Painting the Skin : Pigments on Bodies and Codices in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica

Mesoamerican communities past and present are characterized by their strong inclination toward color and their expert use of the natural environment to create dyes and paints. In pre-Hispanic times, skin was among the preferred surfaces on which to apply coloring materials. Archaeological research and historical and iconographic evidence show that, in Mesoamerica, the human body--alive or dead--received various treatments and procedures for coloring it. Painting the Skin brings together exciting research on painted skins in Mesoamerica. Chapters explore the materiality, uses, and cultural meanings of the colors applied to a multitude of skins, including bodies, codices made of hide and vegetal paper, and even building "skins." Contributors offer physicochemical analysis and compare compositions, manufactures, and attached meanings of pigments and colorants across various social and symbolic contexts and registers. They also compare these Mesoamerican colors with those used in other ancient cultures from both the Old and New Worlds. This cross-cultural perspective reveals crucial similarities and differences in the way cultures have painted on skins of all types. Examining color in Mesoamerica broadens understandings of Native religious systems and world views. Tracing the path of color use and meaning from pre-Columbian times to the present allows for the study of the preparation, meanings, social uses, and thousand-year origins of the coloring materials used by today's Indigenous peoples. Contributors: María Isabel Álvarez Icaza Longoria Christine Andraud Bruno Giovanni Brunetti David Buti Davide Domenici Élodie Dupey García Tatiana Falcón Álvarez Anne Genachte-Le Bail Fabrice Goubard Aymeric Histace Patricia Horcajada Campos Stephen Houston Olivia Kindl Bertrand Lavédrine Linda R. Manzanilla Naim Anne Michelin Costanza Miliani Virgina E. Miller Sélim Natahi Fabien Pottier Patricia Quintana Owen Franco D. Rossi Antonio Sgamellotti Vera Tiesler Aurélie Tournié María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual Cristina Vidal Lorenzo Cover 1 Title page 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Foreword: Skin-Deep / Stephen Houston 8 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction: Colors and the Skin in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica / Élodie Dupey García and María Luisa Vázquez de ágredos Pascual 16 Part I. Coloring Alive and Dead Bodies: Materiality and Significance of Mesoamerican Corporal Painting 22 1. Painting the Skin in Ancient Mesoamerica / María Luisa Vázquez de ágredos Pascual 24 2. Materiality and Meaning of Medicinal Body Colors in Teotihuacan / María Luisa Vázquez de ágredos Pascual, Sélim Natahi, Véronique Darras, and Linda R. Manzanilla Naim 37 3. Painting the Dead in the Northern Maya Lowlands / Vera Tiesler, Kadwin Pérez López, and Patricia Quintana Owen 56 4. Body Colors and Aromatics in Maya Funerary Rites / María Luisa Vázquez de ágredos Pascual, Cristina Vidal Lorenzo, Patricia Horcajada Campos, and Vera Tiesler 69 5. Body Color and Body Adornment at Chichén Itzá / Virginia E. Miller 88 6. The Yellow Women: Naked Skin, Everyday Cosmetics, and Ritual Body Painting in Postclassic Nahua Society / Élodie Dupey García 101 7. The Colors of the Desert: Ritual and Aesthetic Uses of Pigments and Colorants by the Guachichil of Northern Mexico / Olivia Kindl 115 Part II. Illuminating Animal and Vegetal Skins: Chromatic Palettes and Meaning in Pre-Columbian Codices 140 8. Coloring Materials, Technological Practices, and Painting Traditions: Cultural and Historical Implications of Nondestructive Chemical Analyses of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican Codices / Davide Domenici, Costanza Miliani, David Buti, Brunetto Giovanni Brunetti, and Antonio Sgamellotti 142 9. The Study of Color in the Colombino Codex: An Experimental Approach / Tatiana Falcón 157 10. Preliminary Investigation on the Codex Borbonicus: Macroscopic Examination and Coloring Materials Characterization / Fabien Pottier, Anne Michelin, Anne Genachte–Le Bail, Aurélie Tournié, Christine Andraud, Fabrice Goubard, Aymeric Histace, and Bertrand Lavédrine 202 11. Convergence and Difference in the Borgia Group Chromatic Palettes / Élodie Dupey García and María Isabel Álvarez Icaza Longoria 220 12. Making and Using Colors in the Manufacture of Nahua Codices: Aesthetic Standards, Symbolic Purposes / Élodie Dupey García 231 13. Skin of Walls: Plaster Practices Across Maya Books, Buildings, and People / Franco D. Rossi 251 Epilogue: The Painted Skin, a Cultural and Sensorial Legacy / María Luisa Vázquez de ágredos Pascual and Élodie Dupey García 266 References 270 Contributors 310 Index 318 "Mesoamerican communities past and present are characterized by their strong inclination toward color and their expert use of the natural environment to create dyes and paints. In pre-Hispanic times, skin was among the preferred surfaces on which to apply coloring materials. Archaeological research and historical and iconographic evidence show that, in Mesoamerica, the human body--alive or dead--received various treatments and procedures for coloring it.Painting the Skin brings together exciting research on painted skins in Mesoamerica. Chapters explore the materiality, uses, and cultural meanings of the colors applied to a multitude of skins, including bodies, codices made of hide and vegetal paper, and even building "skins." Contributors offer physicochemical analysis and compare compositions, manufactures, and attached meanings of pigments and colorants across various social and symbolic contexts and registers. They also compare these Mesoamerican colors with those used in other ancient cultures from both the Old and New Worlds. This cross-cultural perspective reveals crucial similarities and differences in the way cultures have painted on skins of all types.Examining color in Mesoamerica broadens understandings of Native religious systems and world views. Tracing the path of color use and meaning from pre-Columbian times to the present allows for the study of the preparation, meanings, social uses, and thousand-year origins of the coloring materials used by today's Indigenous peoples." -- Provided by publisher "The book brings together exciting research on painted skins--human, animal, and vegetal--in Mesoamerica. It offers physicochemical analysis and interdisciplinary understandings of the materiality, uses, and cultural meanings of the colors applied on a multitude of skins, including bodies, codices, and even building 'skins'"--Provided by publisher