File:Guide leaflet (1901) (14582030217).jpg

Identifier: scienceguide7692amer (find matches)
Title: Guide leaflet
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: American Museum of Natural History Natural history
Publisher: New York : The Museum
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: IMLS / LSTA / METRO

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tween the plastic-product of eadh tribe, butoccasionally individualexpression obtrudes. In the early culturegroups clay sculpture wasthe dominating artisticmedium, and, seemingly,the religion in those daysmust have been a sim-ple anthropomorphism.With the rise of civiliza-tion the art was trans-formed to meet the re-quirements of religion.and the clay sculpturewas no longer a dominantplastic medium. The de-velopment of a pantheoncomposed of different di-vinities atrophied thesimple naturalism of the earlier art. andthe invention of the clay mould made itpossible to cast myriads of figures scrupu-lously defined by their attributes. Thusthe craftsman tended to abandon thismechanical reproduction of divinities andutilize stone as a medium of expression, al-though he occasionally worked in daywith the most harmonious results. Con-ceivably, the increased specialization ofindividual activity in a developed civiliza-tion allowed men the opportunity todedicate themselves to religious art. and
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O AX AC A. MI<:XICO Zapotec culture. This olay liKiire in the Oaxaca Museum is a strik-ing example of Central American art. Avhen allowed to express itselfwithout religious symbolism. IMiotograph by Miguel Covarrubias to utilize materials like stone, which re-(piired time to slia;)e. We know on archaeological groundsthat stone sculpture developed later thanclay in tlie Maya and the Mexican regions.While it began like the clay plastic, in theround, it took a somewhat differentcourse. Where clay could be readilyshaped, stone had to h? laboriouslypocked and ground into the desired form.()n the basis of the earliest stone carvingsrecovered from Central American sites,there seems to have been no inheritance

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