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Painting in the Americas before European colonization is thePrecolumbian painting traditions of the Americas. Painting was a relatively widespread, popular and diverse means of communication and expression for both religious and utilitarian purpose throughout the regions of theWestern Hemisphere. During the period before and afterEuropean exploration and settlement of the Americas; includingNorth America,Central America,South America and the islands of theCaribbean, theBahamas, theWest Indies, theAntilles, theLesser Antilles and other island groups, indigenous native cultures produced a wide variety of visual arts, including painting on textiles, hides, rock and cave surfaces, bodies especially faces, ceramics, architectural features including interior murals, wood panels, and other available surfaces. Many of the perishable surfaces, such as woven textiles, typically have not been preserved, but Precolumbian painting on ceramics, walls, and rocks have survived more frequently.
The oldest known paintings in the South America are thecave paintings ofCaverna da Pedra Pintada, in theBrazilianAmazon rainforest that date back 11,200 years.[1] The earliest known painting in North America is theCooper Bison Skull found nearFort Supply, Oklahoma, dated to 10,200 BCE.[2]
Each continent of the Americas hosted societies that were unique and individually developed cultures; that produced totems, works of religious symbolism, and decorative and expressive painted works. African influence was especially strong in the art of the Caribbean and South America. The arts of the indigenous people of the Americas had an enormous impact and influence onEuropean art and vice versa during and after theAge of Exploration. Spain, Portugal, France, The Netherlands and England were all powerful and influentialcolonial powers in the Americas during and after the 15th century. By the 19th century cultural influence began to flow both ways across the Atlantic.
The murals ofTeotihuacan that adorn the archaeological site (and others, like theWagner Murals, found in private collections) and from hieroglyphic inscriptions made by theMaya describing their encounters with Teotihuacano conquerors are the source of most of what is understood about that ancient civilization. The painting of the murals, perhaps thousands of them, reached its zenith between 450 and 650 CE. The painters' artistry was unrivalled in Mesoamerica and has been compared with that ofFlorence, Italy.[3]
A series ofmurals were found in the Tepantitla compound in Teotihuacan. In 1942, archaeologistAlfonso Caso identified the central figures as a Teotihuacan equivalent ofTlaloc, the Mesoamerican god of rain and warfare. During the 1970s researcher Esther Pasztory re-examined the murals and concluded that many paintings of "Tlaloc" instead showed afeminine deity, an analysis based on a number of factors including the gender of accompanying figures, the green bird in the headdress, and the spiders seen above the figure.[4] Pasztory concluded that the figures represented a vegetation and fertility goddess that was a predecessor of the much later Aztec goddessXochiquetzal.
The Great Goddess has since been identified at locations other than Tepantitla – including Teotihuacan's Tetitla compound, the Palace of the Jaguars, and the Temple of Agriculture – as well as on several vessels.[5]
Large paintedMayanmurals were found in the archaeological siteBonampak, in theLacandon Jungle of theMexicanstate ofChiapas. What is referred to asThe Temple of the Murals is a long narrow building with 3 rooms atop a low-stepped pyramid base. The interior walls preserve the finest examples of classic Maya painting. Huge paintings cover the walls of one of the structure's three rooms. The paintings show the story of a single battle and its victorious outcome.[6]
Inside the building 1 of the Chiik Naab acropolis of the Maya city ofCalakmul a large pyramidal substructure was found fully covered with ancient mural paintings. Themurals of Chiik Naab represent daily life scenes of the ancient Maya society, a rarely represented topic that gives the murals a high level of importance since the vast majority of Maya pictorial representations are either ceremonial, religious or political topics mostly glorifying the image of deities or rulers while the Chiik Naab murals represent the scenes of a Maya market like merchants offering different traditional dishes of tamale or atole while others consume them.[7]
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TheNazca culture ofPeru produced painted pottery and painted ceramics depicting religious and symbolic characters as well as imagery of personages within the culture.[8] They produced in addition to ceramics, highly complex textiles andGeoglyphs. The period from 1-700 A.D is generally considered when this group thrived. Modern knowledge about the culture of the Nazca is built upon the study ofCahuachi the ceremonial center from (1-500 AD).
In the area now part of the United States, many different and diverseNative American tribes of people created painting and ornamental painted objects of a large variety. The oldest known example is theCooper Bison skull, which was painted with a red zigzag circa 10,200 BCE in present-dayOklahoma.[9]Body painting,rock art,hide painting flourished in ancient North America, as well as painting on ceramics, textiles, and other surfaces.
Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi) of the American Southwest have a longstanding tradition of painting interior murals and ceramics, as did theMogollon culture, ancestors ofZuni andHopi tribes, who lived in an area near theGila Wilderness. TheFremont culture ofUtah are known for their abundant rock paintings throughoutUtah, particularly those atRange Creek Canyon.[10] ThePatayan typically painted ceramics with a red slip. TheHohokam, ancestors of theAkimel O'odham andTohono O'odham, are known for their red-on-buff painted ceramics.[11]Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is the best known monument ofHohokam culture.
Native Americans in California created many pieces and environments ofrock art. The most elaborate and artistic paintedpictographs being theRock art of the Chumash people, andpetroglyphs those of theCoso people in theCoso Rock Art District.[12]
AncientNorthwest Coast art features formline painting on woven items and wood; however, few of these items survived the centuries thetemperate rainforest climate.
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