Image Encounters: Moche Murals and Archaeo Art History (University of Texas Press, 2022)

Moche murals of northern Peru represent one of the great, yet still largely unknown, artistic traditions of the ancient Americas. Created in an era without written scripts, these murals are key to understandings of Moche history, society, and culture. In this first comprehensive study on the subject, Lisa Trever develops an interdisciplinary methodology of “archaeo art history” to examine how ancient histories of art can be written without texts, boldly inverting the typical relationship of art to archaeology. Trever argues that early coastal artistic traditions cannot be reduced uncritically to interpretations based in much later Inca histories of the Andean highlands. Instead, the author seeks the origins of Moche mural art, and its emphasis on figuration, in the deep past of the Pacific coast of South America. __Image Encounters__ shows how formal transformations in Moche mural art, before and after the seventh century, were part of broader changes to the work that images were made to perform at Huacas de Moche, El Brujo, Pañamarca, and elsewhere in an increasingly complex social and political world. In doing so, this book reveals alternative evidentiary foundations for histories of art and visual experience. 2022 Mr. and Mrs. Raymond J. Horowitz Book Prize, Bard Graduate Center A landmark study of ancient Peruvian Moche mural art. Moche murals of northern Peru represent one of the great, yet still largely unknown, artistic traditions of the ancient Americas. Created in an era without written scripts, these murals are key to understandings of Moche history, society, and culture. In this first comprehensive study on the subject, Lisa Trever develops an interdisciplinary methodology of "archaeo art history" to examine how ancient histories of art can be written without texts, boldly inverting the typical relationship of art to archaeology. Trever argues that early coastal artistic traditions cannot be reduced uncritically to interpretations based in much later Inca histories of the Andean highlands. Instead, the author seeks the origins of Moche mural art, and its emphasis on figuration, in the deep past of the Pacific coast of South America. Image Encounters shows how formal transformations in Moche mural art, before and after the seventh century, were part of broader changes to the work that images were made to perform at Huacas de Moche, El Brujo, Pañamarca, and elsewhere in an increasingly complex social and political world. In doing so, this book reveals alternative evidentiary foundations for histories of art and visual experience.

Moche murals of northern Peru represent one of the great, yetstill largely unknown, artistic traditions of the ancient Americas.Created in an era without written scripts, these murals are key tounderstandings of Moche history, society, and culture. In thisfirst comprehensive study on the subject, Lisa Trever develops aninterdisciplinary methodology of "archaeo art history" to examinehow ancient histories of art can be written without texts, boldlyinverting the typical relationship of art to archaeology.

Trever argues that early coastal artistic traditions cannot bereduced uncritically to interpretations based in much later Incahistories of the Andean highlands. Instead, the author seeks theorigins of Moche mural art, and its emphasis on figuration, in thedeep past of the Pacific coast of South America. ImageEncounters shows how formal transformations in Moche muralart, before and after the seventh century, were part of broaderchanges to the work that images were made to perform at Huacas deMoche, El Brujo, Pañamarca, and elsewhere in an increasinglycomplex social and political world. In doing so, this book revealsalternative evidentiary foundations for histories of art and visualexperience.

Moche murals of northern Peru represent one of the great, yet still largely unknown, artistic traditions of the ancient Americas. Created in an era without written scripts, these murals are key to understandings of Moche history, society, and culture. In this first comprehensive study on the subject, Lisa Trever develops an interdisciplinary methodology of "archaeo art history" to examine how ancient histories of art can be written without texts, boldly inverting the typical relationship of art to archaeology.0Trever argues that early coastal artistic traditions cannot be reduced uncritically to interpretations based in much later Inca histories of the Andean highlands. Instead, the author seeks the origins of Moche mural art, and its emphasis on figuration, in the deep past of the Pacific coast of South America. Image Encounters shows how formal transformations in Moche mural art, before and after the seventh century, were part of broader changes to the work that images were made to perform at Huacas de Moche, El Brujo, Panamarca, and elsewhere in an increasingly complex social and political world. In doing so, this book reveals alternative evidentiary foundations for histories of art and visual experience "In this book, Lisa Trever develops an interdisciplinary methodology ("archaeo-art history") to interpret artworks located in deep history, long before the use of written scripts. In order to "read" these murals, scholars must be sensitive to the material evidence and visual perception in deciphering these images. This is the first truly comprehensive study of Moche murals of northern Peru, which represent one of the great, still largely unknown artistic traditions of the ancient Americas, as well as the first art historical analysis of newly discovered murals at the site of Pañamarca that make a striking aesthetic break from earlier Moche sites. Trever also endeavors to place Moche mural art within the broader South American contexts of deeply ancient (ca. 5000 BCE) Pacific coastal traditions of bodily image-making and figural "graffiti.""-- Provided by publisher Contents Preface Introduction. Image Encounters Chapter 1. Mural Origins and Coastal Corporealities Chapter 2. Formulating Traditions: Ancestral Divinities, Norcosteño Design, and the Aesthetics of Replication in Moche Mural Art (200–650 CE) Chapter 3. Siting Narratives: Moche Mural Painting and the Condensation of a Medium (650–850 CE) Chapter 4. Archaeo-Iconology: An Archaeology of Image Experience and Response Conclusion. On the Huaca Notes Bibliography Index