The olmèque art appears by a great control of the Sculpture and Ciselure. It will be exceeded by no other Civilization précolombienne. This control is visible as well in colossal art as in miniature art.

The Artiste S Olmèque S worked out their art in the Argile, the stone and the Bois like on some rupestral paintings. The artistic creation of this civilization leads us to distinguish monumental art or colossal art and the minor art or movable art. The materials used are the Basalte and the Andésite then the serpentine , the jade-jadeite and the Obsidienne.

The Culture Olmèque, between 1200 av. J. - C. and 500 av. J. - C., first of great civilizations of the Mésoamérique, invents the writing, by using the Pictogramme S Idéogramme S and the Calendrier. But it is without any doubt its exceptional Art, as well by its iconographic richness as by its technical qualities, which is a reference and a heritage for all the posterior Culture S. Thus the Maya writing will draw its roots in the first system glyphic worked out by olmèque art. The Toltèque S, the Zapotèque S until the Aztec S and all the other ages of average America will refer to Olmèques in many other fields which they are artistic, technical, religious or intellectual.

Historiography

See also: Olmèque

The olmèque art is unknown until in 1862, year of the fortuitous discovery of the first colossal head with Hueyapan (Veracruz) by Jose María Melgar there Serrano. It is necessary to await 1925 to discover others Mégalithe S olmèques. The specialists Frans Blom, Archeologist, and Olivier Farge, Ethnographer, explore the Coast of the Gulf as well as the South-east of the Mexico. Their first discovered olmèques works are inopportunely confused with works Maya S. the archeologist Hermann Beyer, in the Thirties, gives the term “Olmèque” to this new Art. The Culture and the Art Olmèque are thus defined and the term is officialized in 1942 by the olmecologists to indicate the Civilization Mère of the Mésoamérique whose known most important centers are Was windy It, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, Laguna of los Cerros, Tres Zapotes and Cerro of mow Mesas, in the Actual positions of Tabasco and Veracruz, like Tlacozotitlan and Abaj Takalik located at the Guerrero and the Guatemala. Alfonso Caso and Miguel Covarrubias thereafter will define the cultural features of the Mésoamérique and the North-American Archéologue Matthew Stirling, will highlight the key sites of the Coast of the Gulf which will be the subject of excavations and important olmèques artistic discoveries.

In order to include/understand the emergence of olmèque art well it is necessary to specify that this Civilization is with the source of an artistic style and a Iconographie which are integrated in the following chronology between 1200 and 500 before J.C into preclassical (traditional chronology of Willey & Philips established in 1958) or with the Time I (more recent chronology and innovative of C. Duverger established in 1999).

The first archaeological excavations on olmèque civilization revealed ritual practices on human bones. One could note dental mutilations and cranial deformations . These practices although terrifying nowadays had a strong symbolic system and one can admire on certain sculptures, in Jade in particular, the representation by the Artiste of these customs and habits. Concerning the writing and although it causes controversies in the specialists one can affirm today, with the discovery of the Stèle of Cascajal, that the existence of a writing was in force at the olmèques ones as of 1200 av. J. - C. This stele reveals all its importance because it is about the oldest writing discovered in America. The appearance of a olmèque writing (pictogram-ideograms) evokes consequently more one language that a simple ornamentation. It is certainly about a “sign language” raising in priority of the religious field and the field sociopolitic. The idea of a writing only based in the shape of ideograms is thus to exclude.

Olmèque art is carrying all these signs which one can find registered initially on the terra cotta then on other supports, such as the stone. According to the French school promoted by Christine Niederberger and taken again in particular by Caterina Magni, the olmèque culture is a multiethnic and plurilinguistic unit i.e. their presence is attested on old levels of occupation on the Coast of the Gulf, in the Basin of Mexico City and along the coast Pacifique in the States of the Guerrero, Oaxaca and Chiapas, but especially beyond the Mexican borders, until the south of the Costa Rica. Olmèques are for other specialists attached to the linguistic family Maya for Michael D. Coe and mixes-zoque for Gareth Lowe which refers to the Popoluca language, of the group macromaya mixes-zoque, spoken by the inhabitants living on the coast about the gulf.

Structure, materials and techniques

The olmèque Architecture is monumental and will be integrated into the Environnement. The Pyramide is a recall with the Montagne. By its imposing size and its rise, it represents the principal building of the ceremonial center. It will become an architectural constant in the America Moyenne. However the architecture of the greatest sites olmèques, with Was windy It or in San Lorenzo, considered as the example of most accomplished Urbanisme of the Time I, appears by beaten ground constructions. By rigorous plans and an imposing architecture, characterized by the conical pyramid of Was windy (30 meters in height), the site of San Lorenzo (2 km length on 1 km broad) or the ground of play of ball, joins a monumental art and the presence of a system of imposing drainage. That will precede the late sites Mésoaméricain S.

The olmèques artists illustrate themselves as well in the work of clay, the stone and wood. In addition, the discovery of cave paintings as in Juxtlahuaca (photo here), watch the heterogeneity of their production. A diagrammatic approach of artistic creation leads to the distinction between monumental art and minor art:

• the olmèque minor art gathers all the objects known as low-size that it is in stone, in Terra cotta, volume, top or low relief, incised and/or excized. This minor art includes/understands the figurines, the axes, the masks, the containers, the jewels, and the pendeloques.
• olmèque monumental art indicates works of big size. It is about Sculpture in Ronde-bosse, in top and Bas relief, also being able to be engraved or painted. The colossal heads, the statues, the furnace bridges, the steles, the flagstones, the mosaic petroglyphs and the are major representations of olmèque art.

The olmèques ones did not know the metallurgy and the tools were out of stone even if specialists are skeptics on the use of stone tools to carve basalt. A researcher thinks that mineral iron artefacts, discovered in very great quantity on several sites olmèques, resemble small hammers whereas the another described operation of these artefacts and how they were used for the stone mason.

The olmèque figure

On the level of the Iconography, the human figure constitutes the main theme of olmèque art. If some scenes of olmèque art reflect the " obviously; thought mythique" , others describe without ambiguity of the rites and some return simultaneously to the myth and the rite, or are placed at the hinge of the field Mythologique and the ceremonial field. Imagery which doubles will to affirm the to be able. We can define three main categories, characterized by a figurative or codified expression:

• Firstly the representations of mythical nature, which most frequently constitute only one sequence of a narration Mythologique vaster than one can qualify mythographic .
• Secondly the representations of ritual nature, which attempt to transcribe in a fragmentary way reality of ceremonial.
• Thirdly art " socio-historique" , which can in fact use elements of the Mythe to mean or legitimate a capacity, a social position.

The olmèque iconography is extremely rich, with the sight of the abundant details which appear on many sculptures. The specialists analyze each part of work in order to include/understand its general direction. One can realize, considering the multitude of archaeological parts found to date, that the human figure is the main theme of olmèque art. Béatriz of Fuente counts 206 parts, of which 110 represent characters Anthropomorphe S. the third place is given to animalist works, whereas the hybrid figures are second in this classification, among which the Homme - Jaguar is prevalent.

The olmèque figure arises in three quite distinct forms with the figure Hybride, the figure zoomorphe and the figure Anthropomorphe. This distinction is not only esthetic but first of all it is a question of understanding that it is an art religious in which the olmèque imagery shows states of various degrees in the relation man and animal. The figure of the Jaguar is thus omnipresent. But the animal figure is as well represented under the features of the Serpent, the eagle, the stag, the Singe, the Poisson (photo), etc

Olmèque art obeys precise rules which make it possible to classify the animal figures according to three characteristics: cat-like, reptilienne and félino-reptilienne. In the same way, this classification takes place for the anthropomorphic figure with the female figures, the male figures which are rare and the asexual figures which are most numerous.

The hybrid figure

The olmèque imagery gives a report on different degrees in the relation man-animal. Caterina Magni prepared a table which makes it possible to include/understand the various situations or evolutions of the Homme to the Animal and conversely of the animal to the man. These artistic events suggest a systematic exploration of the relation man-jaguar and its reciprocal jaguar-man. Accordingly, the Image of the " Were-jaguar" (photograph), where the anthropomorphic features and zoomorphes intermingle intelligently, is the best example.

The figure zoomorphe

In an impregnated art of animality, it is surprising to note the scarcity of the purely animalist representations. The place of honor returns once again to the Félin. Then come from other large predatory like the Serpent and the eagle. The preys (stag S, Monkey S and other small mammals) are minority compared to the carnivores. Beyond the representations zoomorphes naturalists, one observes propensity with the hybridization of the forms. The composite creature or " fantastique" is a synthesized image created by the combination of forms and/or key attributes, of variable number, borrowed from various biologically existing animal species. Plastic and intellectual aggregation which conceals a strong logic interns governed by precise rules.

In olmèque art, one can classify the composite creatures in three categories: animals in cat-like matter (photo), animals with character reptilien (photo) and animals with character félino-reptilien (photo).

The anthropomorphic figure

In this category, one can distinguish the female figures (photo), the male figures (photo) and the asexual characters (photo).

• the female figures are recurring with the time I. Modelled out of clay, they have the indication of a chest, more rarely of the Sexe. In late, minor and monumental art concise, the female figures decrease. However, the image of the Femme continues to be present, but in metaphorical form. It crystallizes in the image of the Grotte and the fault chthonienne; terrestrial entrails being comparable with the reproductive Apparatus female. In addition, olmèque art contains a whole corpus of works of art dated between 1000 and 800 av. J. - C., where the man adopts a maternal attitude such as for example in the topic of the presentation of the Enfant, where the figure male E carries on its knees a baby-jaguar (photo). It is convenient to recognize in this apparent gap, a transfer of the image which takes place on the level symbolic system (photo).
• the male figures, at least those which are recognizable and without any ambiguity, are rare.
• For the figures asexual, majority, they seem to answer esthetic and sometimes ideological conventions. The significant absence of the indication of centres but of a stoutness and apparently male features of face can make think of men. Certain asexual statuettes carry even a Barbe and are equipped with a mask-sex (photo).

Design of art

The act of mutilation

Olmèques, like other later cultures mésoaméricaines, testify to a practice of Destruction and material Mutilation of works which seems a deliberated act. Sometimes, it is accompanied by the burial of the parts: towards 900 av. J. - C., San Lorenzo was given up, the monuments was mutilated and disfigured, then buried ritually in long lines in the earthworks. The habit extends to other sites: Was windy It, Laguna of los Cerros, El Manatí and Chalcatzingo. It is old and geographically diffuse.

It is the monumental art which has, particularly, is the subject of a destruction (steles, furnace bridges, low-reliefs, colossal heads, round bumps…). Varied methods were employed. On the one hand breaking where the parts were fractured into two or several fragments, for example on certain steles. Other monoliths, like the furnace bridges, were damaged to differing degrees. The damaged part can be limited to the edges of the parallelepipedic block or cover with the whole parts, in particular the face. The parts cut in sculpture in the round, with the anthropomorphic effigies, zoomorphes or hybrids, were decapitated. To announce, destruction of certain architectural elements, like the columns. In addition obliteration where the parts were destroyed by means of more or less major perforations. It is either about a hammering of surface, or of true furrows affecting of the different forms. The face and the back of the colossal heads were degraded by means of circular furrows, with the variable number. Concentrated or strewn on surface, these depressions assign work to various degrees. Rectangular niches, kinds of basins, méticuleusement were sometimes méticuleusement notched. On certain parts of San Lorenzo, El Manatí or Was windy It, one observes a series of scratches.

It is essential to underline the variety of the mutilations of use at Olmèques. The care and the exactitude of these marks suggest that they are the work of skilful hands, probably of artist-craftsman and that they were inflicted by means of stone tools, without making recourse to techniques of destruction to the Feu. Also a large range presupposes a semantic differentiation. Indeed, each type of destruction revêt most probably a particular significance. David Grove proposes three interpretative assumptions:

• Premièrement the act of mutilation is a ritual act in connection with the calendar, like will be much later at the time V, the festival of New Fire in Mexico Central.
• Deuxièmement the act of mutilation intervenes at the time of a dynastic change of government.
• Dernièrement the act of mutilation occurs at the time of dead of a chief. The monuments which depict or associate to the dignitary symbolically are destroyed, then buried.

The act of recycling

There are a narrow relationship between the practice of destruction and that of recycling of stone monuments. According to the Archeologist S, these two fields are the subject sometimes of an amalgam. The practice of recycling is also a deliberated act which envisages obligatorily the destruction of work. But, this modification does not constitute an end in itself. It is acted in fact of an intermediate stage in a long process of work which aims at preparing the part with its re-use. The practice of recycling of works, minor and monumental, is well attested. It comprises sometimes modifications, at least important.

One can distinguish three cases:

• Initially, the case of the works of art altered by Olmèques. In movable art, a known example is offering 4 of Was windy It. It is about a ritual scene made up of six axes inserted in the ground following the example steles in miniature (four of them carry incised drawings) and of sixteen statuettes laid out in half-circle. Among the six " stèles" , two form only one object: a engraved petaloid axe, whose perforations indicate that it must be considered in the direction length and that it constituted, most probably, pendentive or pectoral. The practice is recurring in monumental art. It is the case, for example of old furnace bridge-thrones lately carved in the shape of colossal heads. The opposite process, aiming this time at transforming a head into furnace bridge, was noticed on the site of Abaj Takalik (Guatemala). This use, in addition, was ratified by the results of the excavations of San Lorenzo, directed per annum Cyphers. Rework cells of stone monuments were discovered; the activity seems to be controlled, socially and physically, by the elite. For proof, localization on the site of a workshop, located near Palacio rojo, residence of the governors. Ann Cyphers explains the practice by a preoccupation with a parsimony and a will of not-wasting of a material says exotic. The Basalt, coming from the mountainous solid mass of Los Tuxtlas in the Veracruz, presupposes a transport with long distance and consequently, an important expenditure in energy (Photo). With these pragmatic reasons, one can belong to the components symbolic systems, which have a paramount role in the Pensée mésoaméricaine. According to a cyclic perception of time, the act of recycling can be considered in the optics of the Rite S of regeneration which are governed by the principle death-rebirth. The burial of the works of art, like the mutilation, forms part of this same optics. In this manner the semantic bonds between act of recycling on the one hand and practices of destruction-burial of the other, are tightened.
• In second place, we have the case of the works of art altered by other cultures. They are modifications also ascribable to the late cultures mésoaméricaines. For example, objects olmèques re-used by the Mayas.
• Finally in third place, there is the case of the recycling of the works of art without rehandling. The reintroduction of materials in the circuit was attested until the time V. Thus one can find parts olmèques in masks of the late cultures. At the origin of this practice, for the attraction for antiquities, it is necessary to underline constant worry at the Aztec-Mexica , to establish a filiation with the preceding cultures.

The act of burial

The realization of artefacts at Olmèques can be accompanied by an act of hiding. Two processes are attested. In the first, intact works of art are buried, in the second, the parts are destroyed before being buried. In both cases, rational arguments are not enough to explain this step impressed of sacrality. The most spectacular case is that of the massive offerings of Was windy It, whose mosaic S are the best witness. The practice of the burial shows the will to move away art from any human glance. The constitutive materials are either absent from site of Venta (Argile, Basalte), or untraceable on the Coast of the Gulf (jade-jadeite, Néphrite, serpentine…). It is thus astonishing that one devoted as much effort to be sought, to transport, to cut such a large quantity of materials, of which invaluable stones, for finally burying them. This deliberated act meets major religious needs. It can be interpreted like an offering addressed to the Ground feeder Mère, exchange between the Homme and his procreators. The practice of the hiding is not limited to the massive offerings. She includes, as the masks, movable art testify some. That is particularly obvious with Was windy It, where one notices the importance of a central line characterized by a strong concentration of offerings of monuments and burials.

Olmèques were thus the initiators of a practice which one will find later in Mésoamérique, in particular at the Mayas: that to bury invaluable objects near the monuments, with the foot of the walls, under the staircases, etc

Writing and Art

The olmèque Writing is not a Art with the clean direction but it is normal to develop a paragraph in order to include/understand the language signs which is an artistic form of writing covering a thought raising in priority of the field religious and of the field sociopolitic. There were many speculations on the fact that Olmèques were the first culture of the American continent having created the figure Zero. The calendar of the long account used by the Maya is a written numeration vigesimal used to note the dates entered in tun (year of account being worth 360 days). This characteristic numeration is appeared as two glyphes: point-bars and the glyphe céphalomorphe. Each one comprises a figure called zero of position. But the calendar of the long account appears well before Maya civilization. According to Richard Diehl, one supposes that the use of the Zero was the invention of Olmèques. Indeed, several dates of the long account were found on sites olmèques. Thus, and although olmèque civilization is extinct towards 500 av. J. - C. several centuries before the calendar of the long account Maya, certain specialists still think that the Zero is not an invention Olmèque.

In 1939, the Archéologue Matthew Stirling discovered with Tres Zapotes the lower part of a stele known as Stèle C. The latter is in Basalte. A face shows a " Were-jaguar" and the other face describes the oldest model of the calendar of the long account Maya. The date which was translated on the stele corresponds to the following figures: 7.16.6.16 .18. The latter would be close in our current Calendrier to the September 3rd in the year 32 av. J. - C. Although there was a certain polemic concerning this date because it missed a baktun (period of 20 baktunob) that Stirling had interpreted as being the Chiffre 7. The polemic taken end in 1969, year of discovered of the upper part of the Stele C. Matthew Stirling had been right on the assumption that it had given with figure 7. But another stele named Stele 2 of Chiapa de Corzo with the Chiapas, with a date of 7.16.3.2 .13, would be older than the Stele C because it would be dated from the year 36 av. J. - C. the importance of these engraved steles post-olmèque watch the survival of a culture and an art to the profit of other civilizations.

Analyzes of works

Figurines

Descriptions

The olmèques figurines are for a certain number of the Archétypes. Several of these work S can not be produced directly by Olmèques. There is still many Faux which circulates and misleads the vigilance of the collectors because the reasons for the olmèque figure are easily identifiable of this Culture and reproducible. These works also gather not only the figurines in Terra cotta, most, but in Jade, serpentine, Basalte, stone and other ores.

• to enter the sharp one of the subject of the description of the olmèques figures, one of the most known representations in the olmèque Art is the figurine known as of the " Baby-face" (Photograph). These small figurines in Céramique digs are easily recognizable by their bodies post holes with a Visage of Bébé, inclined Yeux and Lèvre S with commissures turned downwards. The pout of these " Baby-face" is always very particular and characteristic.

• Another of type of figurine appears in the jade representations. It is about Homme S in fact which is held upright. They have members thin and lengthened with a oval head and bald person having undergone a cranial deformation (Photo). The Mouth as for the " Baby-face" is downwards tilted. It is a recurring reason in the Art Olmèque. One can also observe on some figurines the combination of the body post hole of the " Baby-face" and of the lengthened head. One of the most known examples concerning these characters in Jade is Offering 4 of Was windy It (Photo). These figurines were buried ritually in a deep and narrow cavity, and were covered with three layers of Argile. They were found exactly in the position in which we can see them today (Photo). Offering 4 is composed of sixteen male figurines placed in half-circle in front of six Hache S in Jade. Two of these figurines are out of jade, thirteen into serpentine, and the reddish granite last. The latter is placed with the axes, facing the other characters. One can as notice as with the right-hand side of the figurine Rouge, several characters in Jade seem to agree with him by their side attitudes. All these figurines have the traditional characteristics of the olmèques figures. I.e. the head S ovals and bald people, the long member S ends and the absence of Body S Genital. It should be specified that male appearance is characterized by a Pagne. They also have small holes with the Oreille S with the site of the earrings. Their Jambe S is slightly folded. We are thus in the religious sphere. Specialists will affirm that the common characteristics on the figurines and the masks olmèques are in fact the features of cat-like, in particular the Jaguar. These artistic representations show consequently on which level the relations man-jaguar and jaguar-man are essential in the olmèque culture. Thus we can start to speak about the Image of the " Were-jaguar" , Mythical figure and major of the olmèque art whose features Anthropomorphic S and zoomorphes are linked to form a hybrid creature.
• the " Were-jaguar" is a recurring reason for olmèque art. It is about a human transformation into Jaguar. Carved many times on many supports and also incised on axes in Jade, the figurines representing the " Were-jaguar" show a variety of models and subjects much vaster than those representing the figure of the " Baby-face" or male jade figurines with the cranial deformation. Thus the figurine can as well show a human transformation into jaguar as the opposite (Photo). In the same way, there are several figurines " Were-jaguar" where the subject seems to be in a stage of the transformation (Photo, Photo). The topic is thus vast and complex to be described in a general way. It would be advisable to make a precise analysis of each work to describe the transformation. In addition to the " Were-jaguar" , much of other figurines show the human and animal transformation, in particular the man with the eagle.
• Enfin several figurines seem to represent human fetuses (Photo).

History

" Baby-face" were found on all the sites which were subject to an influence Olmèque. The figurines in Jade representing Homme S were found in burials with Tlatilco. Concerning Offering 4, it was found on the site of Was windy It. They are the archeologists who decided later to call it thus.

Assumptions

• being given the number of " Baby-face" found in precise places, one can say that these figurines had a special role within the olmèque culture. But what they represent is prone to controversies on behalf of the specialists.
• For Offering 4, interpretations abound. This so particular formation in arc of circle is doubtless a council. It seems allowed that the fifteen jade figurines listen to the red granite figurine. The Hache S form the context. The central figure could be an initiate or a God.
• For the " Were-jaguar" , or in a more general way the transformations of the figure Animal E and human, it are appropriate to say that these figurines which describe this transformation are for certain specialists the representation of men with masks in animals or costumes of animals.
• the figurine of Fœtus is, as for it, a sculpture naturalist. These representations can be related on the Infanticide and the sacrifice of infant.

Colossal Heads

In the spirit of the public, the colossal heads are associated with civilization Olmèque like the Egyptian Pyramide S with Pharaonic civilization. They are almost the brand image, the most spectacular element, that also which caused the most whimsical theories. It is advisable to distinguish the colossal heads from the Gulf of Mexico of those less known of the coast of the Pacific. In what one calls sometimes the “olmèque metropolitan zone”, one indexed very exactly seventeen colossal heads, carved in blocks of basalt:

• ten coming from the site of San Lorenzo
• four of Was windy It
• two of Tres Zapotes
• one of Cobata.

The last colossal head was put at the day with San Lorenzo, in 1994, by a Mexican team directed per annum Cyphers.

© 2007-2008 speedlook.com; article text available under the terms of GFDL, from fr.wikipedia.org