Arte y ciencia a través de las imágenes de aves en la pintura mural prehispánica

Abstract

Lourdes Navarijo examines modalities reflecting the graphic representation of birds in pre-Hispanic mural painting. Even though numerous examples exist in architecture, ceramics and other daily objects, all of which highlight the importance of birds in pre-Colombian cultures, this study centers specifically on painting. Taking examples from Teotihuacan and five other archeological sites from the Maya zone as her base, the author strives to explain the role of birds as signs or metaphors of a complex pictorial language tending towards allegory. The precise utilization of birds in this language, in line with the particular qualities of each species, reveals the indigenous peoples’ enormous ornithological and environmental knowledge, while also raising the question of whether a body of common scientific knowledge circulated among these groups.