Khristaan D. Villela | The Getty (original) (raw)
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Books by Khristaan D. Villela
PhD Dissertation by Khristaan D. Villela
Montezuma’s Dinner addresses the history of Precolumbian art and nationalism in early nineteenth ... more Montezuma’s Dinner addresses the history of Precolumbian art and nationalism in early nineteenth century Mexico. In 1790 and 1791, workers in Mexico City discovered the Aztec Calendar Stone, the Coatlicue sculpture, and the Stone of Tizoc. The stones provoked an immediate sensation in a city where even the elite saw few sculptures unrelated to the Catholic Church.
Precolumbian art fixed in the Mexican consciousness during the turbulent years that followed, and especially between Independence in 1821 and the beginning of the thirty-five year rule of Porfirio Díaz in 1876. This dissertation explores the Postcolumbian afterlife of Precolumbian Mexican art, and
illuminates how a small group of archaeological objects became symbols of an entire nation. Although Mexico never lost its ancient history, after the Conquest the Spanish destroyed or buried nearly every example of monumental Aztec sculpture. Later in the eighteenth century when Enlightenment thought had penetrated New Spain, writers like Francisco Clavigero promoted Aztec
history as the kernel of what David Brading called Creole patriotism, the proto-nationalism of Colonial Mexico. The new emphasis on reason and scientific inquiry also predisposed at least some Colonial Mexican writers to look favorably upon the Calendar Stone and other newly discovered Precolumbian sculptures.
After Independence Carlos María Bustamante above all others argued that the Aztec offered a ready made and indispensable national narrative of origin. From the flag to currency, national planners eventually adapted Precolumbian imagery to serve independent Mexico. Antonio de León y Gama, Bustamante, Lucas Alamán, and José F. Ramírez produced the first studies and images of Mexican antiquities, and they responded to the accounts of John Lloyd Stephens, William Prescott and other foreign writers.
The Precolumbian past played an increasingly important role in Mexico’s national narrative during each successive period from Independence to the First Empire, the Republic and Central Republic, the Mexican-American War era, the Reforma, and the Second Mexican Empire. Mexico eventually developed into a modern nation with a Precolumbian heart. Aztec art and
culture formed a great banquet consumed by nationalists, archaeologists, historians, and popular writers.
MA Thesis by Khristaan D. Villela
Undergraduate Honors Thesis by Khristaan D. Villela
Papers by Khristaan D. Villela
The Santa Fe New Mexican. Pasatiempo Section , Mar 27, 2015
Discussion of the sale in 2014 at auction of an ancient Maya vase excavated in 1912 at the ruins ... more Discussion of the sale in 2014 at auction of an ancient Maya vase excavated in 1912 at the ruins of Quiriguá, Guatemala. The consigner was the St. Louis Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, and the purchaser was the Dallas Museum of Art. The sale led to the censure of the St. Louis Society.
Montezuma’s Dinner addresses the history of Precolumbian art and nationalism in early nineteenth ... more Montezuma’s Dinner addresses the history of Precolumbian art and nationalism in early nineteenth century Mexico. In 1790 and 1791, workers in Mexico City discovered the Aztec Calendar Stone, the Coatlicue sculpture, and the Stone of Tizoc. The stones provoked an immediate sensation in a city where even the elite saw few sculptures unrelated to the Catholic Church.
Precolumbian art fixed in the Mexican consciousness during the turbulent years that followed, and especially between Independence in 1821 and the beginning of the thirty-five year rule of Porfirio Díaz in 1876. This dissertation explores the Postcolumbian afterlife of Precolumbian Mexican art, and
illuminates how a small group of archaeological objects became symbols of an entire nation. Although Mexico never lost its ancient history, after the Conquest the Spanish destroyed or buried nearly every example of monumental Aztec sculpture. Later in the eighteenth century when Enlightenment thought had penetrated New Spain, writers like Francisco Clavigero promoted Aztec
history as the kernel of what David Brading called Creole patriotism, the proto-nationalism of Colonial Mexico. The new emphasis on reason and scientific inquiry also predisposed at least some Colonial Mexican writers to look favorably upon the Calendar Stone and other newly discovered Precolumbian sculptures.
After Independence Carlos María Bustamante above all others argued that the Aztec offered a ready made and indispensable national narrative of origin. From the flag to currency, national planners eventually adapted Precolumbian imagery to serve independent Mexico. Antonio de León y Gama, Bustamante, Lucas Alamán, and José F. Ramírez produced the first studies and images of Mexican antiquities, and they responded to the accounts of John Lloyd Stephens, William Prescott and other foreign writers.
The Precolumbian past played an increasingly important role in Mexico’s national narrative during each successive period from Independence to the First Empire, the Republic and Central Republic, the Mexican-American War era, the Reforma, and the Second Mexican Empire. Mexico eventually developed into a modern nation with a Precolumbian heart. Aztec art and
culture formed a great banquet consumed by nationalists, archaeologists, historians, and popular writers.
The Santa Fe New Mexican. Pasatiempo Section , Mar 27, 2015
Discussion of the sale in 2014 at auction of an ancient Maya vase excavated in 1912 at the ruins ... more Discussion of the sale in 2014 at auction of an ancient Maya vase excavated in 1912 at the ruins of Quiriguá, Guatemala. The consigner was the St. Louis Society of the Archaeological Institute of America, and the purchaser was the Dallas Museum of Art. The sale led to the censure of the St. Louis Society.
Miguel Covarrubias: Drawing a Cosmopolitan Line, ed. by Carolyn Kastner. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, and the University of Texas Press, Austin (expected 2014), Sep 2014
Past Presented: The History of Archaeological Illustration in the Americas, ed. Joanne A. Pillsbury, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. , 2012
CAA Reviews, Jan 8, 2015
Published by London: Archetype Publications in association with British Museum, 2012. 239 pp.; 24... more Published by London: Archetype Publications in association with British Museum, 2012. 239 pp.; 245 color ills.; 51 b/w ills. Paper $95.00 (9781904982791)
The Art Bulletin , Dec 2013
Review of Mary Ellen Miller and Claudia Brittenham, The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflect... more Review of Mary Ellen Miller and Claudia Brittenham, The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak; Joanne Pillsbury, Miriam Doutriaux, Reiko Ishihara-Brito, and Alexandre Tokovinine, eds., Ancient Maya Art at Dumbarton Oaks; Bryan R. Just, with Christina T. Halperin, Antonia E. Foias, and Sarah Nunberg, Dancing into Dreams: Maya Vase Painting of the Ik' Kingdom; Sarah E. Jackson, Politics of the Maya Court: Hierarchy and Change in the Late Classic Period
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo Section , Aug 8, 2014
New Mexico Magazine, Apr 2013
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section, Mar 9, 2012
The Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section, Jun 24, 2011
The Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo Section, Dec 9, 2011
Santa Fe New Mexican. Pasatiempo Section, Nov 20, 2015
Santa Fe New Mexican. Pasatiempo Section
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo Section , Jul 4, 2014
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section , Oct 4, 2013
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section, Sep 20, 2013
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section , May 31, 2013
New Mexico Magazine, Nov 2012
The Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section , Sep 7, 2012
Ancient Maya related activities at the Santa Fe Fiesta in July 1926. Including a parade float des... more Ancient Maya related activities at the Santa Fe Fiesta in July 1926. Including a parade float designed by Sylvanus Morley and Herbert Spinden, called The Yucatantrums. Also, a Maya-theme pool party at the home of Amelia and Martha White, where Morley wrote the script for a virgin sacrifice, and Witter Bynner wrote an ode. Everyone dressed in pseudo-Maya costume.
The Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section, Jun 1, 2012
When Sylvanus Morley and Jesse Nusbaum traveled to Tulum, Mexico in 1913 to gather film and phot... more When Sylvanus Morley and Jesse Nusbaum traveled to Tulum, Mexico in 1913 to gather film and photos for the Panama-California Exposition, rumors spread that they had been eaten by Maya Indian cannibals in what is now Quintana Roo, Mexico. There were no cannibals, and the archaeologists were safe. Their visit to Tulum was one of earliest on record.
The Santa Fe New Mexican, Apr 27, 2012
Discussion of the casts of ancient Maya monuments made by the School of American Archaeology at t... more Discussion of the casts of ancient Maya monuments made by the School of American Archaeology at the Quirigua, Guatemala. The casts were made for the Panama-California Exposition, San Diego California, 1915. They can still be seen in the San Diego Museum of Man. The project was directed by Edgar L. Hewett.
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section , Jan 6, 2012
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section , Mar 30, 2012
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo Section, Jan 9, 2015
Discussion of Leandro Katz's Catherwood Project, at the exhibition, Unsettled Landscapes, Site Sa... more Discussion of Leandro Katz's Catherwood Project, at the exhibition, Unsettled Landscapes, Site Santa Fe, NM, USA
Pasatiempo - Santa Fe New Mexican , Mar 21, 2014
Adobe Airstream, Jan 2014
Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section , Apr 26, 2013
The Santa Fe New Mexican, Pasatiempo section, Aug 3, 2012
Exhibition review. Adobe Airstream, published April 16, 2012., 2012