Summer Vacation Redux #29: Denver Art Museum, part 3

 Down one floor to level 5 and my mind was about to "esplode!" as one of my little kindergarten friends says--and not just once, but twice.  The fifth floor is home to two of the finest collections of art in these genres that I have ever seen.  My life has been a fortunate one.  I've seen a lot of art.  But finding collections of Pre-Columbian art outside of special exhibitions is not a common occurrence.  Here in DC there is the Pre-Colombian wing of the Dumbarton Oaks Museum.  It is a modest, but amazing collection.  I have also been to the national museums of Costa Rica and Nicaragua and they're both sources of national pride.  I have never been to Mexico, and I suppose I would have to in order to see more that I saw here at the Denver Art Museum.

 It is a sign of our Euro-centricity that we know far more about the art of ancient Greece and Rome than we do the founders of civilization on our own side of the world.  It is a fact that is crying shame.  I couldn't help but think if we only were as aware of the creativity and sophistication of art like this how we might not be a less prejudiced society against cultures of color.  You certainly can't walk away thinking that they are in anyway inferior.

 "Supreme Being with Staffs" (San Agustín) circa 800 CE (give or take 400 years on either side!), Colombia, upper Magdalena River Valley

 "Nude Man Peg-base Figure" circa 1250 CE (give or take 250 years on either side!), Costa Rica, Diquís region

 "Turtle-form Double Bowl" (Guinea Incised style) circa 300 CE (give or take 200 years on either side!), Costa Rica, Greater Nicoya region

 "Tripod Jar in Form of Jaguar" (Pataky Polychrome style) circa 1000 CE (give or take 200 years on either side), Nicaragua, Greater Nicoya region

 "Dancer with Rattle" (Nopiloa style) circa 750 CE, Veracruz, Mexico

 "Female Dancer" (Nopiloa style) circa 750 CE, Veracruz, Mexico

 "Plate" Mayan circa 750 CE, Petén, Guatemala

 "Plate with Enthroned Ruler" Mayan circa 750 CE, central Petén, Guatemala

 "Lidded Blackware Vessel" Mayan circa 350 CE, Mexico/Guatemala region

 foreground "Potbellied Man Rattle" Mayan circa 750 CE, Mexico, background "Ruler with Headdress" is all I got...and search of the online catalogue of the museum failed to turn it up.  But it's the rattle that I found the most fascinating.

 "House Model with Figures" (Nayarit, Ixtlan del Rio style) circa 0 CE, Nayarit, Mexico

 "Frieze Fragment" (Zapotec) circa 350 CE, Oaxaca, Mexico

 "Incense Burner" (Teotihaucán) circa 550 CE, Azcapotzalco, Mexico  

This was just one of dozens of this type of artifact on display, and for everything I've shown you, there were dozens more and then some--and the guard lamented that part of the floor was already closed for the coming renovation.  I commented back that I didn't think I could aesthetically or intellectually consume much more than the bounty that was still on display--not that I wouldn't have tried!