CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Pre-Columbian Art
Art of the Americas before European contact, from Olmec jade and Andean textiles to Maya, Aztec and Inca works and Caribbean carving.
No works indexed yet
No open-access works for Pre-Columbian Art are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
The term gathers the art of the Americas made before European contact began in 1492, across two continents; some scholars prefer 'ancient American'. In Mesoamerica, the Olmec carved jade and basalt from about 1200 BC, Teotihuacan laid out a vast planned city around the Pyramid of the Sun in the early centuries AD, and the Maya and later the Aztecs built on those foundations.
The Andes developed separately. Paracas embroiderers on the south coast of Peru covered mantles with flying figures in the last centuries BC; Nasca potters painted polychrome vessels; Wari weavers produced tunics of bold interlocking geometry; and in the 15th century the Inca fitted stone blocks without mortar at Cusco. Gold was worked brilliantly in Colombia and Panama, where Muisca, Quimbaya and Coclé smiths cast figures and pendants, while Taíno carvers in the Caribbean made spirit figures called zemís. Much of what survives was buried, since conquerors melted down most of the gold they found.