Olmec art of ancient Mexico
By: edited by Elizabeth P. Benson & Beatriz de la Fuente ; with contributions by Marcia Castro-Leal ... [et al.].
Contributors: Benson, Elizabeth P.; Fuente, Beatriz de la.; Castro-Leal, Marcia.; National Gallery of Art (U.S.)
Publisher: National Gallery of Art
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Washington, D.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
Subjects: Olmec art -- Exhibitions
Description: Three thousand years ago, in what is now southern Mexico, Olmec art and culture flourished. No written documents survive, but the exceptional beauty and technical brilliance of the sculpture and its seminal importance to other Mesoamerican cultures are evident in the outstanding objects examined in Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico.

Specially commissioned photographs illustrate 120 magnificent pieces, which include 17 monumental sculptures from archaeological sites or Mexican museums, among them a 13-ton colossal head from San Lorenzo and the dynamic "Wrestler" from the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

Also featured is an extraordinary array of beautiful small-scale objects, including a unique cache of stone figurines excavated at the site of La Venta, votive axes and other implements related to human sacrifice, a ferocious-looking jade jaguar mask, and serpentine shaman transformation figures.

Contributions by fourteen Olmec specialists reflect the latest Mesoamerican scholarship and represent a wide range of interpretive approaches of this fascinating subject. They discuss not only the works of art but also the many recent finds that provide remarkable insights into Mexico's most ancient culture, as well as its cultural history, cosmology, and daily life.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 274-287) and index.
To accompany an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, June 30 to Oct. 20, 1996.