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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 985
EAN num: 9780877459798
ISBN number: 0877459797
Label: University Of Iowa Press
Manufacturer: University Of Iowa Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 266
Printing Date: September 01, 2006
Publishing house: University Of Iowa Press
Sale Popularity Level: 338055
Studio: University Of Iowa Press
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For almost eight hundred years (100 BC–AD 650) Nasca artists modeled and painted the plants, animals, birds, and fish of their homeland on Peru’s south coast as well as numerous abstract anthropomorphic creatures whose form and meaning are sometimes incomprehensible today. In this very first book-length treatment of Nasca ceramic iconography to appear in English, drawing upon an archive of more than eight thousand Nasca vessels from over 150 public and private collections, Donald Proulx systematically describes the major artistic motifs of this stunning polychrome pottery, interprets the major themes displayed on this pottery, and then uses these descriptions and his stimulating interpretations to analyze Nasca society. After beginning with an overview of Nasca culture and an explanation of the style and chronology of Nasca pottery, Proulx moves to the heart of his book: a detailed classification and description of the entire range of supernatural and secular themes in Nasca iconography along with a fresh and distinctive interpretation of these themes. Linking the pots and their iconography to the archaeologically known Nasca society, he ends with a thorough and accessible examination of this ancient culture viewed through the lens of ceramic iconography. Although these static images can never be fully understood, by animating their themes and meanings Proulx reconstructs the lifeways of this complex society.
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Rated by buyers -
Donald A. Proulx's book begins with a brief overview of the people who produced Nasca pottery. It then describes the rules or canons used by Nasca potters to form and decorate their pottery. It summarizes the discovery of the very first Nasca pottery. It describes how 800 years of Nasca art are divided into various periods and the basis for the chronology. It also describes the methodology of both Proulx and other experts in organizing Nasca art.
Then, as Proulx writes on his website: "The centerpiece of the book is a detailed classification and description of the iconography along with an interpretation of their meaning in the context of the Nasca Culture. [Then] I use the iconography (along with archaeological evidence) to reconstruct the religion, political organization and everyday life of the people of this ancient civilization."
For the general reader like myself, the images in the "centerpiece" are incredible, and stay in the mind well after the pages are closed. Images of realistic plants, animals, birds, and fish and numerous abstract anthropomorphic creatures persist in memory, even though even to experts, some of the forms and meanings are incomprehensible today. I was particularly struck by the comparison between the images on the pottery and the shapes of the Nasca Lines, which Proulx has also studied. I poured over the reconstructions with a sense of real excitement.
I was fascinated with how Proulx created this incredible collection of images. 45 years ago as a student he was hired to catalog a collection of Peruvian artifacts. He continued his interest by photographing Nasca collections throughout Peru and the United States as well as key museum collections in Germany and Great Britain. He added all of the images he found in books as well as museum collections available on the Internet. He then digitized the entire archive and now has approximately 24,000 images in an electronic archive representing pieces from over 150 museums and private collections. There is no doubt that this book, and the conclusions Proulx reaches, are based on the largest collection of Nasca images ever assembled.
As a consumer, I asked myself, so why, oh why doesn't this book include an CD containing all of these images? It would be so much fun to search and compare images from several different pages, and perhaps even find a connection that Proulx had missed.
His answer, also perfectly comprehensible appears on his excellent website [Google "Donald A. Proulx"]: "It has always been my desire to share my archive with other scholars until I realized the legal prohibitions of distributing the disks. I would have to obtain permission from over 200 sources to be able to do this. I also discovered that the file names that I generated on my Macintosh computer are not all compatible with PCs, and many of these names would have to be modified to be used on these other operating systems."
I am very disappointed that I can't play with these images on my own computer. Nevertheless, the book is a treasure. As a lover of art and a student of how art is integrated into culture, I was enchanted. I'll return to these images over and over again.
Robert C. Ross 2008
Rated by buyers -
For those captivated by ancient Andean imagery Don Proulx's A Sourcebook of Nasca Ceramic Iconography provides an indispensable guide to the colourful world of the Nasca. Located on Peru's south coast in the very first centuries A.D., Nasca potters left a visual account of their world view in an astounding array of depictive designs. Drawing on forty years of study, Proulx offers the very first comprehensive catalogue of Nasca motifs, along with his own identifications and interpretations. In addition to the motif catalogue, Proulx provides the most extensive description of the nine-phase Nasca pottery sequence ever published in one place. This contribution alone makes this book a "must have" reference. The Sourcebook also contains Proulx's own overview of Nasca culture, covering special topics such as religion, subsistence, daily life, material culture, and dwellings. A Sourcebook of Nasca Ceramic Iconography is destined to be a standard reference for generations to come. It represents the crowning achievement of Proulx's long and distinguished career, though not, we hope, the last we hear from Don Proulx.
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