Scaling the mountain of the ancients: The altarpiece of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala.
详细信息
- 作者：Christenson ; Allen J.
- 学历：Doctor
- 年：1998
- 导师：Grieder, Terence
- 毕业院校：The University of Texas
- 专业：Art History.;Anthropology, Cultural.
- ISBN：0599033665
- CBH：9905714
- Country：USA
- 语种：English
- FileSize：13058988
- Pages：369
文摘
This study concerns the extent to which the sacred architecture and monumental sculpture of Santiago Atitlan, a Tz'utujil-Maya speaking community in Western Guatemala, reflects the world view of its indigenous society. The focus of this world is the central altarpiece of the town's sixteenth century Roman Catholic church. Originally constructed at an unknown date during the Colonial Era (1524-1821), the altarpiece underwent extensive reconstruction from 1975-1981 under the direction of the parish priest, Father Francisco Rother, following its collapse in a severe earthquake. Father Rother commissioned a local Tz'utujil sculptor, Diego Chavez Petzey, and his younger brother, Nicolas Chavez Sojuel, to re-erect the monument and to carve replacement panels for those sections that were too damaged for reuse. Rather than strictly following the original decorative program of the altarpiece, the Chavez brothers chose to emphasize imagery which was familiar to the contemporary experience of the traditionalist Maya community in Santiago Atitlan, whose faith demonstrates a syncretic fusion of ancient indigenous traditions and selected elements from Christianity.;The relationship between the artists who reconstructed the altarpiece and the patron who commissioned the work is best characterized as collaborative, a bilateral interaction in which both Catholic priest and Maya sculptors were active participants. The result is an amalgam in which Christian forms and images are shaped in such a way that they reveal uniquely Maya meaning, while Maya motifs and rituals are harmonized with Roman Catholic orthodoxy. Traditional Atiteco religion is centered in the confraternity system, a network of ten voluntary associations dedicated to the veneration of individual saints and associated deiforms. Although the confraternities are ostensibly Christian organizations, their administration is wholly indigenous and independent of the official Roman Catholic church's control. Indeed, the ceremonies conducted in the confraternity houses retain significant elements of ancient Maya cosmology that run counter to European notions of Christian orthodoxy. The altarpiece represents an attempt on the part of the Chavez brothers to assert the legitimacy of traditional Atiteco Maya faith as an independent complement to Roman Catholicism. In so doing, it presents an invaluable visual display of esoteric Tz'utujil rituals and beliefs that are otherwise poorly accessible to Western researchers.