Design for Eternity: Architectural Models from the Ancient Americas

Pillsbury, Joanne, Patricia Joan Sarro, James Doyle, and Juliet Wiersema (2015)

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Description

From the first millennium B.C. until the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century, artists from across the ancient Americas created small-scale architectural effigies to be placed in the tombs of important individuals. These works range from highly abstracted, minimalist representations of temples and houses to elaborate complexes populated with figures, conveying a rich sense of ancient ritual and daily life. Although often called models, these effigies were not created as prototypes for structures, but rather to serve as components of funerary practices that conveyed beliefs about an afterlife.

Design for Eternity is the first publication in English to explore the full variety of these exquisite architectural works. The vivid illustrations and insightful essays focus on the concepts embodied in architectural representations and the role these intriguing sculptures played in mediating relationships among the living, the dead, and the divine.

Table of contents

Director’s Foreword
Acknowledgments
Lenders to the Exhibition
Maps

Building for the Beyond: Architectural Models fro, the Ancient Americas
Joanne Pillsbury

Monumental Imaginings in Mesoamerican Architectural Models
Patricia Joan Sarro and James Doyle

The Art of Ancient Andean Architectural Representations
Juliet Wiersema

Notes
Further Reading
Index

About the authors

Joanne Pillsbury is Andrall E. Pearson Curator, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Patricia Joan Sarro is professor of art history, Youngstown State University, Ohio.

James Doyle is assistant curator, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Juliet Wiersema is assistant professor of art history, The University of Texas at San Antonio.

Press reviews

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

“a valuable resource, presenting advanced scholarship on these unique and important objects.”

CAA Reviews

“Give(s) shape to a topic that is by any measure sprawling…excels at surveying the topic’s breadth…cohesive, coherent, and successful…the photographs in the volume—many by senior photographer Paul Lauchenauer—are the epitome of art-historical images…should not be underestimated because of its small size…a broad foundation for future in-depth studies while raising fundamental questions about art-historical scholarship relevant to the discipline as a whole…a thoughtful and thought-provoking work that unites, connects, and presents diverse artistic practices that were widespread in ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes”

Museum Bookstore

“abundantly illustrated with photographs of models… the central purpose of the book — an antidote to previous interpretations of models — is an intriguing premise. It is interesting to see how the projection of European ideas about architecture does not correlate with the uses of objects in non-European contexts…”

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Central and Southern Andes, 1–500 A.D.

Central and Southern Andes, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.

Central and Southern Andes, 1000–1400 A.D.

Central and Southern Andes, 1400–1600 A.D.

Central and Southern Andes, 500–1000 A.D.

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Mexico, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.

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Mexico, 1400–1600 A.D.

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Exhibition

Design for Eternity: Architectural Models from the Ancient Americas

October 26, 2015–September 18, 2016

From the first millennium B.C. until the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century, artists from the ancient Americas created small-scale architectural models to be placed in the tombs of important individuals. These works in stone, ceramic, wood, and metal range from highly abstracted, minimalist representations of temples and houses to elaborate architectural complexes populated with figures. Such miniature structures were critical components in funerary practice and beliefs about an afterlife, and they convey a rich sense of ancient ritual as well as the daily lives of the Aztecs, the Incas, and their predecessors.

This exhibition, the first of its kind in the United States, will shed light on the role of these objects in mediating relationships between the living, the dead, and the divine. It will also provide a rare look at ancient American architecture, much of which did not survive to the present day. Some thirty remarkable loans from museums in the United States and Peru will join works from the Metropolitan Museum's permanent collection, which is particularly rich in this material.