of the curator of Asian, African and ancient American art, Jennifer Casler Price.

Check the Met page:

https://www. metmuseum. org/exhibitions/listings/2022/gods-divinity-maya-art y sus redes sociales: Facebook, Instagram y Twitter, mediante el hashtag #LivesOfGods.

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